Christmas Music and a Day in the Shop!

To day was our first day in the shop with Christmas music, a bit early I hear you mutter, I know, but I have really enjoyed bopping to some very lively Christmas songs while Kizzy and I made wreaths. Well I say I made wreaths, Kizzy said they could only go on the doors at home. She did concede that one was a very nice shape! However I was quite pleased with my first attempt and once I had decorated them I felt they looked quite presentable. Thankfully I don't have to demonstrate how to make them at our workshops!!

The shop is preparing for the Lincoln Christmas market this next week. The girls have created a beautiful window display complete with fireplace. If you get a chance come down and see it, we have had so many compliments which is just lovely. Customers are placing their Christmas orders and choosing the design of their wreaths, I must admit I love this time of year. I know I've said this before  but candles flickering in the twilight and flames in the fireplace just fill me with good feelings and they always make me feel festive. So today I was allowed to set to and create some more  candle gardens, as. I like to call them!

Don't forget if you are in town for the market, pop in and see us the shop is just filled with some lovely bits and bobs!

Have a great weekend!

P.S excuse the photo quality I forgot my camera.

Gift Vouchers,

 Are you stuck for an unusual Christmas present?

Why not give your loved one an Arbour gift voucher. This can be redeemed against, our giftware range, flowers or any of our classes. We can post these out for you or you can collect them in the shop right up until Christmas Eve!

Decorating for Christmas.

 Christmas, I love it with a capital L. As soon as the nights draw in and we start to have fires and light candles my mind begins to turn towards decorating for Christmas. Over the years I have built up quite a collection of decorations. I love quite traditional glass ornaments which sparkle and twinkle when the lights hit them.
Working in The Arbour just makes it all the more exciting because we always buy items that really appeal to us. When the girls are not looking I try and sneak some of the lovely decorations home( I do pay for them!) but they tell their Father, and he insists we have more than enough.
This year we have lovely frosted glass acorns and cones. I love how you can just place a few in a glass dish or hang them off some mantelpiece greenery with some fairy lights weaving in and out and as they twist and spin in the firelight they give off little rainbows.

Having said all that I also love wooden decorations. I find American "olde world" items really cute. I especially love to put them up in the kitchen. I have a large wooden angel that hangs off one of the beams watching over all our festivities.

We tend to have two trees, I would do three or four if I could get away with it! We have the main real fir in our sitting room, which we go and choose from Fillingham Castle. I love how they allow you to go and wander through the trees and choose your own. When we eventually get it back home and my husband  has wrestled it all through the house and finally gets it into position I love to dress it with all my glass ornaments. Years ago I came across some lovely glass nutcrackers, they always hang off the highest branches as the first to be hung, then it's a bit of a free for all. Sometimes my "it's got to look right" tendency has meant I need to go back when the children are in bed and move some of the decorations around, sad I know, but there you go!
 The tree in the dinning room is one I inherited from my parents when they decided they were to old to keep putting up a tree especially as they always came down to us for Christmas, love them to bits but I hope I don't ever feel like this. To be fair they have now moved down next door to us and did have a tree last year. This tree is much more child friendly, lots of wooden decorations and chocolates.

I love to make sure each room has something Christmassy in it. And while I do love to have some fresh flowers( often beautiful cream roses) I am much more drawn to lots of winter greenery. All lit up with fairy lights and usually surrounding a Nativity scene to remind us about the true meaning of Christmas.

Thanksgiving!

Now here in England we do not usually celebrate Thanksgiving. However in our own family one of my daughters had taken on this feast and decided we are going to gather as a family and give thanks for what we have.
Thanksgiving first started in New England in America.  A group of 38 English settlers arrived a Berkeley plantation via the James River. The group made a charter, which required them to commemorate a day of thanksgiving to God for their safe arrival.

In New England the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in Plymouth in 1621 by the pilgrims and 91 Indians. The Indians had given the new settlers much help in adjusting to their new country. After
enduring a very heavy winter, many of the settlers died. The following spring the Indians showed them how to plant crops of corn, maize and pumpkins. After growing a wonderful crop the settlers and Indians celebrated with the old English harvest festival and Thanksgiving was born.

Today, Thanksgiving is a time for gathering together with friends and family and celebrating all that
is good in life. This is time for really going to town and creating a lovely atmosphere in the home. Many doors across America sport a wreath to welcome their guests. Branches can be used from the garden as the wood is still pliable. They can be twisted into circles and wired together and decorated or if you have ivy or a vine they can be cut back and a simple decoration made.

