White party

I tend to be an early bird - especially at the airport, which annoys my significant other a lot :-) But also regarding Christmas! I just really appreciate the weeks before Christmas (if you leave aside all the terror of consumerism and all the forced happiness at office Christmas parties) - think of cookies, eggnogg and candelight, and I admit it rather openly:

Last Christmas rules!!!

What fascinates me over and over again are the increasing stages of decoration madness. Not all decorations are nice (at least in my eyes), many trends are really pretty, but I am not able to make them look good in my home. But then there are things, that are truly beautiful and I can recreate them for me. More often than not these things are on the minimalistic side of decoration and tone-on-tone mostly always. Please find below my compilation…

Hubby and I wanted to celebrate American thanksgiving in Germany for a long time, and last year we finally made it - with stuffed turkey and all other shenanigans. Table decoration was pretty simple (in order to leave enough room for the food) and a bit rustic, kind of farmhouse décor - old bottles filled with water and rosemary sprigs, some parcel string and candles, in addition, upside down wine glasses filled with white Christmas balls and white candles on top, a few tea lights et voilà. As you can as well use it as Christmas table decoration it has its right to be posted here, and if you look closely you might detect the advent wreath in the corner (German tradition: a wreath with four candles, which are subsequently lit on each of the four Sundays before Christmas). 

Since many years I've been using a plain black wire basket as advent "wreath" with four candle holders which can be decorated in many different styles - elegant with shining balls or more natural with fir branches, oranges and bees wax candles, there are possibilities galore. I opted for white balls and stars, and in the center there is a paper-covered wire garland which I adorned with stars made of baking soda and cornstarch and china angel wings. 

I broke a pan lid and what's left was a metal ring which I didn't want to throw out. Therefore, I embellished it with a few eucalyptus sprigs and pleated paper ornaments. They are made from standard white printer paper and as the first picture doesn't show them so well, I added a second one with the ornaments in detail. 

Surely I can't miss some sewing projects, therefore I made various Christmas trees out of plain white fabric, which can be placed just like this or can be skewered on some small branches. Hubby insists that the first one is no Christmas tree but an exploded porcupine - pah! 

Our front door had to be decorated as well and so I took a truckload of florist wire and wrapped it around some fir branches in order to form an elf hat. A white willow wreath then acted as brim. 

These were all last year's projects and of course I want to show you something new. This year I was all into recycling and thus I chose tin cans and milk cartons. I am in the process of reducing milk cartons, but that doesn't always work. And with my DIY project at least they get a second use. The three houses are just a start, I imagine putting up a hole town of them on our living room shelf. There may be room for ten or twelve, I guess, and lit by tealights they might look lovely and cosy when it's getting dark outside.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas... *singing* 

Why do I want eggnogg, now????