Eclectic Home and Life: christmas decorations

Christmas Stars

December 20th

Red spells Christmas to me
but then I am traditional.
These yarn stars would look
fabulous in any colour

I'm a sucker for a quick make and result and especially if I have the material already in the house. And I'm a sucker too for online video tutorials both for inspiration and ideas and quick self-teaching techniques. Have you ever learnt from watching a youtube video? It is true you often have to sift through several truly badly filmed and complicated rubbish to land on 'the one' that will help you but I still find it a worthwhile exercise. And this is how I landed upon today's Christmas make. These stars would make excellent crafting sessions with children and I plan on roping in both the small ones and the teenagers over the Christmas holidays to make an entire constellation.

The link at the bottom of this post includes a free template
or this star, I transferred it onto the back of an old do not bend envelope

The video shows you how to attach beads to the points
but as I only had pom pom ribbon, I used that instead

Tape the beginning of your yarn onto the centre of the star

Begin winding the yarn around the base of two of the points of the star

Once you have wound up to where the two points separate
move across to the next two, do not cut the yarn just continue winding

Continue winding each section, on the back, there will be a bit of
crisscrossing and not quite so nat at this stage, but that can be sorted at the end

When all base star point s are covered in yarn, I began to wind up
the star point to the tip and then back down again towards the body
of the star, thus creating a very padded a full star.

As you near the end of covering the entire star in yarn, try to be a bit
more careful with the back of it and wind it so that both sides
look as neat as possible. Hang up and admire!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas is just around the corner in our home

Video tutorial and star template can be found here: Christmas Stars

♥ Have you made any decorations for Christmas? ♥

Jul Aften

December 24th 2018

Mamma flew back to Norway so we are spending Christmas apart but she was here for the

Glass baubles and home made salt dough hea

preparation and she will return in a week to spend New Year's Eve with us. In south Norway where we are from the first snow has fallen and they will have a white Christmas. Mamma will be spending the morning preparing the feast for the evening and as always will visit the church to place flowers on graves of loved ones no longer with us. This is a very traditionally thing to do today in Norway and up and down the country people will be remembering those no longer with us.

Us? Here in our home we will be baking and cooking the desserts for the next few days, listening to festive music and coming together in the hub of the home. I will also be delivering the last of the presents and handwritten cards as I usually do and then at 5 pm promptly, the bell will ring and Christmas proper for our family will begin.

I wish you all a very jolly Christmas and hope it is not a difficult time of year for you. My purpose of this blog was always to bring some joy and cheerfulness and to give you a peek into the type of traditions that are important to our family one with a mixture of Britsih and Norwegian.

♥ From our home to yours,

Merry Christmas & God Jul ♥

Glass

December 17th 2018

Glass cocktail stirrer

The art of glass entered my life a few years ago and I can honestly say it has brought me joy. From
the first scratchy cut on the glass to opening the kiln to see what the heat has done to my simple creations, there is nothing, nothing that I do not like about it.

Despite not having really made much this year, the Christmas spirit began to seep into me through the fusing of glass, from looking and searching out ideas, to sketching some thoughts down on paper and then tweaking the ideas once I began to cut has been so much fun. Want to see my little creations?

The first Christmas haul included 'nisse' and some trees

From the three nisse in the kiln to before firing, look what the heat did...

I made little heart tokens in all shapes and sizes, some to hang, some as little pebbles and a few as stitch markers too.

Hanging hearts with frit and wire

Pebble token hearts with copper and
heart stitch markers

I made glass for the talented Kim at Little Hearts who has two cats, this was my version of her feline friends...

Cats in glass

And then I made some Christmas tree cocktail stirrers, before firing...

Cocktail stirrers in glass before firing

Christmas tree cocktail stirrers made in glass

A glass tree in tack fusing to give some texture

My husband is not kind to his cufflinks and losing them or treads on them, who knows what he does to them, so this year, he will have four almost identical pairs!

Glass boat cufflinks

Then finally we came upon the idea of trying to slump some bottles and see what that would do...

I added some copper hearts to one and thick
kiln paper in the bottleneck to keep the opening

Look closely you can see how I am trying to
keep the neck open so it will not fuse shut

It worked! Fused bottle with an open neck so I could add flowers!

Can you see how the bottle has become flat!

Now if you will excuse me, I think I may go drink a few glasses of something so that I may make some more glass presents out of bottles... hic...

♥ Have you decided to make any presents this year? ♥

Newer Christmas Traditions

London Calling
December 19th

Albert Hall singalong last year

For as long as I can remember mamma and pappa would drive us into London to see the Christmas tree from Norway in Trafalgar Square and the Christmas lights in central London, back in the 1970's London really stood out for Christmas lights compared to other towns in the UK. These days all towns now dress up for the season to encourage shoppers to visit and I love the twinkling lights.

From the time our own children were old enough to appreciate traipsing into London, John and I too took the yearly Christmas visit to the capital but we began by taking the children to the theatre in the week before Christmas. We were lucky enough to catch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Oliver, Starlight Express, and the Lion King to name but a few. In more recent years there has been less theatre and more sing-alongs at the wonderful venue that is the Albert Hall. This year after having visited and sung to our heart's content for the past 6 years we decided to miss it and to try our hand at the theatre again and we were not disappointed.

