Elizabeth Reid

Creativity is a passion of mine and has led me on a very interesting journey through life...!

Throughout all my education, my main focus was Art and Design. Later narrowing it down to 3D design.

In 2012 my second daughter was born. In an attempt to keep her big sister occupied one rainy afternoon, we watched an animated Winnie The Pooh movie! I was drawn in by the magic of their little houses inside tree trunks. They looked so cosy and inviting!

This is inspired an idea! I started making fully furnished fairy houses from naturally hollowed logs and various other items sourced from the forest. My objective was to make them look as 'real' as possible. You could open a tiny door or peer through a window to see all their furniture and belongings inside. Some were solar light, so it would look like the fairies were home in the evening!

They became very popular and sold them through my business "Little Realm Fairy Houses".

When my eldest daughter started primary school, her teacher was aware of the little houses I created and asked if I would hide some around the local woodland for a school Christmas visit.

As the children arrived and began spotting houses, I stood back to observe their awe and wonder. It made my heart sing!

I decided to turn my attention to creating a fairy woodland that children could visit. This suited me much better as I was terrible businesswoman when it came to selling the houses!

To make this dream a reality, I looked into ways that I could gain the most knowledge, skills and training.

This is when I discovered "Forest School"! An incredible, alternative, approach to learning, using all that the forest provides.

I fell in love with the ethos and trained as a Level 3 Forest School Leader.

I have since been able to combine my two passions, by building my very own forest school and creating a fairy woodland within it!.

Over the years, I have observed the activities that the children immerse themselves in and stories to compliment these started to swirl in my mind!

The Amazing Mud Cake was written after seeing so many creations made the mud kitchen and served up to the grown ups!

I have many more ideas for stories that are based on our Forest School activities. I can't wait to put them together and create new books to add to my collection!