The Elf

For many years our tree has been decorated in silver and white. It has been pretty and I have enjoyed it. Last year I started hankering after a more "homemade" tree, bit more Shaker style or even Scandinavian style. (That is what Scandinavian style means in my head, no official way of decorating in Scandinavia). After last Christmas I bought some straw decorations from IKEA for very little money and I already had some cute wooden decorations and couple of other bits and pieces.

A bit of gingham ribbon was added with elves from IKEA's this year's collection and my homemade hearts and voila, I had the tree of my dreams.

As my boys were so accommodating for my new scheme and did not kick up too much fuss about all the glitter lacking from our tree, I decided to go for an opinion poll for the tree topper. (I should add here that the discussion about lametta is conducted on a yearly basis in this house). Opinions asked: one, the Elf son's. I told him that I didn't much care for our rather overly sweet fairy bought from B&Q and would like to make a home made one and what did he think about that.  He had an instant reply: I don't want to have a fairy, I'd rather have an ELF! So this is what I made:

I had absolutely no idea how to make one. It was rather "let's see where this takes us" affair. I am delighted by its stability on the top of the tree. All the toppers I ever have had to handle were wobbly one way or the other. And it is a truly homemade decoration. It is mainly made of felt and the stripy arms and legs are made of the last bits of Elf'son's much loved stripy t-shirt from when he was 4.  My plan is to make some more homemade stuff every year, how I am going to fit it all on the tree, I don't know. I guess some of it gets too worn out or I will replace some of the bought stuff. Have you had any last minute making for your tree?
Editor's note: The long exposure tree picture and the proper, sharp picture of the elf are taken by the Elf Husband with his SLR, as my camera didn't quite make it in these low light conditions.

Christmas Preparations

There are luckily a few preparations for the Christmas, which are OK to show now. We baked some gingerbread biscuits with Elf son on one Sunday morning. As usual he was eager to help, see the grin:

This is the reason.

Honestly, it's a time honoured tradition that at least 1/5 of the dough ends up eaten before its baked. It is unusually delicious and both young and old keep snatching bits from it.

I did not take any pictures of the result as my mojo left me after decorating only three biscuits. And guess what? We have already eaten all the ones we baked. There just might be more baking in the cards.

This December I have had red, polka dots and hearts on my brain, so I made these for our tree. I love how they feel in my hand. The felt was really nice to work with in this type of project as it doesn't unravel and  is easy to make to relatively small and tight forms.I found some vintage cloth covered buttons for these, which pleases me to no end.

Elf Husband gives little gifts to the ladies who work under him every Christmas. It tends to be my job to put the gift together after he has decided what type of present he would like to give. As there are 10+ people, they cannot be expensive. This year I put this together: (Angel not included)

You probably don't need any explanations really, but here are the few technical bits, which are worth sharing: The candle is raised a bit and blocked to the position with florist's oasis, which also holds the greenery. Should you use satin ribbon like me, it has tendency to slip off the pot. I solved this by rolling a bit of masking tape under the ribbon in the back and on both sides of the bow, as I didn't have any double sided tape. I tried earlier with a hemp string and that sat without help. The pine cones are held in place with a bit of steel wire stuck into them. The hearts are cotton glued on felt, edges cut with pinking scissors and the ribbon sits in between them.
I like this type of things where I can use few simple ingredients to make something nice, but not too elaborate. At Christmas time I especially love the greenery with some colour. Have you made any nice Christmas things?