On my online workbook this week: Let it

Dear

This week's inspiration is being blissfully happy that we get to celebrate the winter solstice with a design today but rather (not quite sad... what is the word I am looking for?) I am going to go with also "wistfully happy" because it is Christmas this weekend and Christmas designing is all but wrapped up for this year.

I love a-little-effort-now-that-lasts-you-all-Festive-Season design ideas. It allows you to build up your Christmas display and make a little something when you have energy, a little time or when you are just in the mood to design something extra. The negative, from a design perspective, is the longer a design element lasts the more effort you have to put in when planning to keep it from looking lifeless. And that is exactly my tip for this week.

I make my design so that it is easy to dust around the lantern. The easiest way to do this is to make sure you can replace the snow without breaking the design. Secure the twigs just to the glass vase and not the display container. A small dusting of artificial snow around the vase will keep the twigs from accidentally sticking to the display base. The glue will stick to the snow and not the display surface.

Simply lift out the candle and the twig covered vase to dust away and refresh the snow. If you use a wax candle it is easy to tip out wax spills with the snow and if you use a flameless candle it makes it simple to replace and operate the battery switch without disturbing the design. You can even change the amount of snow (and size of the candle) depending on the weather so that the design is ever changing with little to no effort. And for me that will be the whole bag this week- we are simply covered in snow here in Vancouver!

Enjoy

May all the best things in the world be yours to hold and all the love yours to share.

With kind thoughts and all good wishes for a Merry Berry Kalanchoe Christmas

Christine