The Fish Makes an Entrance … and an Exit.

Another archive photo from one of my past walking tours… I was glad I had my little point-and-shoot camera in my pocket the day I walked past this door. Someone clearly let loose their creative streak, has a sense of humour and loves colour…

With a grin on my face I took a photo and it made me smile every time I passed by from then on. Then about a year later I saw  a “for Sale”sign in the window… and later, the windows were covered up with newspapers as the new owners renovated completely inside.

Then after a few months I walked past the house again and the fish door was completely gone… and in it’s place the dullest and most featureless battleship- gray coloured door instead. Talk about going from one extreme to the other. Ok, if I am honest I don’t think I’d want the fish on my own front door either, but I did very much admire it on someone else’s!  I do hope this this (not so little) fishy found it’s way back into the ocean of art and found a new home somewhere where it can continue to make people smile.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A Deco-rative Beauty by the Conradkade…

The Laan van Meedervoort is the longest street in the Hague and the buildings on it reflect how and when the city grew outwards. There are many beautiful buildings, especially closer to the centre of town and today’s post is about one of them just a few buildings away from the Conradkade. I took these photos a while ago and at that time the building was for sale, since then it’s not only been bought, but also renovated so the outside it looking great. Annoyingly I haven’t been able to take a recent photo of it yet. Here’s a photographic tour of the outside of the building that can been seen from the street…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Growing Up a Tiny, Infinitesimal Fraction…. Right Before My Eyes.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Kiwi daughter recently attended the funeral of a the mother of a little friend her age that she’s known for some 4-5 years … it’s an especially sad situation because  the mother was a solo parent who loved her daughter to bits, the father never gave her the time of day or even acknowledged her existence so some remarked that the poor kid lost the wrong parent.

The mother had a brain tumour and Kiwi daughter took time off school to support her little friend on what was a very difficult day.

The last time Kiwi Daughter was at a funeral she was very young and now she doesn’t remember the experience. With Oma  at 90 years of age sooner or later she will have to attend a funeral  so this was a chance to give her the opportunity of getting to know what to expect at a funeral without it being too close to home.

After the service we talked about how funeral had gone and how she was handling it .  She remarked: it’s so nice that the casket was very pretty … the wood looked pretty. I told her that most people had a wooden casket and she was genuinely surprised…. I said “Did you expect it to be made of stone? ” and to my surprise, with a totally straight face she said “Yes!”

It appears that she’s confusing caskets with grave stones and burial plots and thought you got carried to the grave with the stone surround, headstone and the works…  Tying not to make fun of her I told her that if it was like this this then it would all be so heavy you couldn’t lift it off the ground and it wouldn’t be  very nice to have to be bought into your burial service and final resting place on  a forklift truck.

Kiwi Daughter burst out laughing at the thought of the pallbearers trying in vain to hoist up a marble casket to their shoulders and it gave some welcome relief to the end of a very sad day. Seeing the moment that the “penny drops” is like stepping out of the tunnel into the light and seeing a whole new view that you didn’t expect.

On rare occasions with you child you actually see this moment happen….

It reminds me that often things that might seem basic and logical information to an adult, are actually a slow progress of  join-the-dots for kids, as they piece together the information that equips them for dealing with life. On this day Kiwi Daughter grew up a tiny, infinitesimal fraction….  right before my eyes.

The Art and Chemistry of Life… The Sandwich Generation…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Life in the Kiwidutch household in recent months has been more than hectic.

Himself,  as a self employed free-lancer has been inundated with work at the same time as I have recovered from a chest infection, started several simultaneous courses at work that require study at home, am cleaning out and packing for a work office shift (just down the hall but still an upheaval), keeping up to date with my regular work whilst also starting actual case work in the areas I’m training in.

After an uphill struggle and with the assistance of the union, I am now working two days from home, except for when there are meetings at work and some days my diary has been packed with meetings.

Most of my department are in the same boat concerning the course work and suffering from information overload… in the short term it’s exhausting but I also know that times change and our work and methods of work need to also change and keep up. Maybe later in the year when the initial shock of the sheer volume of change has worn off and I am more confident in my brand new work, it will be easier, but for now I’m more than a little brain dead after the working day.

