Christmas DIY

I have made a few Christmas things this year, and if you haven't noticed I have been quite a bit into crocheting this last year. So I made some Christmas trees, which is super easy to make, and even better they will survive a Jonas attack:)

Well, almost survive a Jonas attack, some of the stars are pretty crooked, but that can easily be fixed.

I also made a flag garland, in Denmark it's common to have a garland with the Danish flag on your tree. I have just googled it to find out why we do this. One of the reasons seems to be that from 1864-1920 it was prohibited to show the Danish flag outside in the Southern part of Denmark since it was occupied by the Germans. So in order to show that you were Danish the people started having the Danish flag on coffee cups, pillows etc. which also led to them putting them on the Christmas tree. 

 

Though you don't get a picture of them on the tree for now, since we aren't putting up the tree until the 23rd. 

 

Ohh and then I just had to show off the Christmas decoration I got from some former colleagues that came to visit last weekend, I really love it, and especially the purple colour, I had just decided that my Christmas table this year would be purple, so I guess this will fit just in:)

"Fastelavn" - Shrovetide

"Fastelavn" is a Danish tradition where kids dress up and go from house to house singing a song and get candy, so it's very similar to Halloween. "Fastelavn" stems from an old Christian tradition, where they 7 weeks before Easter celebrates Shrovetide ("Fastelavn"). In the Christian tradition "Fastelavn" marks the start of 40 days without meat, though I doubt that is the reason why most people celebrates "fastelavn" today.

At most "fastelavn" parties kids will hit a wooden barrel with at stick (very much like a pinata), the one who gets the barrel destroyed ends up being "Cat King". The game is called hitting the cat out of the barrel, and until the 1830's they put a real cat inside the barrel, because they believe that a town could be spared of the plague is a black cat were killed. Today there is only candy in the barrel, and sometimes the barrel is decorated with a painting of a black cat. I guess out cat Gilbert should be glad that tradition has stopped, otherwise he should be hiding most of the month of February.

Jonas and his friends celebrated Fastelavn with the other kids from the daycare. He was dressed as a spider, since I figured it would be the best costume for him since he probably would be too impressed with a big costume. So he was dressed in black, and I had put some velcro on his back and some velcro on some stuffed socks. So he suddenly had 8 "legs" at least if you count his own arms and legs:) I had knitted a hat for him, and put eyes on it, though he wasn't too fond of the hat:)

DIY projects

As I mentioned in my last post I had been using some of my time on a few projects.

A couple of weeks ago my parents brought me a truck load of coffee bags... well they brought a lot, some of their friends etc. had been collecting for me as well. In there was a bunch on purple bags, which you can't buy in the stores, at least I haven't seen them, and these we "professional" I guess it's because it's used at a company for their coffee maker. Luckily they drink a lot of coffee, because I had enough for a purple purse.

I have also been crocheting patches for a blanket... well there is still a long way to go, but here is how far I have come until now.

And then I have a little extra project. On Monday it's "fastelavn" (if I use google translate it's translated to Shrovetide, which I have never heard before). But in Denmark kids dress up for "fastelavn" kind of like Halloween. So I have been making a costume for Jonas, because on Tuesday they are celebrating "fastelavn" at the daycare. I will do a post later on the whole tradition of "fastelavn" afterwards, and hopefully with pictures of Jonas, if he wants to be dressed up...

This weekend I will be at my parents house, well we will be spending the nights there, but I will be with the orchestra I used to play in. We will be playing a little, having fun and eating, so what could go wrong?
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!