Getting ready for Christmas - Part 3

I'll make this short.
In part 2 I showed you my decorations in the house hallway. Then I noticed that one of the Steiff mice was missing. A few days later I noticed that one of the teddies had been hiding in the same cabinet.
If someone has seen my brain, please tell it to come back. I'm not doing that well without it, it seems ...

Also I still wasn't happy with my improvised hooks, so I got some garlands which would hide them.
Basically that works well, but now I have the problem that the railings are quite smooth and the ornaments quite heavy which means the garlands keep sliding. I could stop one of them with the hooks on the railing which don't run that smoothly and therefore keep the ends in place, but the other railing doesn't have those hooks, so I will have to come up with an idea. Not this year, though. Maybe my brain will be back again next year ;-)

10 on the 10th - December

That's the prompt for the 10 on the 10th by Marsha in the Middle. Sounds easy, doesn't it?
I honestly don't know, however, if I can come up with ten, but I'll give it a try.

1. This is not specifically a December thing, but more of a winter thing. Not only don't I mind it getting dark earlier, I actually like it. Even when I didn't work from home, I was used to leaving in the dark and it was okay for me to come home in the dark. It gives me a cozy feeling, just like rain does. I probably told that story before. When I was in first class, our classroom was on the ground floor. One day it got really dark during the day due to a big thunderstorm. I can still see myself sitting there thinking how wonderful it felt to be inside and safe and cozy and hear the rumbling and the heavy rain.
So people have been saying to me that I might be well suited to live where it's dark all winter, but ...

2. snow is a deal breaker. I don't like snow. I found shovelling snow deeply exhausting even when my health was still better. I absolutely hate waking up to the sound of someone shovelling snow.
Yes, it's beautiful to look at from the inside, with a nice beverage in my hand, untouched, that is. Mushy and dirty snow in the city, though - not so much. Going out to find beautiful snow - an absolute no go for me by now. As a kid, I was dragged out into the snow (not literally) and most of the time I didn't even like it then although I often didn't admit it to fit in because the others loved their sleighs and skis. It makes me think of feeling wet and cold. And of scratchy tights.

Looking down on my town from our "house mountain"
many, many, many years ago -
it looked beautiful, but I remember being so cold

3. Christmas lights. I turn into a child when I see a street lit up by Christmas lights. I loved going to the train station in the morning and look left and right to take in all the lights downtown hanging above or winding around Christmas and other trees.
It's the small sparkles that appeal to me while I have never been a fan of brightly lit rooms, for example. At home, I only turn the ceiling lights on if I really need them, but if not, I prefer spots of light here and there. I wish I could put up candles, but with the cats it has never been possible, and although I have a few battery-operated ones, it's not the same.
Of course I love Christmas ornaments as well, those I wouldn't hang up myself or am not able to hang up because my tree is too small or my cats too deadly, those that hold special memories, and handmade ones, my own or those gifted by others.

4. Christmas carols, especially the traditional ones. They make me go all fuzzy inside, always have, not the lyrics necessarily as I'm not a religious person, but the tunes. Maybe Christmas still has that childhood magic to me, the ritual and the memories that make them extra special.
I don't know why, but the last few months my street seems to be the way (home?) for groups of kids and a few days ago a bunch of them walked through laughing and loudly singing a traditional carol. It was nice.
That doesn't mean I love all carols or Christmas songs because

5. there are some I really dislike. I never seem to be able to win Whamageddon and the song about the missing two front teeth makes me want to throw something.
The songs that annoy me the most, however, are "Feliz Navidad" (which an unnamed family member likes to sing to me knowing very well how much it grates on my nerves) and "Jingle Bells".
When I was around ten years old, I sang in a children choir with my best friend from school. I can still see us dancing in a circle and singing "Jingle Bells". Over and over and over and over ... it was endless and I hated every second of it.

6. Christmas movies, specials, and reads. I have a long list of things to re-watch and re-read. I don't always manage everything, but that's okay as long as I can watch my favorite movie (see yesterday's post).