Physiotherapy is going well, bones are still not fully back in place in my foot but the muscles holding them are getting measurably stronger so progress is slow and steady. When the surgeon warned this would take years, he wasn’t joking.

If I can accomplish several exercises successfully several times in a row in the next weeks,  I will be able to graduate from a single crutch to a walking stick… a milestone I’ve had in my sights for a while now.

Little Mr and Kiwi Daughter have busy lives full of play-dates, school work, sports and other activities and then there are the Birthday party invitations, sleepover requests and activities at home like baking,  arts and crafts.

Extended family commitments are there too, my Mother in Law is now 90 years of age, and requiring more and more assistance: this generally falls into Himself’s lap since I am unable to drive and do MiL’s shopping etc.

We have friends and family with children and never pay for babysitters: rather we operate a network of give and take, little cousins at ours whilst their parents attend important function, our kids to friends whilst Himself and I enjoy a rare dinner out at the home of a boss of an Agency who supplies Himself with work, and then we had their baby at ours when they needed to attend a funeral.  We wouldn’t manage to attend any adult social event without this network.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

It’s an excellent way to interact and help one another and we love it, all of it, but sometimes when we look at our week and weekend schedule there is barely a space to draw breath. I know this is a common problem of modern life, especially in families like ours who are the “sandwich generation” looking after parents as well as kids.

Often we get things in the house done in fits and starts as we go through phases that range from being super organised like a military organisation to semi-controlled chaos where we barely keep up. The super efficiency usually happens as a knee-jerk reaction when the chaos threatens to become catastrophic and sadly never lasts because we always have way too many balls in the air and are lousy jugglers.

If we let something slide then it waits until it gets urgent before we are spurred into action and other stuff gets elbowed further down the list to accommodate it and so the cycle continues. It’s the reality of modern family living I think  and many parents can relate.

What stuns me most of all is that I am not one of these so called “tiger mama’s” who’s kids have activities very day of the week: we believe in our kids being kids, having time for fresh air and exercise, our kids get to play and unwind before dinner (we take turns to cook, do laundry, sort school stuff for the next day, or supervise/play with them whilst they are at home or in the park etc) and there are still not enough hours in the day. Forget TV, we barely watch it, no time. I have no idea how these “tiger” parents and their kids actually fit all their extra stuff in…

Is life really so much busier than a generation or so ago? Certainly I don’t remember ever having the sort of schedule my kids currently have… I was much freer to roam and play on my own (or at least it seems that way looking back) and any activities I had (when I was older) were generally within walking distance. Don’t get me wrong .. I’m not complaining… we are grateful for having  kids, grandparents and jobs,  life would be infinitely less full without them. We want them all, but having them all is also a huge undertaking and responsibility.

I just wonder if  life in general has become overly busy? Have our workplaces become more complicated too?  I’m not entirely certain if technology like computers, emails and the like have actually made my work easier or busier or both. Is this just us?  Just my specific culture? or do those of you with school aged kids experience this too?

If anyone has recommendations on how to stretch the day past 24 hours I’d appreciate tips… every now and again it would mean I could actually tick “complete” to  almost everything off the days list.

Breaking News: Handing Over the Reigns of a Reign…

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

I’m jumping out of my Harderwijk Dolphinarium posts to bring you some breaking News:

Last evening we switched on the Dutch News at 6.00 p.m. to find that there was only one item of news on the News that evening: The Dutch Queen, Queen Beatrix was scheduled to address the nation on all TV and Radio channels simultaneously at 7.00 p.m.

The Press, Royal watchers and everyone who might be in the know all speculated for the next hour on what the big announcement would be, but only one topic was likely: the news that she would be announcing her abdication.

Unlike English Kings and Queens who as one Dutch commentator rather literally put it:  ”die in harness”,  the last three Dutch Monarchs have chosen to hand over the reigns of the job of Head of State whilst their oldest child was still young and strong enough to take over the strenuous duties of constant travel and public engagements. The Dutch Monarch still plays a strong role in Government and affairs of State, so much so that Queen Beatrix has a working place and offices close to the Dutch Parliament.

