MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 Wishing you a very merry and happy Christmas!

In the busy days leading up to Christmas, I never quite find the time to write a post about my decorations. Our tree goes up on Christmas Eve, and I usually take photos in the days that follow.

So rather than posting after Christmas, I’ve gathered a few images from this holiday and from previous years. This is a visual post only, as I’m off to prepare Christmas lunch!

Wishing you a wonderful, merry, and bright Christmas, and a beautiful remaining holiday season.

xxx

Christmas workshop

The festive season will be here sooner than we think, so this seems the perfect time to announce my upcoming Christmas workshop (a regular blog post will follow soon).

My past workshops (olive and lavender-themed) have been wonderful experiences; there is nothing more fun than spending a day in a small group baking or cooking, decorating, sharing a meal, exploring scarf-tying and learning new skills.

The picture gallery and program below gives you an idea of what to expect (you can choose the class with or without the napkin embroidery module).

Travel tip: We are less than three hours away from Paris by train; why not combine a trip to the City of Lights with a visit to the South of France?

For more information and how to book, please click here. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. 

Looking forward to spending a day filled with activity, creativity, and fun with you! 

xxx

My grandmother Else (below with my dad and his sister) taught my mother the Christmas cookie recipe, which my mother taught me in turn. 

 Here's the original recipe in her cookbook, which she credits to her aunt Anna. The date is December 29, 1912. They probably saw each other at or after Christmas that year, and Else must have asked Anna for the recipe:

The Program

We start the day at 9:30 am with coffee and tea and then make my favourite Christmas cookies. 

Once we finish baking, we'll explore gift wrapping. I'll show you how to make perfect bows and share my tips on creating extra special and beautiful wrapping. 

After the gift wrapping, we have soup, homemade quiche with salad, baguette, cheese, and a glass of local wine for lunch.

Next, we create a festive tablescape using natural materials, candles, and seasonal decorations.

Then we practice scarf tying. You can bring a couple of your scarves so we can explore various ways to wear them and showcase specific parts of their design. You can also ask for how-tos on specific knots.

The class ends around 4pm (unless you booked the embroidery module).

In case your booking includes the embroidery module:

After the scarf class, we have a tea/coffee break and taste our freshly baked Christmas cookies. 

Then, I show you how to embroider a decorative and festive wreath onto a linen or cotton dinner-size napkin. The embroidery stitch is quick and easy to learn and adapted for beginners. If you need more time to complete your creation, you'll be given all the necessary materials to finish your napkin at home. 

The class ends around 5:30 pm.

Happy Holidays

 I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and happy holidays. It has been very busy, but I wanted to pop by and wish you a very happy, healthy and fabulous New Year 2023!

Hope you enjoy this picture postcard for the month of December; there is more to come soon!

xxx

My new workspace's petit Christmas tree, which is the first MaiTai Collection one!

Blue and Green should always be seen.

We still had a few warm and mild days in December, so I was adding a dash of white as a fresh winter accent.

I am currently working on new fabrics for the MaiTai Collection inserts, which will become available in the spring/summer next year.  At first, I sourced an emerald green interior fabric for the insert below, but when I was ready to place my order it turned out that it had been discontinued in the meantime. In the end, I am glad the green didn't work out as I love the electric blue I found instead. 

A tree amongst trees

My door wreath sources sadly no longer exist, so I gathered some decoration materials, pinecones, twigs and berries from the woods and pinned them with florist wire onto an existing base. 

It is not perfect, but it was fun to do, and I'll definitely give it another try next year. 

The champagne delivery came just in time for the holidays.

For those two, it has been a very relaxing December!

The Amaryllis in my kitchen opened just in time for Christmas

More greenery, this time to give the dining table on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day a festive touch.

How to 

Start with a narrow base of greenery, and make sure you leave enough space for the place settings. Place some focus points (small plants, candle holders etc) along the way. Build up the base in volume and height with bunched-up berries, and leafy and evergreen twigs. Add more decorations such as pinecones, baubles, small figurines or candleholders. More is definitely better! 

Hope your holidays and Christmas were merry and bright xxx

MaiTai Collection news:

The inserts in the Ralph Lauren Nantucket fabric collection are now also available in a fresh and lovely denim colour here

Merry Merry!

Today's post is short and sweet, as I am still not finished with preparations and have a lot on my to-do list left. But at least it comes with a new knot as a little holiday gift (you can find the video tutorial at the bottom of this post). 

The Ondulation will be added to the Scarf Art app in the next update (around Dec 29) and includes an in-depth blog post with tips and variations in addition to the interactive video tutorial.

Hope you enjoy the new knot and wishing everyone a merry and happy Christmas and holiday season! 

The Ondulation with a Hermes "Plumes en Fête" 90 silk twill scarf. Also wearing a Hermes Kelly Dog bracelet in black croc.

Our tree, ready to be decked tomorrow

The wrapping theme this year consists of snow-white paper with raspberry, silver, and gold-colored ribbons and decorations.

Christmas lunch table from last year

Twinkle Twinkle Little (H silk) Star...

Shades of green 

A glimpse into the app... for each knot you get an illustration that shows you which part of the scarf is highlighted. For the Ondulation, the main focus is on three triangles along the scarf's border. The corner of the opposite side gets worked into the pleated section around your neck. Most of the center design and the upper part gets hidden behind your neck or in the surrounding folds:

Ondulation with the above Hermes Parures de Samourais 90 silk twill scarf

You can also explore variations for each knot which include instructions on how to achieve them (here with a Hermes Carré Kantha 90 silk twill scarf) 

Hope you have a wonderful end of the year, and I am looking forward to seeing you in the New Year. 

2020 has been challenging for most, so here's to a better and brighter 2021 filled with joy, happiness, and good health 🥂