7. Going downtown. I knew it before that, but only since Covid and being allowed to work from home, I really noticed just how bad I am with crowds. I think online buying was invented for me. Of course I have some good shopping memories, but they usually have to do with the people I had with me at the time, though, not the shopping experience per se.
A lot of my problem with crowds has to do with my long commute over so many years. The longer I did it, the more I turned into an introvert.
When I go downtown now, I am always surprised how many people are out and about quite early, and in December it overwhelms me even more quickly. Pushing through a Christmas market would be rock bottom which is a pity as I like the stands themselves and also the mood, I'd even go for mulled wine, but I usually have enough after walking - or being pushed through - once and these days I don't think I'd have the nerve for even that.

8. I only started that "tradition" last year - a long Christmas vacation. I love that, vacation in summer doesn't do much for this vampire, but a December vacation does!

9. Gingerbread and chocolate "Nikoläuse" and Santas (not the same!), "Dominosteine" and "Spekulatius" may be in the shops from August on and I have totally failed last and this year in not touching any of it before December because my spirits needed some lifting, but it's still a December feeling eating my favorite gingerbread. I love all the winter spices, both in taste and scent. I love a traditional "Schnitzbrot" once a year. I love the scent of mulled wine although I rarely get the chance to drink it.

10. Gifts. There, I said it. I like getting gifts (not just on Christmas and they don't have to be big), but I think I like giving them even more.
In the last few years, however, my gift giving within my small circle has changed. I give a few personal gifts, but mostly I give donations to different charities which I know my people appreciate, just as I appreciate others doing the same as a gift for me.

Well, I made it to ten after all!
It looks as if I like a lot about December even if most of it is Christmas-related, but I'm not surprised about that because otherwise December is just another winter month for me.
If I'm in my cocoon hiding from the cold, I may as well have it nice, right? :-D

Getting ready for Christmas - Part 2

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I couldn't get myself to decorate the house hallway in time which meant I was very behind on my advent calendar tree.
There was really no excuse anymore now, so I gave myself a good kick yesterday and went to it.

This year I had to make a few hard decisions. Thanks to my crafty advent calender last year and thanks to not being able to put any of those new ornaments up inside my flat *stern look at somecat who's not interested in stern looks at all*, some of the regulars couldn't find a spot in my hallway decoration this time. Not one spiky bauble! I only have a window sill to hold my Discworld advent calenders and a wardrobe with a small surface, some hooks, and rails which weirdly was not made for decorations originally.
I'll have to think of something next year, maybe some kind of garland for my beaded ornaments to hang on the wardrobe, so I can put the baubles on the rails.
I'll also have to come up with some better hooks. Ordinary Christmas hooks are too small for the rails and I had forgotten to get a better wire to make bigger ones of my own. It really comes out worse in the picture because of the flash, though (it was already darkish when I decorated, so I needed the flash, as if it isn't hard enough to get a good angle for a picture, anyway). I picked stainless steel, thin so it wouldn't show too much, but strong enough to hold even the heavier ornaments, but those makeshift hooks are by no means uniform. Will someone please remind me in time next year?

To give you a better idea if you haven't followed last year's advent calendar, I made a collage of the ornaments I put up (in the picture above the felt ball is missing because I had forgotten it).

Of course, a Christmas decoration without my beloved Steiff is absolutely unthinkable. This year, there is not one but two Christmas trees one of which I topped with my Christ Child Dawn, and an adorable Christmas bunny joined Santa Claus and his teddy and mouse crew (plus one missing in the picture because I had left him behind in the cabinet, what's wrong with me?), also a sweet mouse who's not in festive garb, but fits in so perfectly.

Also I can't do without my advent tree and today I got to open several of the little parcels! What a reward for being so late.

I know it's not much compared to the decorating some people do, but it makes me happy and that's what counts.

Paper stars - The fourteenth door

Although this is the fourteenth door, it was one of my last projects for this advent calendar.
I desperately needed something quick and easy for a change. One minute paper stars by Auermedia Arts & Crafts. Now if that didn't sound good, I didn't know what did!
Of course I knew before it was mentioned in the video tutorial that my first star wouldn't be finished in one minute. Or the second. Or the eighteenth if I should ever get that far. It was okay, I was more than ready to put as much as five minutes in per star! ;-)

To make sure I would get at least one good star for this post, I recruited my personal crafts expert, my sister. I packed my little bag with gold and silver paper cardstock (which it was called when I ordered it, to me it looks more like yellow and grey, shimmering, but not gold and silver, sigh) and heigh-ho, off I went for a little Christmas crafty session.
Our last star crafting had been years ago, using black cardstock that we cut and onto which we then glued bits of colorful transparent paper. The ones my sister made were beautiful, mine were, well, okay, but all of them were used in decorating some of the windows at my job for many years until the tips looked like chewed from all the taping and taking off again, so that session had been time well spent.
I hoped that would be the case again this time.

