As a nation the Polish are great when it comes to home-cooked food, and no better time of the year to prove it than Christmas. The Dutch, in turn, are great when it comes to all sorts of decorations and interior design. So this year we took the best of these two cultures and brought it together to create a “fusion” Christmas table – and we loved the result. See the pictures below for a mouth-watering impression of a Polish Christmas Table with a touch of Dutch ;-)
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In Poland one of the main problems with the Christmas table decorations is that more often than not you have no space left for them since the tradition tells you to put at least 12 different dishes there (as there were 12 apostles). So it’s really not easy to fit in anything extra in between the table setting and all those plates overflowing with food. So this year I came up with the idea of using the lamp which hangs above the table in my parents’ dining room – and thus make the table look more festive without taking up any additional space. I got the idea when I saw a similar kind of decoration in one of the big gardening and lifestyle centres in The Hague. It consisted of a big, round medieval looking lamp-like structure from which a variety of Christmas baubles was hanging on different lengths of ribbons – and it looked amazing. This was the effect I tried to re-create at home with red and gold decorations “flowing down in a cascade” from our dining room lamp towards the table. I must tell you I almost gave up 3 times during the process – the beginnings looked miserable. And you won’t believe how many baubles can be fitted on one lamp!!! I kept hanging them and kept hanging and kept hanging and the whole arrangement still looked bare and miserable. It was only when app. 75% of all the decorations were hanging that the entire set-up started to look attractive, and it took over 2 hours to finish it – but the final effect did not disappoint (thank God…). When I turned on the lamp and lighted the candles on the table beneath so that the light reflections started to “dance” on the glass baubles, I could really feel the Christmas atmosphere filling the house. So if you’re facing a similar problem and have an interestingly shaped lamp above your dining table, why not use it? Just remember – do not give up halfway! Take a look at the photos below for an inspiration injection. I must have been a good girl last year – or at last the Santa must have been under an impression that I was, and that’s what counts, isn’t it – because I found a great, new, shiny toy under the Christmas tree – a new zoom/telelens for my camera. And suddenly a whole new world of close-up photography opened up to me, which I’m sure you’ll notice on my blog pretty soon. First time you get a lens like that – a 70-300mm one – some practice is definitely required in order to learn to handle it – otherwise your photos will turn up out of focus, such a lens is heavy. So I took my camera and spend two hours in my grandmother’s garden (with sub-zero temperatures again…) hunting her cats and overextending my wrist – and here are the result ;-) True to the Christmas creativeness I tried to inspire in everyone this past December I also spent the days leading up to the 24th working around the house in a state of decorative frenzy. Now we can take a look at the results, which I hope will give you some ideas for all the Creative Christmass yet in fron of you – and let there be at least a 100 of them for everyone! Let’s start with my favourite one – the Christmas wreath which I made for our front doors – and a beautifull Christmas decoration which took maybe 15-20 minutes only to prepare (it actually took longer to convince my father to actually hang it on te doors…). It turned out that even though wreaths are not a traditional Polish Christmas decoration, nowadays you can buy the ready-made wreaths from Christmas tree boughs in florist shops, and decorate them at home in whatever way you want. I chose a few small glass baubles, shiny small presents and some stars and attached them with pieces of wire around the wreath, leaving the space on top for the big, red bow – a real attention catcher. And that’s it! Below are a few photos showing the result – I hope you like it :-) I’m back from my Christmas holidays in Poland – which were great and exhausting at the same time (that’s what you get if you visit your home country only 2-3 times per year, then everyone from your family and friends absolutely has to spend some time with you and since of course they live in different places you end up spending at least 2-3 hours per day on the road and rarely sleeping 2 nights in a row in the same bed). Anyway, to all of my readers I want to wish an incredible year, full of excitement, adventure and happiness, and of course with loads of creativity to make your life an amazing one :-) |
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August 2012
AuthorA fiery red head, a writer and a photographer in love with beautiful design and all things creative |