Colorful fantasy birdhouses with exaggerated tilts and angles are nestles among the flowers and are inhabited by the feathered friends of the faeries. Faerie stones lead from the path to the door. Children, too, love to come into this charming cottage in the woods. I think that is because I keep the child in me very much alive.

Let's go inside. The diminutive furniture was chosen to bring the outside in--and in its entirety, it suggests a garden: Painted wooden roses and leaves clamber up a bookshelf; tables and chests are in muted hues and happily show painted twigs and flowers where a bird or dragonfly perches. The walls are painted with roses all over, in soft pinks, greens, and earth tones. The floor is stenciled with pretty flower vines. My bed in the little sleeping room often has a small faerie imprint in the covers. The faerie who is responsible for my cottage, as well as my safety, is named Alecto. She keeps very busy day and night attending to my needs. She likes to keep the little windows open so that the wind makes the white curtains flutter. Before coming to our garden, she lived on the Isle of the Furies.

On the bookshelf are many collections: Tea pots, tea sets, tiney-winey Angels, miniature cottages, little teddy bears, books, and faeries. On a small tabletop, painted with delicate leaves, sits a china tea set. Around the table are four small stuffed chairs that beg for company.