Angels, angels...

To continue my series of sinple, easy and beautiful decorations I add a paper angel. It is simply made of a sheet of old newspaper (or an old over read book), and a glossy angel picture with a vintage feeling.
This is how you make it:
1. Fold the paper back and forth to create an "accordion".
2. Use paper glue to create on shape of a semicircle.
3. Glue the picture in the middle.
4. Stick a ribbon or string in the back so you'll be able to hang up your new piece of decoration.
The size can be modified to fit the picture, and the angel can be used to decorate you Christmas tree, presents, Christmas flowers or anything, eved around the year, if you home needs a guardian angel. This is quick to finish, so make some to your friends as well.

Flower arrangements for Christmas

It has happened to me occasionally, that the flowershops have run out of white hyacinths before I managed to buy them. Well not last yeat. I bought them well in advance. The problem is, that I love them when they still bud. These little beauties grew too big before Christmas Eve, but luckyly they not the only flowers we had. These simple hyacinths have been the traditional Christmas flower arrangements  in our home for many years, and I know I will make some this Christmas as well, but I already have so many ideas fot the flowers that I think of making something whole new this year! :)












On a great Christmas Market at Vanha Ylioppilas talo (The Old Student House) in Helsinki last year I found small moss hearts made by Ideapaju and they match perfectly with the other decorations. I also added same cinnamon sticks and golden string among the dry gras. Unfortunately the scent can not be added to a blog post, but enjoy the pics!

Forests gifts

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Last autumn I collected loads of cones with my kids, just the day before we got snow. I made little cone angels of them. Simple, again, but cute. Later on, I hang them outside in a small fir, to fly among the snow. I also made a little crowd of angels for my friend and they got their place in a Christmas tree.

 
To make Cone Angels, you need:
*fir cones
*String
*white feathers



Today I went to the forest to have a little walk. The intension was to be sporty, but I ended up collecting "flowers". This is what I made of them. A little forest for my "basement elf", who has been living on top of a old window frame the whole summer. It will again go to the basement, because as much as I love Christmas, the elves are not a part of our decor in October. :)





I used:

*fir branches
*lingonberry sprigs
*moss
*stones
*a old piece of wood
*ling strigs

Flowers on ice

As the weather in Finland might get freezing cold in the winter, the only way to make your garden bloom is make frozen flowers. Easy. Put water on empty and cleaned milk, juice, soup... cartons. Put the flowers head first in the water and cover to keep the flower on the bottom. (Otherwise it will float.) Leave in the freeze for a day or so and then rip of the carton. You can make theese also in you freezer and then carry them outside when ready.  The flower may last for several weeks, some of them better than others, but in the end, you still had a blooming garden in the middle of winter. With candle light, they sparkle together with stars, making your season bright!

My Dear Creche

This is my Christmas Treasure!!! I found it several years ago on a flea market. It was a bargain compared to its size and beauty. The barn is wooden and the Holy Family and other figures are made of porcelain. I got a lift home from the market, the husband of the owner drove me. I hade the big box on my lap and it said: "Handle with care!" That is what I have been doing with this treasure from that day on. The creach has survived our changes of residence, out kids and my brothers dog. Only the hand of Virgin Mary is broken, but that was long before I found this beauty.


Among the years I have collected some things of my own to be added to the creche. The candles are lightening the stable, there is a little brown sheep, that is bought from a smallest shop in the Old Town of Naantali, at the west coast of Finland. My husband brought me a little boy figure, whose sitting on a bench playing flute.(Unfortunately not it the picture) He will sit on the side and play for baby Jesus. That is the figure, which I identify myself with. Just as in the Christmas song "Little Drummer Boy" we can all bring our modest gifts the Holy Child.  I often put real straw to the stable.

In the middle of all my dear Christmas fuss and hustle, the Creche reminds me of the most important message of Christmas!

Door Wreath 2010

Something Christmassy you can keep the whole winter: my wreath. I got the idea from a Christmas issue  (2010) of a Finnish interior magazine called Avotakka. It's very simple, but somehow mesmerising, like a winter wonderlans fairytale. The wreath is made of juniper and the decorative animal is a childrens toy, which I have sprayed with white paint.

The garland with a deer and frost.

The hardest part was to find the toy. The shops were full of farm animals, jungle animals, dinosaurs; everything else, but  not anything, that can be described as at least somehow Finnish forest animals. Apparently kids are not interested in domestic nature :).  At the end I managed to find this deer, with the price of 12 dinosaurs, but I was satisfied. It's a Schleich product and was beautiful when colored, but all white would it still become. And the wreath turned out to be just as wonderful I imagined it! I planned to hang it inside, beside the fireplace,  but the heath would have made it  crumble in no time. So I hang it in our front door and kept it there until April! The deer has spent its summer on top of a photoframe in our livinroom, and it is now waiting for a new garland. It will also have "brothers and sisters", as I just found a couple of new animals on my last shopping trip, with a lowered price!

Inspired by the Frozen Flowers

Inspired by the frozen flowers, I made a necklace! It is made of wool and glas pearls, with a silver lock.  The woolen "balls" are felted over a wooden pearl, with hot and cold water and tea tree -handsoap. That is probably the easiest way to make equaly sized pearls.