We sing along with gusto

The wonderful Albert Hall,
to read more about it click here

Photo taken from the internet shows
Robert Lindsay as Scrooge

For two shows only this year the talented Robert Lindsay took the lead role in the London Musical Theatre to play Scrooge in a Christmas Carol. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. It was neither a narration of Dickens' well-known story nor was it a theatre production or even a musical.

We had seats in the stalls, it does not do it
justice here, but we could see their faces very clearly

It had a full orchestra, a choir and lead singers who acted in a pared down way with no props. The story unfolded beautifully but still allowing much to the imagination. Lindsay was beyond brilliant, his comic timing, his expressions and his perfect Scrooge voice made it a night to remember. John not known for overdoing the praise could not thank me enough for organising it and said how marvellous the whole thing was. A snippet of the review from Musical Theatre Review says:

In the mix are waltzes, syncopated numbers, patter songs, wistful lyricism and more. And Michael Starobin’s imaginative orchestrations make imaginative use of instrumentation to bring out the many moods the piece requires.

It goes without saying, given the cast list, that everyone at the front of the stage does an excellent job.

Robert Lindsay as Scrooge is nimbly charismatic – both funny and moving – and the fact that he may not be the industry’s finest singer matters not a jot in this context.

These old theatres have so much detail

There is, however wonderful, singing from Glenn Carter (has he ever done the Commendatore in Don Giovanni?) as the imposing Jacob Marley, from Sophie-Louise Dann as hilarious Brummie Mrs Fezziwig and from Gemma Sutton as the crystalline-voiced Ghost of Christmas Present. And Tobias Ungleson is a bit of a show stealer as Tiny Tim.

The whole performance (directed by Shaun Kerrison) is, in a sense, a joyous celebration not just of Christmas and a time-honoured iconic story, but also of musical theatre itself.

We left the London Lyceum, usually home to the Lion King on a real Christmas high. Bring on the rest of the week and Christmas, we are READY...

Decorations by Seven dials, Covent Garden

Mistletoe and baubles in the market at Covent Garden

Oxford Street

♥ We are on Christmas countdown, have you much to do?

Christmas decoratoins the Scandinavian way

Tree decorations made from troll deig
(Salt dough)

December 4th

Troll deig/salt dough Christmas decorations

My first Christmas with John I introduced him to the Scandinavian way of celebrating and we decided that our tree should only have handmade decorations. In Norway when you ask what their favourite Christmas decoration is, the most treasured one, it tends to invariably be the handmade ones either passed down the generations or ones the newest members of the family have made. I have a now very fragile angel that my mother made when she was a little girl. It's precious.

But onto my first Christmas with John. My mother provided us with the troll deig recipe and we began to make our Christmas decorations together, all hearts in different sizes and eventually painted red. The little tree we had that year was the smallest I've ever had but it was the prettiest adorned with my future husband to be and my handmade decorations.

What is troll deig? It is the humble salt dough, if you have never made any or used it before, I urge you to have a go, it's very versatile and made correctly can last for many many years. I am not totally sure but think I remember saying to the family last year that our troll deig decorations were beginning to show their age. Therefore I made some more this year, only time will tell when I venture into the loft and bring out the Christmas paraphernalia whether I needed to make more or not. This year's decorations are the third set we will have made in 26 years. Not bad going for a bit of salt and flour! As adults, we have fun making them, and teenagers pretend it's a chore, but secretly enjoy this make and it is a brilliant thing to entertain the small ones in the family. Give it a go, be as creative or as silly as you like with it.

Troll Deig

You will need:
1 part salt: 2 parts flour: 1 part water

1 tablespoon of cooking oil

Instructions:

♥ Mix the flour and salt well in a bowl. This is essential to ensure the salt will dissolve and allow for a smooth dough.

Cut out using any seasonal shapes,
don't forget to add a hole if
you are going to hang them

♥ Next, in a separate container mix the oil and the water together, then pour over the dry ingredients.

♥ Knead well for 10-15 minutes. This too is important to ensure a smooth dough. The dough should now be quite firm, a good test to see if it is ready is to roll it into a ball if it retains it shapes after 3 minutes the dough is ready.

♥ You can at this point add food colouring to dye your dough, I do not do this and prefer to paint them with acrylic paint once they are cooled.

♥ For best results place the troll deig (dough) in a plastic bag and put it in the fridge for at least one hour before rolling out.

♥ When ready create your Christmas tree decorations or any other shape either 2D or 3D. Remember for hanging decorations to make a hole, I use a straw, to allow for the thread for hanging or even a matchstick if the ornament is small.

Pace the troll deig shapes on
a baking tray with greaseproof paper

♥ Place the troll deig on baking sheets with greaseproof paper and put into a preheated oven at 100 degrees Celcius for about 4-5 hours or until fully hardened. Allow to cool thoroughly before painting. If you can I leave a few days before painting, but this is not essential. Especially if working with small children they are generally too impatient to wait that long!

♥ I paint my troll deig with either ready mixed poster paint or acrylic. Make sure to cover the whole decoration and the sides too!

♥ Once the paint has dried, add ribbon and decorate your tree.