Thursday, December 13, 2007

Christamas decorations

I mentioned the other day about Nick’s Tatty old tinsel that he insists on displaying every Christmas. Here it is in all it’s glory:



Tracy had the brilliant idea of turning it into a bauble, which is exactly what I have done. I wrapped it around a wooden sphere thingy, and tucked the ends inside. Ta daaaaa.



We are both happy with this arrangement and marital harmony has been restored to the Simons Household.

I've also been busy making other decorations for our tree. I sprayed lots of pine cones a deep red and covered the tips with glitter. They are finished off with ribbon that Lisa over at Primrose Hill sent me in a crafty swap last summer.



I also sewed some little chickens with beads for feet. I love these, even though I now have more fabric hens than I do real hens. (Omelet’s still alive by the way.)





The flags on the tree are a Norwegian tradition of Nick’s that I am happy to buy into as they look so pretty and cheerful. A patriotic lot, those Norwegians! I need to make some more because every year they get hopelessly tangled in the loft
and I have to cut more off.

I have also made some garlands for the fireplaces and staircase. Since my new house is very Victorian I decided to make them from real evergreen foliage, which looks great and smells even better. I’ve never done this before, so I was making it up as I went along, but the result is quite good.

First I wired up some sash cord onto every third baluster. Then I went out in the pouring rain and cut a huge bag load of branches from the hedge that surrounds our back garden. This will probably be the only time I am pleased to have such a fast growing lalandii hedge! I spread them out on the kitchen floor to dry and for the cat to catch all the creepy crawlies that came in with it.

Then I made little bunches using thin wire to bind the ends.



These were then twisted on to the cord, starting from the bottom. Each bunch over lapped the previous so in the end you can’t see any of the cord or wire.



That was all a bit tedious, but after it was much quicker. I wrapped around some fairly lights, and some red satin ribbon. Then I made big bows from wired ribbon and fixed those at the points where the cord was fixed to the balusters. I was planning on attaching some pine cones as well, but by then I was a bit bored of the project – these photos only show about a quarter of the staircase. It winds up and round and then goes back along the landing.



I also did the fireplace which was more elaborate and has dried slices of orange and cinnamon sticks wired into it. Mmmm, smells fab, and very Christmassy. My brother-in-law asked me why I'd fixed bundles of cigars to the garland but what does he know.

2 Comments:

Blogger The Author said...

Gosh I'm thrilled to have been of some help!!!! I'm glad my tinsel - bauble idea was a hit. I feel quite proud. Your staircase decorations look fab ...I don't even have a tree (it would last three minutes with cat and puppy!) Have a lovely Christmas you two in your lovely new home xxx

5:23 PM  
Blogger Primrose Hill said...

LOVE all your decorations Rach, especially the little chickens - glad to hear your last chook is still ok! I do the same with greenery every year too, up our little staircase and above the windows, it does take time but it's worth the effort!

Hoping to go and get out tree this sunday, we have a christmas tree grower just up the road from us, so we can go and pick our trees!

Speak to you soon,

L x

P.S. thanks for the link!

7:29 AM  

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