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Ana Araujo was looking for something to do that would satisfy a creative itch growing stronger during the pandemic isolation. Her 95-year-old father, Joe Aboussleman, remembering the lean years of the Great Depression, wanted to make a difference in people’s lives.
Together, they found a whimsical way to do both.
Araujo, a semi-retired designer for the crafting industry, and Aboussleman, retired from the Navy, began making fairy doors and selling them for $10, with the money going to Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, a food bank that like others, has struggled to keep up with the need for food assistance.
Araujo dreamed up the design and Aboussleman, using scraps of lumber and discounted wood from a nearby hardware store, cuts out the pieces. A kit includes the door, a foam board for mounting, a piece of glass for the window, vinyl door hinges, a tack for the door knob and instructions on how to put it all together. Imagination isn’t provided, but so far, Araujo says, buyers are supplying their own.
For the uninitiated, a fairy door is the magical portal between our world and the land of the fairies. They’re often placed at the base of trees or along a skirting board — and they’re always decorated.
Araujo’s most enthusiastic customers live in her own Campbell neighborhood, where they paint and adorn their fairy doors in a wild variety of themes. There are mermaid-themed designs, patriotic fairies, country fairies and doors adorned with children’s collections of toy soldiers, Shopkins dolls and Play-Doh rainbows. One British couple, new to the area, has a sign outside their fairy door pointing the way to England.
Families take neighborhood walks to find the doors and marvel at the creativity. Araujo keeps a map of the doors, including several in her own yard, to help people find them. To keep the fun going, Araujo leaves tiny awards on her neighbors’ fairy doors, with trophies for such things as “best wood furniture on the porch.”
The pair has raised almost $1,500 for Second Harvest since launching the project in late May. It was Aboussleman, who came up with that. A seasoned veteran, who served aboard five different ships during World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam War, he knows what hard times are all about. His mother was left on her own to raise six sons in New York during the Great Depression.
“No one should go hungry,” Aboussleman, who lives in Santa Clara, told his daughter.
“In a time of need, you do what you can to help people out,” Araujo says. “There’s always something you can do for your neighbors.”
When COVID-19 swept into the area, Araujo put her crafting skills to use, making face masks and donating them to hospitals and later to essential workers and seniors. As the demand lessened in those areas, she and a neighbor hung a clothesline along the sidewalk, hanging the masks in plastic bags for anyone who needed one.
She also bakes cookies once a week for her neighborhood, and puts the treats out in front of her home. People walking their dogs or strolling with their families were the first to partake of what has become a 3 p.m. Friday ritual. She now has people driving up in cars to claim a bag of chocolate chip cookies.
The idea of fairy doors has its roots in a European trip Araujo took last year, where she was captivated by fairy legends and lore. She had been scheduled for a return visit when the coronavirus lock-down canceled her trip.
The magic of the fairies persisted, however, and manifested itself in the doors. Araujo believes that both children and adults these days need something positive and cheerful to take their minds off the harsh reality we find ourselves in.
“People need to have that wonder, especially the children,” Araujo says. “They get so excited to see that magic. It just makes me smile.”
Araujo, who has authored several crafting books, has decorated her own yard with fairy doors — so many that on a recent visit, her daughter said, “Mom, you really have to stop.”
That’s not likely to happen, Araujo says, not when she sees the joy and wonderment in the faces of all who pass by.
Want a fairy door of your own? Email craftyanaaraujo@gmail.com.
