My mum (aka Dora the explorer) travels the world and is very interested in textiles, art and design and from time to time brings me back some amazing little gifts. She has recently arrived in Tasmania to spend Christmas with us after travelling around Borneo, the Phillipines, Vietnam and Malaysia. In Vietnam she bought some beautiful braiding which I think is my favourite gift yet. They were bought from a woman in a mountain village in Northern Vietnam. Mum explained how the ladies wore beautifully embroidered bright couloured clothes and would sit at the roadside stitching away passing time. Mum bought me two lengths of just under a metre each. They are actually very old ones which would have been cut off old clothes to sell. Gosh I really treasure things like this. And is it me, or are they abit 'gypsy'?
When she gave them to me I had so many uses in mind; curtain edging, embellishment on a peasant style dress, stick onto the edge of a table which I'm planning to decoupage, but I decided to put them on Maggie's Christmas stocking as I hope this will see out many years. As Christmas decorations often do, only being enjoyed once a year.
I bought the purple velvet a while ago. It was a little a-line skirt I bought in Vinnie's but it was the fabric that caught my eye, such a lush purple velvet. And just enough for a stocking. The braid on the top was from Rajasthan in India (where she went last year) and is made from sequins and little beads sewn on to create the little flowers.
It's all been getting abit jolly in the Gale household. Last weekend we scrumped our Christmas tree which is now standing tall, proud and rather tastefully decorated in our lounge. And when I say tall I mean TALL, it's just a squeeny bit over three metres! I also managed to get hold of some of those lovely tacky consatina style metallic decorations that every home in the 1970's adorned over the festive period. I'm finding them quite nostalgic actually.
I've also been really trying hard to embrace Australian Christmas traditions instead of trying to recreate an English Christmas which just never works here and leaves me feeling so disappointed. So I enjoyed making some kiss biscuits and was very happy indeed with my first ever batch. Sorry I can't share them with you but I'm afraid they've all gone already as we mostly gave them away as little gifts for friends.
It's beginning to look alot like Christmas. Happy preparations peeps xxx
