How exciting, how exciting! I have never been asked to do a guest post before so a huge Thank you to Kerryanne for the absolute pleasure of popping over for a chat on her beautiful blog.
Hi this is Linda and normally you can find me over at ‘I see the Bridge’, formally Lilly Cottage.
I cannot believe Christmas is swinging by so quickly...thank goodness Kerryanne is keeping us on track with these fabulous Christmas ideas and plans.
I love all of Christmas but my most favourite part is not the presents...no no..my favourite part is decorating...a reason to cover the house, garden and anything else that has the misfortune of staying still for longer than half an hour....it used to be two seconds, but I have slowed down over the years. It is funny how many memories I have of decorating at Christmas....so varied...all treasured.. I remember when I was a child dressing up with tinsel and spare baubles to perform impromptu Christmas concerts with my Brother...there are photos somewhere but best we don’t show them. I also remember the sheer agony of standing on one of those spikey sharp plastic wotsits that always covered the Christmas lights and somehow always ended up underfoot...every year!
I remember having our special Santa ornaments and Santa doll that only came out at Christmas (go figure) and had their designated places under the tree and on the fireplace...yes we had a fireplace...it was fake of course and yellow and brown ( it was the 70’s) and being that we live in Queensland by the ocean...we were never going to need one at anytime...but we had a fireplace and we were proud and that was the spot that Mr and Mrs Claus sat every year.
Zoom forward quite a few years and I remember living away from home and having the wonderful new tradition of drinking champagne with Christmas carols playing to decorate our shared Christmas tree that was undoubtedly the best Christmas tree ever...every year. I also remember the Champagne Christmas present wrapping evenings, the champagne Christmas present unwrapping session, the champagne Christmas cooking sessions and the fabulous year the Christmas tree got blown over in a wild storm (we left the windows open) two days before Christmas and we had to pull a champagne all-nighter to repair the damage (which was in fact just straightening up the tree and talking about it a lot...oh and mopping up the carpet...). Aaah those were the years...amazing I can remember any of it isn’t it?
Somehow the champagne decorating sessions lost their lustre when it was just DH (darling husband) and I decorating with small children, that is not as to say we decorated the house with small children...that would be wrong...no the small children were just there...they did belong to us though, they weren’t just strays. Still memorable however, like the year we put real candy canes ( as opposed to the unreal candy canes) on our huge Christmas tree and patted ourselves on the back for such a co-ordinated red and white decorating masterpiece. When we awoke in the morning we felt we were in a strange Christmas horror film as it appeared that our tree had bled all over the floor during the night as there were these blood like puddles all around the base of the tree...yep those Qld nights are hot and steamy...hot enough to melt the red colouring right off our fantastic candy canes and onto the floor...dripping on the branches on the way down....should have had champagne that morning!
Now our children are older and no longer fobbed off with the excuse of ‘Daddy forgot to put the lights on the tree first, so I had to remove all your decorating...yes yes I know silly of Daddy wasn’t it...and put the lights on and then decorate the tree again....just like you had it....”, I have had to learn to sit on my hands quite literally and become just an observer whilst the tree is decorated by children...after Daddy has put the lights on first of course.
We have tried the multiple tree thing so we all get to decorate the tree how we wish...oh Ok so I can decorate the tree..all by myself... but the children said they would rather sleep inside than have the luxury of a Christmas tree in their bedroom...apparently there is not enough room for both...I though it looked a bit like an enchanted Christmas forest.....hmmm maybe I should bring back the champagne tradition instead...for me not for them...they have the baubles I will have the bubbles!
Still there is one area of Christmas decorating that is all mine and that is the bunting! I love bunting and keep mine up all year (well obviously not the Christmas fabric one that would just look silly). I use colours that take my fancy at the time and will whip up a few metres of bunting, put it up inside and outside under the pergola, well before Christmas partying begins and well after it finishes and it suits the entire festive season all the way through to Easter.
I have some bunting made from a vintage Christmas table cloth, I have made several bunting strands from old doileys and napkins, you can also use hankies to create your own unique decoration...best to make sure they are not currently in use or in fact have ever been used...eeewww. You can use old curtains, old sheets, paper, storybook pages, chenille, bright fabric, shabby fabric, and country fabric, whatever takes your fancy really...
You can find tutorials on making bunting just about anywhere but as I have taken up so much of my post chattering on I will post a post....hmm a tutorial post about simple ways to make bunting over on my blog if you want to pop over and visit.
Thanks for joining me in my decorating trip down memory lane and I think the most important decorating tip I could give you is to make it fun, choose the things that make you happy and most of all make it memorable...the champagne really is optional.
Christmas Kiss Noises Linda
(If you would like to win some bunting all of your own, simply leave a comment on this post and our lovely Hostess Kerryanne will draw a winner.. )