It was so funny. We both folded the star rather quickly and then cut a part off like instructed. I "opened" what I still had in my hand. Oh no, it all fell apart, total disaster! Until my sister said ... "Wait, the part you put away is the star, you are holding the waste."
Told you I needed her, I don't think I would have noticed, lol!
And to be fair, it was a lot more waste than star which I hadn't expected.

My first star was really crooked. Maybe I hadn't folded it carefully enough, maybe the measurements had been slightly off. Also it almost seemed that the cardstock was a bit too heavy to get that crisp center point done right.
Time for another attempt.

It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't too exciting, either. The center point was a little off, but better than the last. The rays weren't all the same length. The cut edges were a bit ragged which I blame on the folded up cardstock being a tad too thick for my scissors.
I had three options, use thinner paper, get bigger scissors, or let this be a lonely star. I opted for the last one, but thought the lonely star called for some embellishment at least.
First I added some "gold" leaf (you will read more about my first attempt with that in a few days). The cardstock sucked up the gilding milk like der Dekan his kibbles, so I threw on the leaf quite randomly as I had planned to add more, anyway.
Let's stop this here. I didn't like the gold leaf, I didn't like the beads I used next, I hated the whole star and very spontaneously threw it away - before even taking a picture of it. That may give you an idea of how unhappy I was with it.

Now what?
I remembered having some ordinary grey wrapping paper with white snowflakes from years ago - I'm not a gift wrapper - that would probably be too thin, though.
It was. The folding was easier and more regular, but all the folds lost their grey. I tried to cover it a bit with a metallic silver pen and ended up making the whole star silver, actually just so I can show you something at all.
As you can see, the silver is drawn on quite randomly and you see some of the original white snowflakes peeking through (that has to do with the paper's surface), I couldn't do any better and, to be honest, I didn't have any patience left at that point.
In a last minute decision, I glued it to a base - leftover cardstock - that I cut afterwards, so you can see tiny bits of "gold" around the edges. The star is (rather) symmetrical, by the way, it just doesn't look like it because of the angle I took the photo from.

So what have I learned from this one?
These are pretty stars, but I would probably need the perfect paper or cardstock to make them look nice. And a miracle. Or a lot more than one minute.
Sometimes the truth is hard to take, but I realized that my career is not in origami if I am even struggling with an easy folded star ;-)
I also had to think of my mother who constantly expressed her surprise about my patience with some things and none whatsoever with others. The star is definitely among the latter!

If you are up to trying these, I would love to see pictures :-)

Antique and vintage Christmas ornaments - The twenty-first door

There is no end to what you can hang or put on a Christmas tree.
My oldest ornaments are two tiny baubles that I gave to my grandmother for Christmas as a child, more than 50 years ago. She had a small artificial tree with colored lights on her TV (the good old time of huge TV sets ;-)). One of the baubles has lost its hanger a long time ago, but because of the cats they don't go on my tree, anyway.
I also have some Snoopy Christmas baubles left from the set we got for the first Christmas in our own flat. That was more than 30 years ago, so they are vintage as well.

These baubles may be of emotional value, but they are just simple baubles.
What did people put on their trees in the past? Let's look at a few things, and no, the Christmas pickle won't be one of them.

In the old days, Christmas trees were often decorated with edible things, like apples, sugar treats, walnuts painted in gold, but over time other ornaments were added.

Have you ever heard of Dresden cardboard ornaments?
Since the 70s of the 19th century these embossed cardboard ornaments were made in the Dresden region by cottage workers in a variety of shapes, from stars or cars to exotic animals.
The cardboard was dampened, then embossed, covered with metal foil and sometimes painted with gelatine. There were one-sided pieces, but also pieces put together from two embossed parts, some of them shaped to be even three-dimensional.
While you can still get Dresden cardboard today, antique ornaments are very much sought after and not easy to find.

Steamer from Dresdner Pappe around 1880 (Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, CC-BY SA 3.0)

Another material that was used for different ornaments was cotton. The little cotton mushrooms are still popular today and you can even make them yourself, but of course there were also snowmen, Santas, fruit, animals, and more, from pressed or spun cotton, more or less elaborate.