Some speculated that since not even privileged Royal correspondents who are often privy to inside information had been forewarned of the announcement or it’s contents that possibly there might be a different reason for the broadcast (with reference to the fact that Beatrix’s second oldest son Prince Johan Friso has been laying in a coma in a London hospital since the beginning of 2012 after  being transferred there after being buried  by an avalanche in Austria whilst on a skiing holiday.)

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

It was correctly assumed that even if there was bad news concerning Prince Friso, that it would not warrant the Queen making the announcement over all TV and radio channels simultaneously.

Indeed the news did turn out to be notification of abdication: Beatrix  will  be 75 years of age in a few days and is choosing to hand the throne over to her oldest son: Prince Willem-Alexander.

Beatrix herself gained the throne when her own mother, Juliana abdicated in 1980 at 70 years of age, taking her lead from Wilhelmina before her who abdicated in 1948 at 68 years of age.

Some Royal watchers already wondered if it might have been expected to  happen a decade earlier when Beatrix’s husband Price Claus passed away in 2002, or when her mother and father passed away in 2003 and 2004 respectively but Willem-Alexander only married in 2002 and I assume she wanted him to have some quality time,  less in the public eye with his new wife and subsequent new family of daughters.

Dutch Monarchs are not “crowned”, but instead inaugurated, and since much of Royal life takes place in and around The Hague where the Queen lives and works and were she opens Parliament each year or Delft where Royal monarchs are buried, it’s traditional that this inauguration takes place instead in Amsterdam and so spreads a royal event a little further around the Netherlands.

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

The reason for an inauguration and not a crowning is that the Dutch monarch is the Head of State but not head of the Church (as is the case with the Queen of England) and Crowning a Head of State is apparently linked only to those who are also head of the Church in their nations.

The date chosen for the inauguration will be 30th April, already the national holiday in the Netherlands called “Koninginnedag” (Queen’s Day) and since this is traditionally the day when anyone in the Netherlands may hold a flee-market without the need for the usual licence, it become the traditional day of street markets up and down the country where especially children can sell their old toys for a little extra pocket money.

Himself and I are not generally supporters of Monarchy (and to spite me for this I get two of them: Queen Elizabeth as Head of State of New Zealand on my Kiwi passport and Beatrix on my Dutch one) as I find it hard to reconcile the fact that someone who is not democratically elected gets to live a life of privilege on taxpayer expense and worse, that if Lizzy or her offspring chooses to take a jaunt to New Zealand the New Zealand tax payer is expected to pick up the very hefty bill for these travels …for one of the richest women on earth.

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

At least the British can say that their Queen earns her keep a little by bringing in a few tourists to the UK, meantime she brings the grand total of zero tourists into New Zealand and thanks to the tight knit regulations of the Club called the European Union, no trade benefits either.

It’s not to say I wish them ill, but if I were ever given the chance to vote for a Republic, I would be one of the first at the voting booth to cast my vote. Naturally I might change my tune if Lizzy would be so kind as to return the favour and pick up my bills for a trip to to United Kingdom, hey I’m even cheap because I don’t require half the countries police force to provide security during my visit.

Whilst Himself and I wanted to watch the Queen’s address because it was a historic moment for us as Dutch citizens, Himself’s own republican leanings couldn’t help themselves when it came to light that the inauguration would be on 30th April. He ruefully lamented that technically it’s brilliant timing because Koninginnedag is probably the most nationalistic day in the Dutch calendar, but it will be an especially lousy sales day for about a million Dutch kids as all the adults stay indoors glued to their television sets to watch the Netherlands loose a Queen and gain a King.

The least they could do is to have the ceremony later in the afternoon so that everyone could happily do both but I’m not holding my breath for that one.

Of course we know what will be Page One News throughout the Netherlands tomorrow and in the next months as preparations for the abdication and inauguration take shape… but agree with having a monarchy or not, History is in the making.

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

Beatrix’s mother: Queen Juliana (who was in ill health when she abdicated)

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

Beatrix’s grandmother: Wilhelmina

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

(photograph © Kiwidutch via NOS TV News)

Sometimes the Writing is on the Wall (or Post-it Note)….

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Back in the mid 1990′s when I got my work contract converted to a permanent contract,  Himself  decided to take the plunge and set up his own business as a freelance translator.

It’s a tough line business with lots of competition but since at the time we didn’t have children and our household now had one guaranteed income we decided it was a good time to see Himself’s new business could sink or swim.

