Cinnamon and Heart Garland

As mentioned in my last post,  I have been totally inspired by all the wonderful Christmas decorations and ideas featured in the various blogs I follow.  There are just so many amazing and creative bloggers out there.  To peak inside their homes is just like looking into the pages of  "A Christmas Carol".  Beautiful fireplaces, baskets of pine cones, woollen earmuffs and mittens.....

Here in the Valley,  Christmas holidays are usually marked by soaring temperatures and (uncomfortably) high humidity.  The days are  spent trying to find a place to keep cool and air conditioners are working overtime.  The idea of sitting down to create beautiful Christmas crafts is not something I would usually be contemplating at this time of the year however I my Christmas decorating has risen to new heights, spurred on by this daily feast of inspiration. 

On such  blog friend who continues to inspire me is the super creative Sarah from Modern Country Style.
When I saw Sarah's  gorgeous Cinnamon and Heart Garland I just knew I had to have a go at making one myself.  Her tutorial was super easy and fun to follow however  I did have a couple of little hiccups along the way.

First up - I had to search high and low to find wooden cotton reels!  At one stage I was seriously thinking of substituting the cotton reels for some cute little miniature Christimasy pegs I found on my last trip to Brisbane but they would not have been nearly as effective.  After scouring every craft and haberdashery store in the neighbourhood I managed to find some (stacked away under a pile of old boxes right at the back of the shop).  There is obviously not a big market for wooden cotton reels in my part of the world.

Next up - the cinnamon sticks.   Now I don't know about the cinnamon sticks that Sarah used but these ones of mine were (seriously!) hard to get the darning needle through.   I know Sarah used a knitting needle.   I was actually contemplating attacking them with my cordless drill.  However I ended up persevering with the needle and after a bit of jiggling sideways and upways - managed to make the hole big enough.   Oh, here's another thing.......  My cinnamon sticks are completely smellless?    Not sure why - maybe cinnamon sticks lose their smell the heat.  I was anticipating the gorgeous smells of cinnamon wafting through the house,  but alas mine smell like....... well, dead sticks! 
Never mind - they look fabulous (and Christmasy)!


The fun part - stringing all the bits and pieces together!  I must admit, I had to have a couple of goes at this.  First time I tried - I threaded the string through the centre of the hearts (rather than towards the top).  This resulted in my hearts all swinging wildly and then ending up the pointing the wrong way!  So instead of the pointy bit of the heart facing down the pointy bit was facing up........  It did look rather strange.  "Is it supposed to look like that?"  Alan asked quizzically.   Umm........okay, maybe I should try re-stringing them......


Anyway,  success at last!    I absolutely love them (even if the cinnamon smells like dead sticks!) and think I might leave them up all year.

Thank you for your wonderful tutorial Sarah.  I obviously needed the "Dummies" guide but managed to get there in the end.