Friday, December 22, 2006

More about my little Tatting Tree

Thank you so much for all the nice things said about my little tree.

Would you believe that I was just watching Gardener's World on the BBC tonight, and they were talking about the history of the Christmas tree, real and artificial.

What did I see but my tree! It was one of the early artificial trees, made in the 1930's from dyed Goose feathers. I always thought they were Chicken feathers. So now I know.

Confirmation of it's age makes me feel even worse as it loses more of it's feathers and becomes even more 'tatty'!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Christmas Wishes

November and December have gone by so quickly, filled up with Christmas preparations.
One of the things I like to do is to make my own Christmas cards (I love rubber stamping! This one has layered Christmas trees in silver and gold). It's my way of saying to each person on our Christmas list, that maybe we are only in contact with just once a year that they are special to us.
This year I manage to make 65 before energy and enthusiasm really did run out.


I would have liked to have made a card for each and every friend but that's just not possible. So here is my Christmas Card to all of you to wish you a Happy and Peaceful Christmas.

Every year on Christmas day morning we head to the sea to watch the sponsored Christmas swim. It is always a delight to watch all those hardy people plunge into the icy cold sea and be thankful that we dont have to!!
My idea of a Christmas plunge is a few lengths of the swimming pool followed by an extended soak in a hot jacuzzi!
Last year was such a lovely bright day, the year before it snowed on Christmas day the first time that I can remember...this year the forecast is for very chilly fog, hope they are wrong. After all the rain and gales we have had, dry and calm would be good.

A teeny little tatted snowflake snuck into the Christmas card but here is my Totally Tatting Heirloom tree, it gets better each year.


All the tatting will hopefully end up as heirlooms and the tree already is, all the way up to the glass spire on the top.
This tree has been around for as long as I can remember, it may go back as far as the 1930's when my parents got married. It is certainly pre-christmas tree lights 'cos can remember it having little metal candle holders at the tip of each branch with pretty spiral red candles. Not sure if they were ever lit in my time or when they were removed to make way for electric lighting.
When it came to me it was in a pretty bad way, and had to be carefully reformed. The foliage is made of dyed feathers now rather brittle and getting thinner each year. Each little shard of broken feather falling off it at the end of the holiday season reduces it's time left to shine...
Click on it to see the tatting, maybe you will see something you designed, treasured by me. To all tatting designers, I owe you a big thank you.