Christmas Decorating Ideas for Inside and Outside Your Home

!±8± Christmas Decorating Ideas for Inside and Outside Your Home

There is a chill in the air and it is time for you to light the fireplace, drink a cup of hot chocolate and come up with some great Christmas decorating ideas. So play some happy holiday music from your favourite Christmas albums and let's begin. So where should you start?

As people see the exterior of your house first, you may want to start there and continue into your home or alternatively you could work from the inside out - no matter which direction you choose, just getting the job done is the most important thing.

On the outside of your home, if you are mounting rooftop decorations such as Santa in his sleigh, a waving Santa or maybe an illuminated, animated reindeer, get started there first. It is best to have these in place before stringing your Christmas lights.

And don't forget that if you plan on putting up a very large number of decorations, you do not need to get all of it completed in one day. Do not wear yourself out. The next thing to do is hang your lights; icicle lights are very popular and would look wonderful on your home. When you have the lights in position, remember to cover the ends with tape to prevent any moisture from getting in.

As soon as the Christmas lights are in place, you will be ready to start on the trees or shrubs in your front garden. Net lights make decorating small to medium sized bushes a piece of cake plus the cool to the touch LED lighting is good in trees.

If you have got taller evergreens, they can be decorated just like you would an indoor tree, including illuminated gift boxes underneath the tree. Once the trees and shrubs are done, set up each display in a section of your garden. As you proceed, frequently check for any bulbs that do not light up. You do not really want to have everything installed and then need to start the search for a broken or burned out bulb.

Line your pathway with lollipop decorations or candy canes (particularly if you are wanting a gingerbread house theme). Place poinsettias by your front door and do not overlook decorating the mailbox with a Christmas covering.

Indoors, you can decorate your mantle with a garland of fresh or artificial boughs, after which, if you are wanting a traditional look and feel, you could weave miniature lights throughout the garland. On the other hand, if you prefer a Victorian Christmas or a country Christmas, strings of cranberry beads can be looped to show small loops hanging down from the top of the mantle.

Next, set up your Christmas villages; if you do not already own a collection of them, this is the time to get started on building one. They provide a unique nostalgia and are also a great deal of fun to set up. The illuminated models are great with any type of theme.

If you would like a total holiday decor on the inside of your home, remember to substitute your area rugs with ones in holiday shades or perhaps with ones that have got Christmas decorations on them. Although, there are a great many Christmas decorating ideas to pick from, the real key to success is in spending some time to plan it out properly.

Christmas Decorating Ideas for Inside and Outside Your Home

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Porcelain Figurines - How Are These Beautiful Pieces Made?

!±8± Porcelain Figurines - How Are These Beautiful Pieces Made?

I love porcelain figurines! These graceful and precious hand-painted statuettes from modern manufacturers like Lladro, Goebel Hummel and Dresden, as well as the thousands of antique specimens still in circulation through many retail antique dealers and auction houses, are as popular today as they were decades and centuries ago. Indeed, there seems to be quite a resurgence of interest and fascination with porcelain figurines, as seen in the last decade, when they racked up over a billion dollars in sales. That's an amazing figure, when considered against our copious purchases of all the modern technological devices we thrive on. Perhaps it's the contrast of being able to settle our eyes on something beautiful, older, and more handcrafted than just the sleek black and silver boxes and modern kitchen appliances, as we look around our house.

Whatever it is, I thoroughly enjoy these grown up "dolls," and have many of them dotting different corners of my home.

There are porcelain figurines of gracefully posed ballerinas, dancing lovers, Victorian parlor scenes, and Japanese geisha girls. There are many of doe-eyed children on swing sets or holding umbrellas, many of animals, and many combining animals and children. Looking at any one of these porcelain works of art, with their amazing detail and delicacy, perfect in scale and representation of the human body, right down to the tiny fingers and toes, it's natural to wonder, "How do they make these things?" And whether it is a one-off statuette done by hand, or a production figurine repeated 40 or 50 times in one of the larger manufacturer's factories, the process is quite protracted and exacting.

First, a concept for a specific posed figure is drawn out in precise detail by an expert draftsman. Once the artists agree on all the details of the new shape, the drawn artwork is transformed into a masterful sculpture in clay, with beautiful precision in every detail. This sculpture will be used to form the mold from which numerous figurine castings can be produced. Every detail must be perfect, so it is not uncommon for several iterations of the core sculpture to be discarded before the final one is chosen.

It should be noted that, due to the delicacy of fine appendages - hands and fingers, feet and toes, ears, etc. that could be harder to cast and more easily broken during the molding process, the mold is often separated into several pieces, producing a torso and separate arms and legs that will be reassembled later.

The molds are made in two box halves of extra fine plaster, clasped around the sculpture, and let to dry over two or three days. Then the halves are separated, the sculpture is removed, and the empty mold is rejoined.

Now the actual liquified porcelain clay "slip can be poured into the mold, filling every nook, cranny and detail. The plaster will quickly absorb a thin layer of this slip, and within in as little as a half-hour, this thin layer will be staring to dry, allowing us to pour off the excess inner liquid. When the remaining thin layer is fully dry, after another long wait, the mold's two halves can be separated, and the "greenware" figurine gently tapped out. It is at this point, while still in green stage, that any other pieces of the figure can be carefully assembled.

Then it's time for first firing in the kiln, masterful painting with a variety of colored glazes, and more firing to produce the lustrous, hardened finished product.

Porcelain Figurines - How Are These Beautiful Pieces Made?

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