Christmas 2016 - Ideas for natural, handmade and inexpensive tree decorations

One of my favourite parts of Christmas is decorating the tree. We are off to get ours today (hooray!) and I've got a few new ideas up my sleeve for what I'm going to be adorning it with this year. I like to make little changes each year, mixing our old faithful decorations with some new handmade or natural ones that I make or collect in December. 

Christmas is a notoriously expensive time of year and so I always try to keep my tree decorating as cheap and cheerful as possible, making or foraging as much as I can rather than splurging on expensive baubles.  I've listed a few of my tree decoration ideas below in the hope that they might inspire you to try some of these this year!

1. Vintage keys. I acquired a bag of second-hand keys on freecycle a couple of years ago (yes, I'm mad) and have wondered what on earth to do with them ever since. It suddenly occurred to me that they would make very pretty tree decorations, nestling among the branches. I often see second hand keys at car boot sales or in junk shops - I especially love when they come with little handwritten labels that say things like "garden shed" or "spare garage"!!



2. Painted eucalyptus leaves. I made these last year for the tree and they have lasted well. I dipped leftover eucalyptus leaves from wreath making into white emulsion paint and let them dry, then used a gold pen (this one) to paint shapes onto them. I used a needle to make a tiny hole at the top and strung them with fine cotton thread. They twinkled beautifully on the tree last year, like little gold and white coins.

3. Wool tassels. These are very easy and cheap to make, and give a wonderful textured, handmade feel to a tree. I made them in white and cream as I wanted something to brighten the tree, but you could make them in any colour, or make multicoloured ones.



4. Painted pinecones. These speak for themselves really. Pine cones are the cheapest decorations - they can be gathered from any woodland walk or picked up very cheaply in garden centres. They look beautiful dipped in white paint, or painted with gold or glitter paint.

5. Dried orange slices. Does anything say Christmas more than these? They're easy to make, they smell amazing and they make a tree look so festive and happy. I love them, make them every year (I find drying them on the radiator the best method) and use them for tree decorations, wreath prettifying and even garlands. I'm yet to do lemons and limes, but soon!



6. Clay decorations. I learnt how to make these at a Christmas workshop this year, and immediately bought some more quick dry clay to make more. I cut out shapes with cookie cutters and also cut around some leaves with a blunt knife. I then embellished them with my trusty gold pen and I'm quite pleased with how they turned out! My favourites are definitely the leaves. Some I will use on the tree, and the others will be used to prettify presents.

7. Playing cards. I used these vintage Hungarian cards on the tree a couple of years ago and loved the old fashioned classic feel they gave it. I picked them up in a junk shop just because I loved the illustrations but actually the colours make them perfect for Christmas. Normal playing cards would work just as well too. I didn't want to make holes in them so I pegged them with tiny pegs and then used tree ornament hangers to suspend them from the branches.

8. Feathers. These give such a soft, organic feel to a Christmas tree. White feathers dipped in gold or glitter look incredible, and soft grey feathers are also subtly beautiful. Pheasant feathers would also look dramatic and striking. I tend to collect feathers through the year out on walks or in the park so they are completely free, but you can also buy them cheaply on ebay.



9. Polaroid photos. It suddenly occurred to me that little photos would make lovely personal tree decorations, especially if they depicted moments through the year - decorating the tree would be a chance to remember all the special memories from the past year, before the new year arrives.

10. Paper ornaments. I made long garlands of these to hang above our Christmas table last year, but they would equally make beautiful individual tree decorations. They are so simple to make - choose a shape (I love circles and stars), cut out loads of the same shape, then sew or glue them together down the middle and fold them out so they become 3D. Newspaper, old music and book pages look especially lovely like this, but you could equally make them with with brown paper, thick wrapping paper or old wallpaper.

A few other ideas:

• Gingerbread - trees, people, stars, snowflakes. Cheap, pretty and rustic, plus they smell amazing (just remember to make a hole in them before baking)
• Wool Pom poms - made infinitely easier with one of these amazing pom pom makers. These also make brilliant present decorations and they always look so happy. 
• Cinnamon sticks - tied in little bundles with twine or raffia, these always look beautiful. 
• Vintage cotton reels - unusual and beautiful little objects in themselves, these would make any tree look very special. 
• Luggage tags - easy and cheap, these could be stamped to make them look even prettier. 
• Dried hydrangea or seed heads.

Happy Christmas tree decorating! I hope you manage to find a couple of hours to bedeck your tree, along with some Christmas carols and a glass or two of something. I will try to post a few photos of our tree once decorated soon, but in the meantime, if you would like to have a peek at last year's tree, it is here, and the year before is here. 

