making Advent wreathes

It has already become a great tradition that the day before first Advent Christiane, Carina, Nancy and myself get together to turn fresh pine green, ivy, box, holly and laurel into the most beautiful Advent wreathes.

We make wreathes for our doors, for the windows, for the childrens' school and the typical wreathes with four candles to be lighted one more every Advent Sunday.

I'm horribly untalented in tying together the wreathes. My part rather consists in decorating. I love using the hot glue machine to stick on crab apples, nuts, pinecones and apples. I love choosing ribbons, drinking coffee, chatting around and eating Christiane's freshly baked waffles....

 

If you are interested in the recipe,  I'd be happy to request it for you. The only thing I know is that they are made with cream instead of butter. Just sublime!

When everybody had gone I stayed a moment longer to continue chatting with Christiane and, you won't believe it, while talking, my fingers all by themselves had made that sweet little heart from the last twigs remaining on the table.

another red and green

Found these cuties while out there looking for rose hips to decorate my Advent wreath.  Can you believe, the southern blue of the sky is true, no Photoshop!

Opulence in Red and Green

Only one week until 1. Advent! For us it's the weekend we light the first candle of the Advent wreath and we decorate our homes in the traditional colours: sprigs of fir, box and holly, red candles and ribbons. Red faced little apples and nuts on silver plates, pine sprigs and amaryllis on the window sills.

Feel inspired by my pictures; if you are interested you find all these pretty things in Ursula von Hake's studio and shop.

I especially fell in love with those laquered boxes and the fancy trays and side tables. Living in the forest with the one or the other stag lurking around the corner of the garden I also couldn't say no to traditional stag candles (They hide in the left corner of the second picture. I'll post better pictures later!)

#10 Red and Green Makes You Clean

Today I complained about being uninspired. My daughter just saw one way out of this creative drought.

Ever since I had a sip of this spontaneously created raspberry cocktail, things started moving. My creativity galloping away ( - me clinging on), pulled me into new terrain. The topic of discussion for the night has become profane : "is the primitive contrast of red and green enough to stimulate the demanding readership of my blog?"

Here the very liberal instructions to this miracle cocktail:

Undefined amount of Bacardi Rum
A handful of fresh raspberries
an ounce (or more to taste) of grenadine sirup
Put all of this in the blender and add crushed ice
Add fresh lime and Mint leaves