Full of enthusiasm Himself went to several specialist office supply shops  and came home with an impressive looking box full of equipment he thought he might need. Paper-clips, stapler, staples, tape, post-it notes, pens, mailing envelopes, floppy disks (yep… remember them?) , rolls of paper for the calculator with the print-out function,  seals for sworn translations, official stamps, letterhead paper, business cards and various other bits and bobs.

Fast forward to 2012.

I arrive home from work and find that Himself and the kids have been spending a wet half-term school holiday day pottering around in the house.  I quickly spy a startling sight in our living room that I can’t say I’m too thrilled about… the  TV cupboard we keep the TV on and antique desk  are covered wall-paper style with little post-it notes which are in turn decorated with little drawings and scribbles.

They are everywhere… it looks like the post-its went feral and went on a breeding spree … and despite some of the sweet little drawings (on just a few of them), most have only scribbled lines and  they look awful.

Himself is in the kitchen… I go and ask him what’s going on and that while I love our kids artwork, I am really not happy with it on dressers and cupboards that are almost 100 years old. Himself nonchalantly replies that Little Mr, has been happily busy for at least the last hour now and I should relax and enjoy his handiwork.

So I then inform Himself that Little Mr has also pretty much wallpapered with post-its all the cupboard and door woodwork in the house that Himself has spent must of  last year sanding and painting… and lo and behold ‘“relaxed” would not be the word I would use as Himself bolted out of the kitchen with a horrified  look on his face.

It turns out that one of the tasks Himself undertook on this day was to clean out the drawers in his office desk.  Unearthed from the very back of one of the drawers was a bundle of now very old post-it notes from that 1990′s shopping spree… the entire bundle of them still intact in their plastic wrapper in fact.

Himself, realising that if he hadn’t used any of them in more than 15 years that he probably never would, so he put them in a pile of stuff to be donated to the Kringloopwinkel  (second hand shop) and it’s from this pile that Little Mr. seized them to use in his “artistic” endeavours.

Later, after dinner and a large post-it removal exercise from various rooms upstairs, I came into our bedroom and my heart sank when I saw yet another post-it on one of our cupboard doors. I looked around… Fortunately, this time there was just the one.   (Little Mr. said he was “writing letters”  on some of them but after a while he got tired of writing real words so the scribbled ones were just “pretend words”). I get closer and see that instead of scribble, this one has real words on it… I pick it up, read it and my heart melts…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Kids… don’t you  just love ‘em?

Fluttering These Eyelashes Gets LOTS of Attention…

Sometimes you really wonder what goes through the brains of some human beings. Somewhere, someone had an idea that putting eyelashes on car headlights was a brilliant idea… and somewhere, someone else actually made some! How brilliantly bizarre is that ?!

Surely no-one can help but smile when they see this car… it’s a totally charmer! … Now don’t you go fluttering your eyelashes at me, you little rascal of a motor!!!… I’m already smitten with you!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Stocking Stitch Suspenders Might be Just Up My Street!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Fellow blogger Alison made a post a short while ago about “Wildbreien” in the Dutch city of Utrecht where she lives.

http://oranjeflamingo.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/guerilla-knitting-by-the-centraal-museum/

“Wildbreien” literally means “wild knitting” in Dutch but translates to the English as the term “guerilla knitting” which in turn means randomly placed pieces of knitting in (often)  outside public spaces, often strategically placed to liven up otherwise mundane or inanimate objects like street lamp posts, railings, trees or drains.

My physiotherapist  is a fellow fan of “quirky”… In fact she probably deserves a medal or a solid gold cup for being quirky:  I kid you not, this lady got married in a banana skin costume in the Caribbean!

Like me, she delights in weird, wonderful and funny discoveries and so she promptly began one of our sessions by inflicting pain and making me laugh at the same time and asking me if I knew of a well known local lady who’s arty, crafty and knits up a storm that results in random examples of  Wildbreien  appearing in the neighbourhood around her practice.

I didn’t know of this lady but I was interested enough to see if  I could find one of her guerilla knitting  efforts.

I found this example soon enough because I got rough directions to its location and because it’s not too far away from my physiotherapists practice, so detoured off my usual path home to grab some photographs.

