Advent calendar 7

Being a big fan of word play, the obvious title for today's calendar flap ought to be "It's a wrap!", but I suppose I risk losing readers over my bad sense of humour, so perhaps I should just get on with telling you what it is all about... 

On my beloved dolly tub (which I made into a table with some leftover floorboards a few years ago) you may spot two little Christmas presents, wrapped and ready for the large man with silver beard and a ho-ho-ho laughter to put in his sack and keep safe until the 24th (yes, according to Swedish tradition, we open our gifts on Christmas Eve).

Two music-packed gifts wrapped in two normal A4 sheets onto which I have copied two of my dresses (!). The one to the right you will most certainly recognise by now, and the one to the left is one of my favourite dresses, whose colours are not at all as dark brown as they turned out in my printer (it is more of an olive green, but I think I am running out of coloured ink!), but which I thought looked rather stylish anyway, albeit somewhat dark. A few of my salt dough stars from the other day's "baking session" and voilà, two presents with a personal touch!

Thank you so much for all your kind comments here on my blog. I am sorry that I am still so invisible on yours. Wishing you all the best for your Christmas preparations, or whatever December holds for you!

Helena

Advent calendar 6

"Well...", you might say, "how many cushions does one need...?" 

To that, my friends, my answer will always be: 

"You can never have too many!"

I know, I am probably borderline cushion-o-holic, but so be it, because when in my head I suddenly saw this spicy number, I just had to make it. Thinking (hoping) it can be used other seasons than just for Christmas, as I use cinnamon all year round, I set to work with some leftover fabric from a dress I hardly ever wore, bought for £ 3 some years ago in the sales, and which has previously served another cushion-y purpose you might remember from...:

...and:

So, there we are, the Swenglish cushion family keeps growing and 

has probably not seen its last family member yet...

Now, what else might one make on the theme of cinnamon, I wonder...

... time for some spicy pondering!

Warm regards to you all, dear readers!

Helena

Advent calendar 5

Behind door number five are a few recycled photos from last year, where again I have turned to Mother Nature for some decorative input. A branch chopped into small pieces and with holes drilled in the middle makes perfect little "pots" for the smallest Christmas trees in the world...

An old funnel is one of my trusty, rusty companions, and its new purpose, 

after having retired from its "funneling" days, is as a proud candle holder.

Hope your days are filled with joy and gingerbread biscuits!

Love, Helena

Advent calendar 4

Christmas is the time when you can go all out, think away any less is more missions, and just decorate yourself into a colour-exploding tizzy... 

However, should you still prefer a more modest approach to the festive season, perhaps this could be something for you...

A small branch, a rusty bucket (oh how I love my rusty buckets!) and some expensive ceramic designer stars  dangling from the twigs... Now, hang on a minute, you did not believe that last bit, did you!? No, that would not really be me, now would it...? Before you scroll down, can you guess what the stars are made from?

Making these was indeed a trip down memory lane..! As a child, I made innumerable "master pieces" from salt dough, which we in Swedish called "troll dough", perhaps referring to its inherent "magic powers" to create all sort of shapes. And yesterday it was time to revisit this childhood activity, as I wanted some small stars to hang on the twigs and could not be bothered to go to the cold shed in the garden to cut some out of wood.

***

I used 1dl salt, 2 dl flour, 1 dl water, mixed it all and kneaded it to a dough, then rolled it thin and cut small stars with a cookie cutter. I poked holes for the thread to go through and used one of my wooden stamps (see the image below) to create a pattern on some of the stars (some were left plain). I dried them in the oven, 100 degrees Celsius, ca 4 hours (the time can depend on your oven, the stars should be completely dry). When the stars were dry and had cooled down, I painted them with leftover wall paint (and yes, the perceptive among you will see that I was too lazy to take out the thread I had already tied to the stars...but no one will probably look close enough to notice this and shortcuts are allowed!).

***

(Above: The wooden stamp in an oriental-inspired table setting in the garden - if you want to see more, click here.)

Even though the branch in real life did not look as "minimalist" as it appears here (the stars seem to disappear in the photos here), I still felt it was missing a certain je ne sais quoi... so last night I added some...

... larch cones, which work really well as nature's own festive baubles.

Thank you SO much for stopping by and for your kind comments!

Warm regards to you all,

Helena

Advent calendar 3

Welcome to the opening of door number three.

So, let me ask you this... What does one do with an empty Nutella jar (that is after one has stopped mourning the fact that it is, indeed, empty)?

Well, one possibility is of course to wrap it in hessian/burlap fabric, stamp a dragonfly (or something else) on it, wrap some string around it, place a tea light inside and voilà, a small votive that lets out a lovely warm light when lit (even if the dragonflies can't be seen very well when the candle is lit).

Now, these look quite nice in a group, so given that I first made them with Christmas presents in mind, I am now quite happy that my Nutella consumption is rather... ehm, impressive, as this has allowed me to make some to give away and still keep a few!

Now, let's get munching on that next jar, shall we? All of a sudden, I can think of quite a few friends who might just need some votives for Christmas...

Helena

Advent calendar 2

Today, we are letting this pomegranate hold the first of the four advent candles, resting - and might I say it looks like 'nesting' - on a part of some old scales hung above the dining table and filled with... yes, you guessed it, moss, some rose hip and other treasures from the forest.

Tomorrow, door number three will reveal... no, must not say too much! 

Well, I will give you this clue: 

Some truths about yours truly's Nutella consumption might be revealed...!

Wishing you all a restful Sunday!

Helena

Advent calendar 1

Ladies and gentlemen,

'Tis the season... they tell me...

I feel I have neglected you, dear blog readers, as my time has been 

demanded elsewhere for quite some time now...