I have also mentioned Leonic wires in a previous post. Leonic wires are thin copper wires, gold or silver plated and twisted into a spiral shape. They were used in different ways, for example in decorative ribbons, but also Christmas ornaments. The name "Leonic" possibly comes from the city of Lyon.
The craft of using Leonic wires in Christmas ornaments has been become less and less popular, but hasn't died out completely yet. Here you can find a German video showing a lady from Bavaria making golden stars at home.

Famous are of course the Gablonz ornaments. In the mid-19th century glassmakers in Jablonec began making hollow glass beads. The industry kept developing new ideas and techinques like lining the glass with silver on the inside which makes colors on the outside shine even more. Small hollow glass beads in different shapes were strung with wire and combined with other glass decorations for the most amazing creations.
On Flickr, I found this picture with pieces from an Austrian Christmas exhibition. Just look at that lobster!

Picture by Taurabus on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

I could keep going and going, but it's so easy to get lost in pictures and texts, and still you have to come to an end eventually.
Let me finish this with a video about a lady who has been collecting Christmas ornaments for more than 40 years and shows them in a Christmas museum in Austria (Weihnachtsmuseum Harrachstal). Even if you don't understand German, I think you will enjoy this little glimpse into her collection.






More information:
Dresden at The Ornament
Tinseltown at The Vintage Christmas Company
Antique bohemian beaded Christmas decorations ~ 1870 - 1940. Area of Jablonec nad Nisou / Gablonz at the Gablonz Collection

Christmas bells - The twelfth door

 
When I think of Christmas bells, my first thought goes to the Zimbelstern or cymbal star on the organ in our oldest church in town. The star has little bells which make a tinkling sound when the star rotates. For me that had always been a highlight of the Christmas service when I was a child.

Did you know, however, that there is a flower called Tasmanian Christmas bell (Blandfordia punicea)? It's one of those plants that blooms around Christmas. I hadn't heard about it before, but of course I'm not really a plant expert, anyway.
It's really pretty with the yellow shining out of the red and the long bell-like blossoms.

Blandfordia punicea - Tasmanian Christmas bells
by Bill Higham on Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0)

What I know more about is beading, so, after my little success with the puffy stars, I looked for a tutorial for beaded bells for this post that I could try with the beads I had on hand.
Luck was on my side and I found the Christmas bell by Sidonia's handmade jewelry on YouTube. So pretty and sparkly with the crystals!

My first attempt had a slightly different shape than Sidonia's bell, probably because instead of Superduos I only had Twin Beads which are not as uniform. Instead of getting that nice flaring out shape all the way down, my bell looked as if it had been on a diet and lost some weight around the waist.
I tried a second time using different Twin Beads that were a bit thicker, and this time it was a little better, but I still wasn't completely happy.
So I hope Sidonia will forgive me for modifying the pattern by adding extra beads to the "waist" and the bottom edge. Also, instead of wire headpins I used beads for the loop and the clapper.

Didn't they turn out cute? They also have a great size for pendants and earrings, but would also look nice on a gift, so maybe you want to try this yourself?

Christmas galore - The ninth door

About 20 years ago we visited Rothenburg ob der Tauber. A friend from California stayed with us at the time, a collector of Steiff like us, but also of so much more.
He had asked us if we could go to Rothenburg not only for the Käthe Wohlfahrt Christmas Village, a store where it's Christmas all year round, but also for carved figures because a friend told him to look out for vintage ones from the Ore Mountains if he got the chance.
Rothenburg is known for his well-preserved medieval old town which makes you think you have stepped into a fairy tale. No wonder it's a tourist magnet.
I'm not fond of crowds, but we were rather lucky. I think it was September and I remember that it was rather cold which might have helped a little with the Christmas feeling out of season.

We had "Schneeballen", a traditional local shortcrust pastry, and then were ready for Christmas, so we went to the Käthe Wohlfahrt Christmas Village first.
I'll be honest, despite having lifelong experiences with Christmas markets and department stores, I was blown away. If Rothenburg looked like the location for a fairy tale, this was like stepping into Santa Claus' workshop, department Christmas decorations.
Ornaments for the tree made from everything from glass (yes, also the infamous Christmas pickle) over felt to wood, figurines, pyramids, stars, wreaths, advent calendars, nutcrackers, trees ... and if you broke a blade on your pyramid, fear not, you can find a new one here. I can't for the life of me remember if I got something myself or if I was just completely overwhelmed.
This is not an ornament from the shop, but it gives you a small idea.

