handmade advent wreath

Advent wreaths are tradition here in Germany and are usually very colorful and most of all green. I posted a glimpse of the one my mom gave us last year here. The idea is to light a candle each sunday before christmas for 4 weeks, so when the fourth candle is lit it will be christmas.
This year I wanted to make our own advent wreath and make it very simple and elegant and scandinavian inspired. I put a lot of thought into it (my work colleagues will tell you I spent all lunch breaks for weeks pondering on the colors and decorations of this wreath) and in the end nearly everything about it is DIY.

I first thought of buying a wooden ring, but couldn’t find one I liked, so I made my own using willow twigs collected in the woods.
It’s easier than it looks and secured with wire holds up really well.

Next were the ornaments. I knew I wanted beeswax candles, so stitched red felt ornaments sounded right and I was itching to do a bit of handstitching anyway.



The candle holders were only available in silver and gold, so we (meaning the boyfriend) simply spraypainted them white.

It turned out just the way I hoped and I love our handmade wreath which we will be using for years!

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lino print napkins

I realize I haven’t gotten around to posting christmas gifts yet! These aren’t very christmasy though, so I hope you’ll have fun looking at them in January instead of December as well.
In 2009 I gave away soaps and bath products, in 2010 I went a little wild with the lino printing.
Since we’re all about going green this year, I made cloth napkins with this tutorial and then printed on the napkins (tutorial for lino printing on fabric here).

I also made and printed these little Dala horse ornaments that can be hung on the tree or elsewhere.

No in progress pictures of the printing unfortunately, that got lost in the before-christmas frenzy.

There was a set of four napkins with hen prints and another with the doe print. This grammophone print is on thick paper for framing.

Making those cloth napkins is easy and fast and requires only basic sewing skills, I plan on making some for us as well, to substitute paper napkins. I think I might even sew them by hand if I find the time, handstitching would make these extra sweet and special.