Card holder

I've finally started adding a few decorations to the house.  Why am I not stressing like everyone else in these last days before the 25th?  Well, because I have an extra 2 weeks to get my act together.  We celebrate Christmas on January 7, which is actually December 25th by the Julian calendar.  A little confusing, I know, but that's what we're used to.  I grew up with celebrating Christmas two weeks later than everyone else.  My children grew up with the same.  We celebrate in a similar manner to everyone else - just later.  Oh, yes, and church services are a huge component of the celebrations.  We gear all our preparations for the day of - no celebrating early.  Of course, it's still fun to join in with the rest of the world and participate when invited by friends and neighbours.
My outdoor decorations did not go up as usual, because of the huge amounts of snow.  I hang garlands with lights on the railings of the front porch.  Not this year - the railing is somewhere under the mountain of snow.  I did hang the wreath on the door.  May-be I need to rethink the outdoor decor for future if we are going to continue this pattern of snowfall.
The Christmas cards were beginning to pile up on the table, so it was time to put them in their proper place.

The original idea came from Martha Stewart, as I remember, from many years ago.  I don't have the budget, though, for incredibly wide silk ribbon, long enough to wrap around the door.  What I did have was this piece of polyester silky stuff that you couldn't pay me to use for clothing.  I cut it to a width that I thought would look decent (too skinny and it just wouldn't look right), double thickness, and did a rolled edge on the serger along both edges.

 

Both ends are pleated into little bands.  Velcro keeps the ends together.  The bow is separate, and I just attach it with a huge safety pin, once I've wrapped the door and positioned the ribbon in the centre.  (Oh - and I always manage to stab myself with the safety pin - you'd think that I could come up with something less dangerous to the fingers after several times of repeating the same process.)  

 

I found these round paperclips at Staples, and they're sewn on every few inches down the length on one side.  I seem to remember that Martha had brass-coloured paperclips, which would probably look a whole lot better, but you have to go with what you can find.  

Now that I look at it - that bow is a little droopy.  May-be I will (at some point) try to thread some wire through the serging on the edges to perk it up a bit.  One drawback of this arrangement, or perhaps it's the particular fabric - it attracts dog hair like a magnet.  This then requires defuzzing every so often up to a certain level.  (Good thing that I don't have a Great Dane!)

So now I'm off to pop the rest of the cards into the paperclips.