Thursday, December 19, 2013

Fairy, 49 and counting...



Our wedding  in November was too close to Christmas for comfort… In 1964 we had little money, and although the nearby farm shop had real trees for a few shillings, decorations would need to cost pennies.

I bought three packs of crepe paper, one white, one pink, one turquoise, and I raided the kitchen for a roll of Bacofoil. My bits and bobs box produced a stretchy pink hair band, some scraps of fabric, bias binding and sequins…

By cutting ¼” slices off the still folded crepe paper, I soon had some dainty garlands to loop between the branches, while tiny slivers of Bacofoil twined round a knitting needle made wonderful dangling ‘icicles.’

The hair band became a fairy’s body. Fuse wire framed  wings put the finishing touch to her ‘princess’ dress, whose flounced skirts were edged with two shades of pink binding and scattered with silver sequins..Her black wool hair had a coronet to crown it, and she clasped a tinsel-topped wand in one hand…

Through the years, she had several changes of clothes and wings, and her wand disappeared - as her magic dwindled, I expect! But in nineteen ninety two she got ‘downsized’ to suit the much smaller artificial tree in my new home. Now here she is, in that same incarnation; still ready, willing and able to take her rightful place this Christmas.

7 comments:

  1. That's lovely! What clever fingers you have. And thank you for the card. Happy Christmas to you and yours, Penny.

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  2. What a lovely story or the evolution of your Christmas tree angel! I recall making all our ornaments for the first year we were married and living in a small town in the Netherlands --- where I had little idea where to buy anything like ornaments. I am pretty sure mine were quite sad,,,The next year I made ornaments out of ceramic clay and painted them--they were so heavy they too were not quite the ticket!! Thanks for the memories here.

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  3. What a wonderful story...I love the evolution of your Christmas angel.

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  4. She's absolutely adorable, Jinksy, and holds all of your married Christmases in her hands instead of a wand. Nothing could ever take her place, I'm sure.
    Wishing you a warm and wonderful Christmas season.
    K

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  5. what a delight to read the wonderful memory....Merry Christmas:)

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  6. I came here by Jerry's blog. I love your post about the Christmas fairy. That's one of the nice things about Christmas, the traditions we create.

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