In honor of the Professor's roots, I create a Swedish Christmas display every December. Recently, I have been building it on top of a fairly high glass door cabinet in our dining room. This year, we had to turn the cabinet around, with the glass against the wall, to keep little hands from banging on (and breaking) the glass.
I start with a base of greens: usually a pine garland swirled around the top of the cabinet. Then I add a holly garland, twisting it in and out of the pine. Next I poke in a few picks with berries or apples, and a few small red ornaments. What I'm aiming for is bits of bright red to add color contrast.
Then I add my painted Swedish wood pieces which I have been collecting for 30 years. The most important piece is the red Dala horse. Some of my small pieces are a Santa Lucia girl, a lady in traditional Swedish costume, and little tomten.
In the back I stand my large Advent candelabra as well as my set of his and her costumed candelabras.
The two stacked wood apples are part of a set of five nesting apples. They are not Swedish - they are Chinese! But they fit perfectly in color and style with the Swedish things. I got them many years ago in San Francisco's China Town, before I was even old enough to go to school.
Oh, I almost forgot: underneath it all is a Swedish runner with a tomten design.
I'm linking to
Rhoda's vignette party. Go join the fun!
It wasn't much, but it made a big difference in this kitchen cupboard: I added an adjustable wire shelf above the plates to store all the brightly-colored toddler dishes. To fit it in, I had to first move the second shelf up a notch. That was the most difficult part of the project. It really was a challenge to pop all six locking shelf brackets out of their holes, all at the same time, without one or more relocking themselves. But I conquered it.
