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Tuesday 8 December 2015

Popcorn and cranberry garlands ...

Gosh it's been busy over here at Talk-a-Lot Towers.

We had a trampoline party for Emi's birthday on Saturday. I can't believe that my baby is about to have his first double digits birthday - 10! Whaow!

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. Emi's birthday is Friday and Mr B's the following Thursday. Everything seems to happen in December. The rest of the year is a little bit dull by comparison.

But somehow amidst all the other stuff that was going on I've got the tree up, decorated and illuminated with Ms. Angel on top. Emi has named her Annabeth. Not sure where that comes from, but we'll go with it for now.

By way of extra garlanding Emi and I spent a merry hour last night threading popcorn and cranberries onto a length of twine to add the finishing touch. The Wonder Dog is very keen on popcorn - so it's fifty/fifty whether this genius touch will actually last until Christmas.


If you want to make a garland like this for your own tree it's super easy-peasy. All you need to do is air-pop the popcorn so that it's not greasy. I do this in the microwave in a brown paper bag. Toss the corn in, zap it on high for a minute and a half - or until all the popping stops. Leave it overnight to sit in its bag so that it's not so brittle when you thread it. If it's fresh it'll be very crumbly, and you'll be busy with the hoover when you're done.






You'll need some strong thread, wool, or dental floss to thread the popcorn onto with a tapestry needle. I used some parcel twine, and I found that a metal needle with a slight point worked best for threading the various bits onto. I'd also suggest that you don't cut your twine until you're absolutely sure of the length you want. An organised person might go swagging lengths of string around the tree to find the ideal length, but we didn't go about our garland the organised way. And we were able to add the extra length we needed by unrolling more twine and threading from both ends.



We went for lengths of popcorn with alternating stretches of cranberries skewered lengthways by the needle. Cranberries aren't especially juicy so there isn't a lot of cranberry-juice-mess to worry about.



And when we'd got everything so that the length worked just perfectly we tied the two ends of the twine together with one of Emi's clever knots < he got an SAS survival-in-the-wild book as a birthday present so he knows about these things ... >



All the best for now,

Bonny x

P.s. you can find the Christmas tree angel patternUnion Jack Retro ballChristmas tree Christmas tree ball and the Christmas cockerel hand-knit Christmas tree ball patterns by clicking on these links.



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