The kids have seen it since I took these photos and comments as to “what” it’s supposed to represent range from “cactus to plant or flowers” … although I have to confess that for me part if it does look like it swallowed Kermit and an arm sticking out is all that’s left of him.

Either way, for those who notice it’s a nice way to be amused, to smile at the unconventional attire that this lamp-post now sports  … it’s getting rapidly colder, doesn’t every lamp-post need a winter jacket?. My knitting is severely basic but I did pick up some needles at the street market some years ago…    …alas they are filed away somewhere with good intentions of learning to use them properly, I’d have to turn the house upside down a bit to find them, but if I did then surely there will be a refresher ”instructions for knitting” on You Tube some where and who knows?

…for a woolly jumper I may not have the skills  yet, but a stocking-stitch lamp-post suspender may well be just up my street!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Living la Buena Vida… an Establishment Full of the “Good Life”…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Last year I saw an article in one of the ex-pat newspapers that caught my eye.

A new gift shop opened in 2010 in the Fahrenheitstraat in The Hague (just a little more than a block away from our  favourite cheese shop)

Called ” Living la buena vida” (Living the good life), it’s a very international gift shop, with the additional bonus that you can also get a very good cup of tea or coffee on the premises if you fancy.

I only read of their existence  some months after they opened and “meant” to get there for  several weeks, but  ”Life”  got in the way  in the form of a zillion other things needing doing … urgently,  and then my infamous  ”encounter with a staircase”  happened and put paid to going out in most forms, for many many months.

Recently though, Himself had driven me to  hospital appointment and then I had a physiotherapy appointment a short time later. The problem was that we had about 40 minutes to kill, too little time for me to favourably consider getting back up and down our double staircases on crutches, and too long a time to sit waiting in a waiting room.

Himself needed to pick up few things and by co-insidence we found ourselves parking almost directly outside  ”Living la Buena Vida”,  so why not make use of the opportunity to sit with a cup of tea or coffee whilst we waited?

We went inside and I mentioned to the owner Ginny Mees that I had seen the article written about them and that I was a blogger who would be happy to write about their new establishment.

They had a limited food menu (there’s a greater range  on Thursday’s, Friday’s and Saturdays when  muffins and other delectables are delivered to the shop by some apparently wonderful bakers) but we were there earlier in the week, and missed out of these delicious treats.

We hadn’t had lunch and so I ordered a camomile tea with a pain au chocolate and Himself a coffee with two croissants, and I managed a few photos before my camera battery died.  At home I basically drink only rooibos, mint or camomile teas and nothing  else so I  think  I might know a good brew from an inferior one.

The specialist selection of  teas here were not run-of-the-mill supermarket brands and clearly more expensive  so I was prepared to judge it strictly to see if  these were  ”quality” or  ”hype”.  I needn’t have worried, my camomile was definiately a high quality tea and my taste buds were very happy indeed.

I’m vowing that as soon as I am properly mobile again that I will be going back so that I can take more photos of the wonderful interior of the shop and the fabulous glassware etc on offer.  I love the fact  that many of the objects have been sourced from small artisan producers, are made from recycled or green materials and are quality, practical objects.

One day I will do a  ”proper”  interview session with Ginny and find out more background information on her, the shop and the items she sells in it.

In the meantime if you are a Den Haag (The Hague) Local Soul,  I can recommend a visit in person and/or a look at their website: http://www.livinglabuenavida.com/lang/en/about/

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Felt Christmas Ornament, the Kiwidutch Version…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

It’s the beginning of December and for many western countries the shops have the  Christmas decorations out,  the background Carol music on and are cranking up their offerings of merchandise  to reap  the commercial benefits of the Christmas festive season.

I love the Christmas festivities too, but prefer to try and keep things  low key and true to the origonal spirit of  Christmas as much as possible by emphasising the value of gifts that are handmade with love, time and patience.

Tasks 11 and 12 on my “101 Tasks in 1001 Days”  project  http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/about/101-things-in-1001-days/   are to make a handmade Christmas tree decoration for each of my two children, each year.

Many of my decorations in the past have been cross-stitched: http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/stitching-ornament-heirlooms-for-kids/ but I’ve been branching out into felt ornaments in the last year and fancied making something a bit different  than cross-stitch  ones for a change.

