chips off the old block

After an initial bout of argy bargy with the archigtect on exactly when you put up the tree to maximise christmas day freshness a compromise was wrought - decorations last weekend, tree this weekend. Regular readers know I impose a strict DIY deocration policy at ours which has seen some ridiculously labour intensive and back breaking efforts over the years. So give what a bugger of a year it's been I decided to give us all a break and go to Ikea. Unfortunately this seems to be the only year that they've not come up with the goods, so it was back to the drawing board (literally) and off to the paper chain station for us all because this years decorating theme is going to be PAPER.

Having an added deadline of getting my half of the christmas present done for the lovely ladies of the RRR's Grapevine I got to work on Sunday. Lucky, because Donna and Kulja presented us with biscotti SO delicious I managed to inhale them over coffee in about three minutes. But I digress.

                            

Thankfully i've spent a little time collecting paint chips over the last few months so was able to put my oversize circle punches to work for an hour or so and squeeze out as many circles as I could in readiness for sewing.

There is definately an art to sewing paper without you're bobbin going bananas, so i've learnt (the hard way) it's best to keep the tension low and the stich size at medium and just keep feeding the paper through gently and evenly. Oh and don't do what I did and forget to fill the bobbin before you get started. And if you don't want your tree, mantle or christmas spread to look like it's sponsored by Dulux and Taubmans feed through two circles at at time with the colour facing out. Another hot tip discovered in hindsight.

The result couldnt be cheerier or cheaper. An just think if you too become possesed by the spirit of Tonia Todman you can even colour co-ordinate your garland to match your napery, accent cushions or special Christmas outfit. Way-Hay! Next stop, cut out snowflakes. BECK