My Vintage Christmas

Hello Friends!

I hope you have had a lovely week, whatever you have been up to.  I’m a little late with posting these photos of some of my decorating, but it was browsing festive decorating on all those beautiful Scandinavian blogs all those years ago, in the days in between Christmas and New Year, which inspired me to start my own blog.  So here is a little sparkle from my home.

As always foraged nature/botanicals, mixed with my favourite vintage glass baubles, is my method of decorating.  I created another botanical mantelpiece garland, using some length of ivy from nearby woods, Old Man’s Beard (Clematis Vitalba), some left over dried strawflowers from last years’ decorating (see last year’s decorating here), and some dried dahlias.  I love the whispy element of Old Man’s Beard, it adds such a grotto like, magical touch.  This year was the first year I tried to dry dome dahlias properly too.  Although I didn’t get many flowers this year due to the drought, I found that my pink varieties dried particularly well.

To hold it all up, I used some nails and wire to create a single frame along the length of the mantelpiece.  I am also not precious about using a staple gun where I need to, to keep stems in place.  I will probably keep this garland up and refresh it as time goes by.

Hyacinth bulbs planted in old paint kettles or tureens, boxes of baubles, old size skates, an old car horn…it’s so lovely to pull some magic together using things I already have in my cupboards.  Although this decorating was for the festive period, I fully intend much of it to get me through the winter months, and I shall plant some more bulbs in containers to brighten up dark corners.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Tamsyn x