Walking around, we found the entrance to the Christmas Museum quite accidentally, we hadn't even known there was one, and as a matter of fact it was still rather new.
Now I was really in my element. The museum is small, but I loved it, anyway. The permanent exhibition focuses on objects between 1870 and 1950. Vintage ornaments, trees, lights, cards ... what's not to love? Have you ever heard of tragacanth or Leonic wire before, for example? I'd love to have a tree with vintage ornaments, but never dared to add even one because of the cats.
While I understand why it's not permitted, I still wish I could have taken some photos.

Our next stop were shops where they sold carved figures, everything from whole nativity scenes to single angels, saints, farmers, and one of them also had fairy tale figures.
It may not be very Christmassy, but we fell in love with two of them right away. One of them is this wonderfully detailed witch, with two bonus cats. The carver tried to convince us that she would look better together with Hansel and Gretel, but we just wanted the witch. She would look great with a big Christmas gingerbread house, don't you think?

All in all definitely a trip that was worth it. I'd love to go again, crowds or not.

Puffy stars - The eighth door

The things I'm doing for this advent calendar!
For years and years I have been resisting the beaded puffy stars, however pretty they may be, for several reasons.
While I have slowly begun to dip my toe into the waters of off-loom beading more and more (mostly because I still don't trust a certain tabby cat around my loom), I still consider myself to be quite the beginner and creating structural pieces is completely new to me.

Another reason is my lack of patience for video tutorials that are longer than five minutes (which says a lot more about me than about the tutorials!), but also knowing I wouldn't be able to make the stars without one.
Last but definitely not least these stars are made of five components. You know how much I struggle with even making a pair of identical earrings. FIVE identical components??
I know. I could make this much more interesting by going for a more complicated pattern. Excuse me while I am once again laughing madly.

For the sake of finding enough topics for this advent calendar, however, I jumped into the very cold water of puffy peyote stars after all, with two different randomly chosen tutorials, this one by Bronzepony Beaded Jewelry and this one by Off The Beaded Path.
My first attempt came out a little more squishy than intended, but is still pretty.

Then I almost lost my mind over my incredibly simple "pattern" of the first star I did in all-Delicas. I very quickly abandoned the idea of making these as Christmas gifts for our vet practice. Maybe for next year if I make one a month? ;-)

All in all, I'm happy that I tackled this personal challenge and got it out of my system for now.
It's crystal clear to me, however, that I will never make a star with a more complicated pattern or a much bigger star even if in a simple pattern. There are projects that are much more interesting to me.

Nevertheless, I could muster the patience for more than just two stars even if the only reason for that was a phase during which I seriously lacked the motivation to do much else. Stars to the rescue, who would have thought? I only played with colors and small sizes, however, not with patterns. Again, that will not ever happen.
So here's my little collection now. Some became gifts, some went into my decoration after I had taken the pictures for the first day of this calendar.

What became painfully obvious to me again, though, was that I obviously have no natural geometrical understanding at all! I guess my math teachers never stood a chance.

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The twenty-fourth door

My advent calendar is coming to an end, I hope you liked my little collection of Christmas baubles.
If you celebrate it, I wish you a Merry Christmas despite it probably being quite different for some of us this year due to the circumstances. Hang in there even if it's not easy! ♥

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The twenty-third door

Candy cane ...

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The twenty-second door

 Holly in the snow ...

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The twenty-first door

Icicles turning into water ...

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The twentieth door

Somehow this one reminds me of a Christmas sweater, probably because of the pattern in the top ...

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The nineteenth door

Using up the last of my blue seed bead mix ...

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The eighteenth door

Icy lace ...

Christmaus Bauble Advent Calendar - The seventeenth door

This one reminded me of something, but now I can't remember what ...

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The sixteenth door

To me this is a very classic combination, can't go wrong with silver and gold ...

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The fifteenth door

Inspired by snowflakes ...

Christmas Bauble Advent Calendar - The fourteenth door

More red netting, this time not with gold, but pearls and crystals ...