Holiday goings on

Ah... the holidays. Christma-stice or Sol-mas or whathaveyou. I celebrated once with a wonderful local coven in my tradition, then again solitary-style, then I rocked Christmas with my husband. Christmas was a household-only, laid back affair (in contrast to Thanksgiving) and was quite cozy and relaxing. Us being us, we hit up Home Depot shortly before closing on Christmas eve and built a large chalkboard to cover an ugly electrical panel in the kitchen on Christmas day. More on that project later perhaps.

Of course we also watched Hogfather, an essential part of wintry festivities here in the little victorian. Just imagine a skeletal Santa figure who means well but does not truly understand humankind greeting children with COWER BRIEF MORTALS out of habit. Holly jolly indeed.

More substantive post later, perhaps.

Rosemary Tree Fail

This year I got sucked into buying one of those rosemary bushes trimmed into a Christmas-tree sort of shape. They are such cute little topiaries. And they smell wonderful. And I had dreams of planting the rosemary in the garden come spring. But it is not even the solstice yet, and already the rosemary is pretty much dead. The poor wee tree has been replaced by paperwhite narcissus. Here is the rosemary tree in all its glory (weeks ago):

RIP
I get the feeling that the rosemary doesn't like living in a house, nor being pruned into an unnatural shape. Poor thing!

How to Make a Pinecone Garland

Being totally enchanted by the photos of pinecone garlands circulating on Pinterest it became absolutely essential that I create my own version. Apparently my fondness for pinecones knows few bounds this season as I actually made two, quite different, versions of a pinecone garland. Pinecones are a natural to go with the evergreens that most of us bring indoors at Yule. They are rich in symbolism from fertility to eternal life to the sacred geometry found in the arrangement of their petals.

Regardless of the style of garland you choose to make, the first step is the same: prepare the pinecones for indoor living. Pinecones are outdoor things, complete with the bugs and sap that are natural to their outdoorsy nature. But fond of the outdoors as one may be, bugs and sap in the house are unfun. Baking will kill any bugs and crystallize the sap. So:

1) Turn the oven to no higher than 220F.
2) Cover a baking sheet in tin foil and spread pinecones on sheet
3) Bake until the sap has melted completely—30 minutes or more (quite a lot more in my case)
4) Remove from oven and allow to cool fully before doing anything more with them.

Life-or-death note: Do not leave the oven unattended. The baking pinecones will fill your kitchen with a lovely pine scent, but lest they decide to fill your kitchen with smoke and flames, keep an eye on them. If they start smoking, take them out of the oven!

My Garland #1: I collected the long, skinny pinecones that are on my mantle with my sisters and niece over Thanksgiving. These pinecones have little stems on their butts, so making the garland was as simple as tying them to hemp twine at regular intervals. That’s it. Garland made.

My Garland #2: I had the elongated hardwood hearts in my craft stash, and I wanted short, fat pinecones as a contrasting shape—which I found at the dollar store. So un-green of me, I know. Sometimes one just has to put aesthetics first.

Materials: Pine cones, solid wooden heart cutouts (not plywood), hemp twine, small eye screws (in the fastener isle at Home Depot), electric drill, pliers

1) Drill holes through the tops of the hearts and the butts of the pinecones using a drill bit that is just slightly smaller than the eyescrews.

2) Screw in eyescrews, using pliers if needed

3) Paint wooden hearts with a watered down wash of white acrylic craft paint and allow to dry. Water the paint down enough that you can still see the natural grain of the wood.

4) Optional: Seal hearts with beeswax & olive oil wood polish

5) Tie eyescrews to hemp twine at regular intervals, alternating hearts with ‘cones.

I didn’t use either of these garlands on my Yuletide tree, but you certainly could. I bet it would be very cute.

Pinecones for natural holiday decor

Pinecones are easily found outdoors in a lot of areas. And if not where you live, they are usually cheap to buy this time of year at a craft store, the dollar store, etc. While wintry, they are natural and simple and don't scream any certain holiday, so they are the sort of thing that might work out in a household with multiple religious traditions or to keep up for a longer stretch of winter. I love the pattern and depth of the (what are the individual leaf thingys called?) and I have been feverishly collecting photos of seasonal decor since being introduced to My New Best Friend, Pinterest, so here are some pinecone favorites:

Source: hegegreenall-scholtz.blogspot.com via Christy on Pinterest

Source: marthastewart.com via pam on Pinterest

Source: johner.com via Cici on Pinterest

Source: twigandthistle.com via Mary on Pinterest