A final Christmas post ... the one that got away

Its always a bit bare when the Christmas decs get taken away and as today is twelfth night, traditionally the day when the end of the wonderful chaos of Christmas ends and we all return to some form of normality.

I have one final Christmas post to share with you, this was my table decoration for Christmas day.

I have used a few empty jars in different heights and widths, tied on some gingham ribbons and wound round some coloured string along with a couple of the clay ornaments that I made.  I felt that as these were simple shapes I could get away with carrying them into January without it looking too Christmasy.  This would work just as well with neutral string, wool or embroidery thread.  You could replicate the clay shapes in card or paper. but they look just as nice without.

The jars are filled with mini peppermint candy canes, cookies and cream Hershey kisses and non-edible pine cones.  I was inspired by Pinterest to try bleaching some of the pine cones we collected on our trip to Norfolk, this was done by leaving them to soak in a solution of 2 parts bleach to 1 part water in a lidded jar.  I left them for about a week giving them a shake every time I thought about it and changed the solution about half way though. I used some of the smaller cones as there were more practical to get into the jar, I selected a few that were open and some that were only partially open this meant that there was variation in how the cones whitened, the more open ones losing most of their natural colouring.

We did have a minor issue with the wall lights on Christmas day so the contents of the jars were rapidly deposited onto the table and were replaced with candles and mini twinkle lights which was very romantic but not really light enough, at one point I thought I might have to string the twinkle lights around my neck in order to see!  Luckily I am married to a very practical man who found something from the back of the garage to effect a temporary fix.

I am going to continue to use the jam jars with the lights in during January helping to fill some of the space left behind now the Christmas decorations have gone.  I will post an update once I can get some light for a half decent photo.

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous 2016, I hope you will drop by during the year to keep up to date with me and what is happening in my little world xx