Mary 

An Autumn Wreath

I was inspired by all of the beautiful changing colours outside to bring some of it into the house and make a simple leafy wreath to channel some Autumnal beauty and celebrate how wonderful nature is at this time of the year. 

I thought that some of the bountiful virginia creeper that I have seen crawling and trailing over every wall would work perfectly because its flexibility lends itself very well to wreath-making, and it's got the most lovely trailing tendrils. 

I used the wire frame from a previous wreath that I made a couple of years ago (see here), so it was very quick. I made the frame simply by twisting a couple of lengths of soft gardening wire into a slightly irregular circular shape (you'll need some strong scissors or pliers to cut the wire). 

Then it was just a matter of twisting and tucking the strands of creeper in and around the wire frame so that they stay in place, and fill the circle. The colours looked so beautiful!



I used a bit of floristry wire to anchor the strands to the frame and keep it all secure.



I made sure to leave lots of straggly bits hanging down as I like a messy wreath.
And voila! 





A wild, messy, overflowing wreath, full of the colours of Autumn. 

A little bit of progress...

We've been busily beavering away at the house in every free moment we get, trying to transform our semi-building site into something resembling a proper house. I am losing the will a bit, but R is keeping us focused! Progress is slowly being made. 

We now have a fully functioning kitchen and are able (occasionally) to sit down and have a leisurely cup of coffee on a Sunday morning. Yay! 

Having a lovely new kitchen inspired me to make a cake. I always stick to loaf cakes as the results are invariably disastrous when I try to be more ambitious.....

I bought us a fancy new oven glove to celebrate (and then had to make something so I could use it!)

We now also have a beautiful bathroom (that has unfortunately sprung a teeny weeny leak that I definitely did not freak out about). It is being mended soon DON'T WORRY.

I found this lovely bevelled mirror on ebay which has little coppery bits on its sides. The first mirror I purchased (also from ebay) lasted about 5 minutes in the bathroom before it smashed into pieces and I burst into tears. Hope the next 7 years aren't too painful....

We bought this old brick of a radio from Deptford market ages ago for about £5. It just needed a new (massive) battery and it worked just fine. Good for Radio 4 in the shower. 

I've been pootling round the house, putting bits and bobs into jars and baskets. Is it just me who loves decanting? I could seriously decant for hours. My sister's the same - maybe it runs in families...?

I even decanted my bubble bath!

We have also invested in a new front door, which has totally transformed the front of the house. We have mounted our fox knocker. I don't know whether it is warding off neighbourhood foxes, or attracting them. Either way, it gives me a lot of pleasure using it. 

I was very impressed with the company we chose to make and install it, Voysey & Jones. They were really helpful, came to do a consultation in the evening, talked us through all of our choices and did a really thorough quote. We chose Farrow & Ball Blue Ground for the colour, and went for an etched glass. 

And something very exciting has also happened in the sitting room....

Remember this? 

This was the hideous fireplace that some maniac in the 70s had decided to replace the original fireplace with.....

This was how it looked when we had stripped the wallpaper, sanded the floors, revealed the original hearth tiles, demolished the fake brick fireplace and re-plastered and painted the walls (phew!). It was an improvement, but basically still just a gaping hole..

This was when we'd just had the new fireplace installed....

And this is what it's like now! Complete with log basket and drying slippers (and a few bits of skirting that need patching up...)

The first fire felt very momentous indeed. Imagine being grown up enough to own a house and a real fire! Both me and R had log fires at home when we were growing up, and I can't imagine anything cosier than lighting the fire on a damp Sunday afternoon, drawing the curtains, putting on the telly and doing a bit of knitting as evening draws in. I feel very lucky that we can now have that in our own house. 

Actually, the fire has been a necessity as the days have got colder as we only very recently got round to putting the radiator back on in the sitting room. Until then I've been coming home from work and laying the fire. Fire on a Monday night? Why not! 

As we have started to get more rooms, I have begun unpacking our boxes and bringing things down from the loft. I love being reunited with all the things we have collected over the last few years. 

We have also now finished two of the bedrooms, ours and the small spare room at the end of the house. 

Which is nice, because now we can invite people to stay without having to tell them that they'll be sleeping on a blow-up mattress on a dusty floor...

We've still got quite a bit to do, mainly turning the other bedroom and study from unpleasant, filthy spaces into liveable-in rooms. At the moment both rooms are being used as dumping grounds for boxes, DIY crap, tools, random bits of wood and everything else that we don't know what to do with. I'm sure we could throw most of it away, but R assures me it's all totally essential! 

Which all means that there will be more of this:

more of this:

and more bloomin' paint stripping! 

I will try to post some pictures of our bedroom soon!