So, I think 'tis the season for an Advent Calendar especially for you.

Behind the different doors in this calendar, 

you will find small Christmas ideas that are either recycled, 

inspired by nature or simply 'on a shoestring'...

Most of the photos will be new, but some "recycled" photos of previous 

years' favourites might appear as blog stocking fillers too...

First up are more "lollipops", as they seem to be my theme tune at the moment. This time I made mini trees (lollipop-shaped) out of moss and small twigs, stuck them in recycled sweet corn tins clad with decoupaged napkins, made sure they stayed in place by adding gravel from our drive, and finally covered the gravel with a layer of rice. I thought these might be used when laying the table for Christmas, perhaps with one tree by each plate...

As I am a big fan of carrying a particular theme a little further if possible, I made a star cushion to go with the red star theme, using an old inner cushion I already had, some white sheet fabric, and made the star and the piping from my old maternity trousers that were just the 'right' red. 

So, there we are. First door opened and more to come. Some doors may be small, some seen before, but I hope that somewhere along the way, behind one of the calendar flaps, you will find that one little idea that might inspire you this December. Welcome back tomorrow, to peer behind door number two!

All the best,

Helena

Ps. Please remember that all images look better (and not so strangely cropped) if you click on them.

And pooouffff, there it was!

That gorgeous WHITE fluffy stuff...!

I had been dreaming of a white Christmas...

... and when we arrived here in Sweden a few days ago...

 

I saw that there was a good chance...

... that we would indeed greet Santa with some snow this year!

 

I end this blog post with a photo snapped in the TV room back home in the UK, just before we left, with some modest Christmas decorations in the shape of snow flake fairy lights around the mirror, and some Christmas sweets on a wooden tray...

...and from all of me... to all of you.... a Christmas card (click on the image to view it larger):

Dear blog readers, I would like to thank you for visiting the Swenglish 

Home blog this year, and for all your kind words and support!

I wish you a lovely Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

Helena

Bring on the sprouts...!

However, just as I am no friend of a cabbage-inspired cuisine, 

nor are you likely to ever catch me munching brussels sprouts... 

But who says you have to eat them?!?!

So, true to my motto "Play with your food!", and inspired by something I remembered seeing in Minna's stunning blog Blomsterverkstad last year (read her blog post here) about how to turn these little greens into flowers, I ventured into the garden a few weeks ago...

... to set a small winter table with hints of the festive season...

... but this blog post does not end here... so, are you ready...?

Drum roll...

Here we go...

***

Announcing a small birth...

Dear readers,

Some of you may know that my "day job" is as a Communications Consultant and University Guest Lecturer in Intercultural Communication. I enjoy this work very much and find it hugely interesting!

However...

I am also - and this may come as no surprise to you - passionate about interiors and how you feel and live in them, as well as how to try to recycle and upcycle old items and use nature's own treasures when decorating, to aim for a both personal, soulful and sustainable home.

Having had such kind and encouraging response from you (the world's loveliest blog readers!), and having been contacted through my blog by professionals showing an interest in my ideas and photos, I have for some time been pondering if I could pursue this path too...

So today I invite you to witness the modest birth... of ...

Helena Bernáld Interior Styling & Photography

You are welcome to visit my website at:

http://www.helenabernaldinteriorstyling.co.uk/

With a lot of lecturing work lined up, I may have to take baby steps here at first, but I look forward to exploring what is possible and how to combine the two jobs! I hope you would like to join me on this exciting  journey too!

Now, stand back, here comes the champagne cork!

...and there is more....:

***

Published in A Mi Otthonunk

Some of the images above, together with some of my other winter and Christmas-inspired photos and ideas can be seen in a six-page feature in the Christmas issue of A Mi Otthonunk (= Our Home)  (http://www.amiotthonunk.hu/), which is out in the shops in Hungary today. I feel very honoured - thank you Tímea for contacting me!

To those of you who may have found your way here from the magazine feature, welcome to my blog! For those of you who may not have access to the magazine, but would like to see the feature, I will try to show it to you in the next few days.

So, having shamelessly blown my own trumpet and also a tune for brussels sprouts, 

I will let the final note today be an encouraging fanfare to play more with your food!

(It need not be wasted, as in most cases, it can be eaten after having been used as decoration!)

Wishing you a playful weekend!

Helena

Fa-la-la-la-la  la-la-la-...yum!

With the festive season here, it is time to stock up on sweet treats for Rudolph and his horn-clad mates. In old  chocolate and tobacco tins from local second hand shops and car boot sales, some home-made ginger bread moose and trees rub shoulders with some home-made chocolates (cinnamon/hazelnut-flavoured, see recipe here), eyeing up the colourful candy cane strangers in the taller tin. 

The home-made goodies are clearly a little thrown by the curvy shop-bought cane knock-outs, and earlier today I heard worried whispers from the sugar-stacked tray... Concerns that the humans might reject the 'boring browns' and aim straight for the 'stunning stripes'. Hushed voices talking about 'outsiders' and 'initiation rites'. Well, reassuring the gingerbread and the chocolates that I would always be faithful to my brown buddies, I managed to calm them down...

... and with the help of my yuletide-spirited mediating pine twigs, gone is now all talk about 'outsiders'. In fact, as I was leaving the room, I heard the pine twigs invite all the sweets to embrace the message of peace and love...

Not that it matters that much...

In a house full of sweet tooths, these sweet darlings will not be given much time to fret...

... they will most likely not live to see tomorrow! 

Oh dear, I am now worried that anyone using Google Translate will end up with a horribly morbid story here... Let me just clarify, I am only talking about eating the biscuits and the chocolates!!!

Wishing you all a lovely start to the new week!

Helena