Then I stumbled on a craft post on the internet that got me thinking… Jessica Okui  at  http://zakkalife.blogspot.com/2009/11/craft-project-felt-christmas-ornament.html  made a beautiful Christmas decoration from felt, ones that echoes a design of  paper or card decoration designs I have seen around  for years.

I liked the idea of working it in felt, but there were a few points about Jessica’s version that I still felt I wanted to tweek for my version.

First I knew I wanted all the edges of my ornament  to be stitched. Secondly, I knew I  wanted to stitch the two pieces of felt next to each other that radiate directly from the top and bottom of the ornament instead of leaving them oen as they are in Jessica’s version.

Lastly, I wanted not just to stitch the  sections together with thread but also to add beads. Shiny, sparkly beads, to twinkle in the light of tree lights.

So… here is a Step-by-Step tutorial of  the Kiwidutch Modified Version of a Felt Christmas Ornament.

Materials:
- 6 circles cut from felt  (mine each measure 6-7 cm / 2 inches across).
- Beads of your choice
- Needle that will fit through your beads. (a sharp needle goes though the felt easier than a blunt one)
- Embroidery thread of the colour of your choice ( mine match either the bead or the felt or both)
- Thread in contrasting colour  (for basting)
-  Decorative cord or ribbon for hanging up your ornament (20-24 cm / 6-7 inches)

Method:
1) Cut six circles of  felt fabric in the colour of your choice. I die-cut mine but tracing around a small jar lid would work just as well.

2) Place two of the circles over each other and with a contrasting basting thread, make a loose line across it vertically and horizontally, effectively making your circle into quarters. Then, still with your basting thread, divide each quarter in half again so that you finish with two circles of felt sewn together, and marked out in eighths.( This sounds more complicated when it is, the photograph below with the white circles and blue thread should make it clear).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

3) At the top of one of the basting lines, and stitching through both layers of felt,  attach a bead then blanket stitch the two edges together until you reach the next basting line,  add another bead, blanket stitch to the next basting line and add the last bead.  You will now have three beads attached with blanket stitch joining the sections between them.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

4) Repeat step (3)  only  at the ends of a basting line with a bead on it.This will give you a circle with: bead-blanket stitch, bead-blanket stitch-bead, then a basting line with no stitching  or bead at either end, and then bead-blanket stitch, bead-blanket stitch-bead again. (Again, it sounds complicated when I describe it, but the photo will show  you how simple it is)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

5) Repeat this process with the other two felt circle pairs. Once they are all completed, fold your decorative ribbon (for hanging it up)  in half and secure it to one side of the middle layer, then line up the other two sets of  felt  on the outsides so that the beads match.

Hand-stitch from centre bead (top) to centre bead (bottom, through all six layers of felt. (Opps, I know the felt has changed colour, I forgot to photograph this step on the white one).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

6) Starting at one of the beads that is not on the centre line, blanket stitch only one layer of the two  along  the unstitched edge until you reach half-way along the circle,  take  the closest piece of  felt from the next felt circle pair and join them together with a bead. (look at the stitched and unstitched sections of  the centre of the ornament in the next photograph to make this clear).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The easiest way to stitch this is to make a zig-zag pattern all around one side of the ornament, joining all the centres in the middle until you get back to your starting point and then to turn the ornament around and blanket stitch the remaining unstitched edges in the same manner.

Voila! a beautiful hand-stitched Felt Christmas Tree Ornament, made with love and that will make your tree sparkle for years (and even generations)  to come.

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that in the red ornament photo above, there are eight circles of felt (4 doubles together) and not three, as in the white.   The  red and yellow ornaments were experients where I used eight circles of felt  (4 doubles together).  Whilst I first thought that eight would be better than six, the finished  product is I think actually too “squished” in appearance. If you pull one side to make it look right it immediately squishes up on the other side.

To the other extreme the even bigger white ornament was made with 24 circles:  twelve “doubles”and I quickly saw that it looks very cramped indeed. I also used white beads on that one and they hardly show up or sparkle at all (at least in comparison to the dark glossy beads I used for the others).

This means that six circles of felt (3 doubles) appears in my opinion to work best and these are my new Christmas favourites!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)