Christmas Tree Lit with Real Candles

I know Christmas is behind us, but I just had to share these wonderful photographs of Cornelia's, gorgeous tree.  Cornelia lives in Switzerland and each year she decorates her tree in a traditional way, using real candles.  Wait until you see the photos of it all aglow in candlelight!  It truly is breathtaking!

The decorating process takes Cornelia many hours, usually 15-16.  The ornaments are original and are treasured pieces from Germany and Czechia.

Cornelia shared, "It is the custom in Switzerland to keep the Christmas tree til the 6th of January (Epiphany)."

Enjoy these close-up photos of some of the lovely ornaments on Cornelia's tree.

Time to light the candles...

With the lights turned down low, you can really see the glow of the candles.

In case you're worried, there isn't much chance of a fire because the tree is put right before Christmas and the candles are lit for just a brief period each night, beginning on Christmas Day and until the end of the Epiphany on January 6th.  So the tree is still nice and fresh when the candles are lit.

Bathed in candlelight...so beautiful and so magical.  Isn't this thing called "blogging" just the best.  When would we ever have a chance to see a tree lit with real candles in a gorgeous home in Switzerland, if not for the wonderful world of blogging.

You can see Cornelia's illuminated tree last year in THIS post. Thanks so much, Cornelia for bringing us into your home for Christmas.

Brumby Hall: Tour the Upstairs of This Historic Home

In early December I had the opportunity to tour Brumby Hall while on a Christmas Historic Home Tour in Marietta, Georgia. One of the homes open during the tour was Brumby Hall. I previously shared a tour of the downstairs of this beautiful home HERE and a tour of the two dining rooms HERE.

In case you missed those previous tours, here's a brief history of this historic home.

In the previous posts, we toured the downstairs; today, we're heading upstairs.

I've always wanted to put a runner up my main staircase with the brass rods like you see here.  I wouldn't mind exposing a bit more tread on either side, though.  Love this look on a stairway.

A view looking down from the top...

Aren't the old "fashion plates" wonderful?  Wikipedia describes these colorful portraits this way:  A fashion plate is an illustration (a plate) demonstrating the highlights of fashionable styles of clothing. Fashion plates are not depictions of specific people, but are instead generalized portraits, meant only to dictate the style of clothes that a tailor, dressmaker, or store could make or sell, or to show how different materials could be made up into clothes.

As you arrive at the top of the stairs, this is your view.

The upstairs landing/hallway/gallery is quite large.  We find another beautiful chandelier here at the top of the stairs.  This home has some of the most amazing chandeliers.  Remember those gorgeous chandeliers in the two dining rooms?

Let's go check out the room we see through the doorway on the left.

Love the sloped ceiling.  I think sloped ceilings give a room so much character....feels cozy.  Lots of beautiful furnishings to be found in this room, just as we saw on our downstairs tour.

At the other end of the hallway there's a huge room.  Here's the view upon entering the door.

This room has a beautiful bed.  I believe this style bed is known as an Eastlake bed.  Google that and you'll find some really pretty examples online.

Two very different style cradles.  So special getting to see these!

Another child's bed...

This room was large and contained a lot of wonderful antiques.

A beautiful Christmas tree stood in front of the large window at the end.  Bet this was lovely to see from outside come nightfall.

You'll find a tour of the downstairs of Historic Brumby Hall HERE and a tour of the two dining rooms HERE.

Thanks for coming along for the tour.  Did you go on any home tours during the Christmas season?

Ice Chiller for Wine or Champagne: A Tutorial

I shared how to make this wine chiller last year, but I thought it would be fun to share that post again in case you're looking for something fun for your Christmas table or for your New Year's eve celebration.  It's easy to make...you'll just need a couple of containers, water and cranberries.  Sliced lemons and limes would work, too.

Tutorial:  Make a wine chiller:

Last year I received a catalog in the mail and it showed this pic/ad. I was tempted to order it until I realized the silver bowl was plastic. I remembered I already had a silver bowl, so I decided to try and make the ice chiller with things I already had and save myself $29.00.




The Before:
The only items I had to purchase were a bottle of wine, cranberries and distilled water. You don't have to use distilled water so you could save the expense of buying that, if you like. But I discovered when I made flower ice cubes HERE, distilled water will usually freeze pretty clear, and it's only $1 for a gallon...more than enough for my ice chiller. If you would like your ice chiller more frosty looking like the one in the catalog, just use tap water.




I searched around the house and decided on this tin for my mold. (It measures 6 1/2 wide by 7 1/2 tall.) This worked fine except for two snags. 1. It leaked very slowly, so I had to add a little more water to it after about 45 minutes. It was such a slow leak in the freezer, the water froze as it leaked out, so I just broke it off and tossed it in the sink. I think that could be prevented by running a bead of hot glue around on the inside bottom where it meets the sides, prior to using it.

2. The other little snag is the indention near the top made my ice mold a little tricky to get out. A container that's completely smooth at the top would work better. Just DON'T use glass. If you used glass, it would be very difficult to get your ice chiller out because you'll need to run warm water over it and glass would most likely break.)



I found a plastic container to use in the center...it's an old Tupperware container/pitcher. (Again, please do not use glass for this part either...same reason...it would break with the temperature change.) I placed the wine inside to make sure it was the right size for a bottle of wine. It was perfect. (It measures around 3 1/2 inches wide by 8 1/2 inches tall.)




I needed something heavy to go in the center container so it wouldn't float. Clay cat litter almost worked, but wasn't quite heavy enough. Next I tried pennies from a huge penny jar collection and that worked great. Sand, marbles or even pebbles/rocks would work fine, too.




I stuck the container (filled with pennies) into the cannister and poured distilled water all around, saving just enough room for 1 full bag of cranberries at the top. You can pour some of the water off or add more--whatever you need to do to get your cranberries right up to the top.




After it had frozen overnight, I took the lid off and poured out all the pennies. Next I refilled the center container with warm water, being careful to not get water on the ice inside. In this pic I had just dumped the pennies out into the big container you see on the left. I ran just a little warm water into the center container, it came right out.

I didn't take any pics of me fighting the ice chiller out of the tin container.  It was loose toward the bottom but that blooming ridge at the top of my container got wedged with a cranberry. I kept running warm water on the outside of the container near the top and it finally let go.



After:
This is the only pic I have with the lamp off, and it shows the shape of the ice chiller best. It's the shape of the small tin I had used. Note how much clearer distilled water freezes than tap water.

The rest of the pics are a bit harder to see due to the light reflecting inside the bowl, but I think you'll get the idea.

Wouldn't this be a fun way to serve your white wine for a dinner party, holiday party, or New Year's Eve? I bet there are lots of other things that could be added besides cranberries. Lemons, limes or orange slices?  I'll be keeping my eye out for a better container than the tin one, for the future--but I am happy about saving $29.

Merry Christmas!