Friday 13 November 2009

Steps towards a thrifty Christmas


Friends and family should close their eyes now, as I don't want to ruin the festive surprise that awaits.

Inspired by fellow blogger, VioletPosy's Thrifty Christmas week, I took a break from blogging and tweeting on Monday to venture out into the garden to prune one of the Photinia shrubs - also known as a Red Robin. An appropriate name I thought for my festive plan, which was to strip the leaves and bind them together to make a twig star Christmas decoration.



It was a bit fiddly but with practice will become much easier. The best bit is, as I've only used scraps of fabric to tie the twigs together, this is a really thrifty idea indeed and can be made for pennies. And of course, it is a Zero Waste pressie as the leaves are already being composted.

So now you know how I'll be spending my evenings from now on.

For more inspirational ideas, pop over to www.violetposy.co.uk, where you'll find lots of gorgeous ideas, both thrifty and otherwise.

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10 comments:

Local Girl said...

Thanks for the lovely ideas and Happy Thrifty Christmas to you! x

mrs green said...

that's really lovely Mrs A. I'm making decorations this year as well. Keep up the great work; it's so rewarding isn't it?

Susie - secondhandsusie.blogspot.com said...

Oh! thats lovely! I'm going to try that!

p.s. I've been following your blog for a while but don't think I've commented before (it was in the ooo that looks interesting I'll read that later 'pile'!), so hello! Great blog :)

John at Cell Phone Recycling said...

Christmas is my favorite month of the year, but I have to say that you don't have to spend a lot just for decorating. You can always reuse your old decors. The tip is, after the holiday, store those decor properly. As early as now, I have started decorating our home and I must say that, I didn't buy even a single decor.

Layla said...

It looks interesting and I bookmarked that blog! :)

That said, we mostly store and reuse our Christmas decorations too, some have been passed on by Grandma (when she decided 'less Christmas' would be better for her - she now only has a small decoration and no proper tree)

If you compost the star make sure the fabric is compostable too (100% cotton or something like that) otherwise 'unwrap' the fabric strips and save for next year or future snazzy decorations?

I do love the look of autumn leaves and actually saving some of those as decoration sounds pretty fab! (Do tell if they keep color or go all brown by Christmas?)

dandaworld said...

Oh, simply cute!

Did you know that last weekend among the greatest things I did, I made a Christmas decoration too?
With burned lamp bulbs and unused nail polish! It's less 'eco' than yours, but I've saved these things from the bin at least!
I'll show you soon...

But before this, I had to tell something more thrilling on my blog...

Thanks a lot for sharing the idea! And write soon!
Love

Danda

Almost Mrs Average said...

Hi Liz - thank you for the inspiration. I thought I'd make more, but it was such a busy week last week, the star was the only thing I managed LOL :-)

Hi Mrs G - It really is very satisfying isn't it...I just really need to find more time to do more. Less time online methinks...however, I've hardly had the opportunity to do that recently :-) x

Hi Sooz - great to see you and thank you. It's lovely to hear from people who have been following the blog, so thank you sooooo much for popping up to say hello. Good luck with the stars. I'm hoping to make more :-)

Hi John - Great tip, thank you. About five years we bought a specific box to store all our baubles and it's worked a treat. Keeps everything safe. Last year was the first time we didn't buy any new ones. All new decorations are now homemade ones. Can't wait for this year. :-)

Hi Layla - Don't you just love hand-me-down decorations! My favourites are the ones from my grandmother's old tree that I remember from when I was little. Purely magical. Great tip about the composting. And not to worry, the fabric is cotton, so no problems there. However, I hope people will hold onto these for a while...that's if they don't fall apart LOL! :-)

Hi Danda - sounds like you've been having fun too. Am about to pop over and catch up with you properly and find out your news...how exciting :-)

Lisa Nelsen-Woods said...

That's a great idea. Santa always leaves an ornament in my niece and nephew's stocking. I'm thinking he may leave them one of those low waste stars this year!

Almost Mrs Average said...

Hi Condo Bues - I think that sounds like a jolly good idea. I hope they like it :-D

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