Thinking about Christmas already

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:24 pm

Sasha - I bought mine earlier today and printed it out! I'm at work right now, but I can't wait to get started filling it out this afternoon when I get home.

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Mon Oct 15, 2007 10:05 pm

Me too! It's a sit down with a cup of tea and peruse job I think! I will start with transferring practical info into it - names and addresses for cards, etc, and dates of already known going's-on onto calendar - then do the fun stuff, like think up some lovely puttery treats, plan food etc. I already have a few gifts I can note down too. Hopefully, with it all in one place I will be more organised - as I promise myself every year!

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Tue Oct 16, 2007 4:21 pm

Well, I didn't get to sit down with mine yet. We spent the night moving furniture around and getting started on getting the office set up at the house. Fun stuff. The good part of it is, I'm having a good clear out while I do it! Much needed.

Hopefully tonight I'll be able to clear off my writing desk and at least look through it.

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:48 pm

Good luck with all the setting up and your new job description! I hope you feel you are back in the niche that makes you most happy - lol.

I love when a change gives rise to a good old rummage and sort-out - we often stop 'seeing' things that are right under our nose, every day. I actually get a real buzz from clearing out and throwing things away/recycling - I find it very liberating! I like change too though - I get bored if things stay the same for too long.

It seems to me this could all be perfect timing for you, to be able to create the Christmas you dream of - I do hope so.

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:56 pm

I looked over the box with the Christmas tree in it today while vacuuming. I was curiously tempted to take it out and set it up. Just to look at.

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:02 pm

If only, like Samantha from Bewitched, you could just have a sneaky peak with a twitch of your nose, then another twitch and it's all packed away again!

I am still in a quandry about how to get around the xmas tree/kittens scenario - I really don't see how we can have one at all safely. But I LOVE my tree at Christmas- it almost defines who I am!

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:06 am

Sasha - I keep my Planner sheets in a binder, in plastic pockets. And whenever I find other "vintage housekeep-y" things (in magazines, online...), I put them in plastic pockets and add them in the back. I like how it´s not just put in the binder, period, but the pockets make it feel a bit more like a book, with print on both pages, back and front. My binder was horrible, so I re-covered it, to go better with the vintage thought.

Oh, and my Christmas tree, I can´t wait to put it up! This year, I´ve totally change my home decor, from quite dark and retro, to white and shabby chic, and it´s almost as if I knew that would happen, when I got the tree a few years ago - it´s white and plastic (no, not very traditional), and the decorations are all white and pale pink. Sounds like a kitsch fest, but very pretty! It´s going up around Lucia, on Dec 13th, I can´t wait!

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:18 am

When we had cats, we used to tie the tree to one wall. Wrap some strong twine around the trunk, about midway up and secure it to the wall. Doesn't save your ornaments parachuting to smithereens, but it keeps the tree from going over.

I've got Christmas wallpaper on my laptop and Twitter. I've got the decorations and cards out. I really have to get it in gear. There's things to be posted to family in Canada.

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Wed Nov 14, 2007 12:57 pm

I had thought about the tying the tree to something thing..... but placement is hard, what with having to have something to tie to. Hmmm.

My husband suggests putting it up in stages so they bore of it before it's fully 'done' ie: just tree first, then a few days later the lights, then some decs etc - to see how they react, so we might try that. Oh the suspense though! Plus I do have a lot of gorgeously vintage glass baubles....

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Wed Nov 14, 2007 2:54 pm

DG do you have a mantelpiece the cats don't go on? We decorate ours with fresh holly and ivy and our loveliest baubles just scattered amongst the greenery - then if your cats go for the tree then at least your irreplaceables don't get broken!

We've got enough baubles to sink the Titanic... all the way back to my parents' marriage in the early 1960s, all of us gathering more when we travel abroad, or making them as presents... we run out of tree some years and end up putting them on large potted plants! And we always have them hanging on threads on lamps (hook on top edge of lampshade, thread runs invisibly down inside and little decoration twizzles in mid-air below the lampshade!)

laura

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Wed Nov 14, 2007 3:30 pm

Is anyone else finding some of the Seasonal advertising getting on their nerves already?

Argos - crowds of people running about like panicked lemmings, people passed out on the sidewalks. We'll overlook the fact that this store can't deliver a promise it's capable of keeping, let alone your Christmas shopping on time. Tacky and tasteless.

M&S - I'm sure its just because I left size 8 behind a decade ago, but if the women in these ads get any thinner, they'll disappear when they turn sideways. The ad itself is elegant, but whats wrong with using models who don't look like they need a good meal?

Tesco - surely the multi-million pound budget given over to hiring the Spice Girls to pretend to be able to act, would have been better spent ensuring British farmers get a fairer deal. But I suppose when your the largest grocery retailer in the U.K., you don't need to lose any sleep over what a few malcontents think.

I think the solution lies in just turning the tv off. I need to work on the garland for the mantel anyway!

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:34 pm

I no longer have a mantlepiece Laura (boo hoo) but what a beautiful idea! I DO have the top of a vintage piano, so might try this idea out there! Although, they have even managed to get up there judging by the tinkling ivories I can hear when I am upstairs and alone in the house...

I agree about the ads. And has anyone else noticed a distinct lack of Christmas 'oomph' in the shops? Like they still haven't had all their good stuff in yet? Is this year the 'anti-christmas' year and no-one told me?

I can't find an 'opulant' looking cream and gold Xmas stocking ANYWHERE - I'm sure shops have been brimming with them past years - to go on my gorgeous new bed posts (I've never had proper metal bed posts before to hang a stocking on, EVER!). In fact, the shops have barely ANY stockings of any style or description at all - what''s going on?

I know, I know "make your own" I hear you Brocante ladies cry.... I might have to use my dubious sewing skills after all. Anyone seen one on their travels though, who could point me in the right direction??

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:38 pm

Ooh forgot to say, and feel I must mention.... I washed through my new white damask napkins today and used Christmas scented fabric conditioner (M&S) to rinse them through. I will put them away in all their spicy loveliness ready for them to smell oh so sweet on christmas day when we all lift them to our stuffed faces to wipe the gravy from our chins!

Think I will also wash our Xmas PJ's and fluffy dressing gowns in it ready for Xmas day morning. How scrummy (I get inordinate pleasure from the silliest things..)

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Thu Nov 15, 2007 11:22 pm

I simply don't understand why the U.S. can't seem to get the lovely scented cleaning/laundry products you Brits have. Things like violet, roses and Christmas scents!! Why are we so boring? I'm ready to move across the pond, just for the scented fairy liquids and such, if anyone has an extra room.

Subject: Re: Thinking about Christmas already Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:11 am

karlanee, maybe we can send you an Emergency Parcel?!

After all, we'd never have got through the war without all the American parcels of food and household stuff including soap, so it seems appropriate to send you the odd Ration Pack of washing-up liquid, fabric conditioner, floor-cleaner....

;-)

laura