It's fun to use fruits and vegetables as part of your decorations. A garland of chillies hung above the cooker on a mantle shelf look good with lots of greenery interspersed with flowers and fruits. Cranberries can be placed in large glass bowls with floating candles. As cranberries are harvested in
water they don't worry to much and won't decay to quickly. The other quirky thing to do is to carve out an apple and add a Tealight, this looks really effective when you use a line of them down the table or across a window sill.

Whatever your reason at this time of year for decorating your home, take time to stop and look around and give thanks for all that you have.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Winter Planting!

With Christmas beginning to poke its head around the corner, here in the shop we have begun to plant up some lovely hyacinth bulbs. Bulbs lay buried snug beneath the soft green moss surrounded by some lovely bright mushrooms. Hopefully they will begin to poke their noses out of the soft soil and then begin to push forth reminding us all that even in the depth of winter new life is quietly preparing to open us up to those beautiful Spring days. The lovely things about these gifts are they keep giving. Once they have flowered, hyacinths can be planted in the garden to come back year after year.

Dalit Candles

Here at the Arbour we help fund a Charity close to our hearts. When we were looking for some new stockists  we came across this charity selling candles. The Dalit Candle Company was founded over 20 years ago. When, whilst traveling in India, Simon Hawthorne and Paul Morley visited the region of Uttar Pradesh, one of the most deprived states in India. They became captivated by the people of this amazing country. Whilst they were there they experienced first hand the injustice suffered by the people.

Known as the Dalits- or Untouchables the people of this region have been known by this name for over 3000 years. They are positioned at the bottom of India's caste system and have been subject to the most aggressive and dehumanizing abuse. From birth they are born into a culture that devalues them as lower than the animals. The word Dalit literally translates as downtrodden or oppressed and there are 250 million Dalits who are exposed to this injustice.

All three of us were touched by the plight of these poor people and so to help the foundation that was set up to support the Dalit people we stock the lovely clay pot candles that the Dalit people make. Through the sales of the candles the foundation has been able to raise funds to build schools, homes, health care centers and provide food to these most impoverished people.
So this Christmas if you want to give a gift that counts come and see our lovely stock of Dalit candles and provide food and shelter to those who need it most.

Feeding the Birds.

As winter approaches it's important to remember our two legged feather friends.  It is easy to make some simple bird feeders, fun to do with the children and can make great presents to give to the Grandparents or neighbours.

Why not try out some of these ideas; take a coconut and carefully cut it in half, drain out any liquid fill the shell halves with different nuts and seeds. Make a holder by taking three lengths of brown twine, knot them together at one end; place the knot under the shell and guide the three lengths over the shell, knot at the top and hang outside.

For even more stylish ideas why not mix together some oats, nuts, seeds and breadcrumbs, throw in some bacon scraps if you have any  mix all together with some melted lard and use this mixture to push into the open crevices on pine cones or use moulds to make shapes, cookie cutters are a good
idea. Fill old vintage cups, or tins. When the mixture has hardened carefully push a skewer through the top, thread a ribbon through and again hang off a tree or some other suitable place outside

If you are feeling really adventurous you could make a wreath using a Bundt pan or other similar cake tin with a hole in the middle. You will need ; 9 cups of bird seed, 3 Boxes of lard 1/2 cup of peanut butter, handfuls of sultanas, raisins, cranberries or any dried fruit. 

Spray the Bundt pan with cooking spray or wipe with oil. Melt the lard in a large pan add peanut butter and stir to combine allowing the peanut butter to melt, carefully add the seeds and fruit. Pour into the bundt tin. Place in a cold place, e.g the garage or garden shed, allow to cool over night. When hardened invert pan and gently tap to remove wreath. Use ribbon or raffia, thread through the hole and hang off a tree, sit back and watch the birds come and enjoy their feast!

Bonfire night!

When I was younger we loved the night before bonfire night, it was known as mischief night and we used to delight in going around the village and knocking on people's doors and then running and hiding. Changing shop signs tying gates and covering door knobs and car doors in butter or golden syrup. All innocent fun, or so we thought! There was something very exciting about this time of year.

We spent All Hallows' Eve dressed up and carrying our turnip lanterns wandering around the village followed as I said by mischief night and then straight into bonfire night. Where half the village celebrated the fact that Guy Fawkes had try to blow up the houses of Parliament and the other half
delighted in the fact he was caught, hung, drawn and quartered. Around many villages bonfires and
fireworks still commemorate this event.

In making decorations for your home at this time of year it is fun to use flowers that represent
The bright and vibrant colours  found in fireworks and roaring fires. Spikes of seasonal gladioli, bright gerbras, large chrysanthemum heads, sunflowers, eryngium and berries all can be used to make a tall striking arrangement for this event.