Cats in the Kitchen, Flora in the Garden

I have gone into Christmas mode today. I think the weather encouraged it, it has been a really grey day,just low heavy cloud, in fact at one point it would not have surprised me if it had snowed, but it didn't, although the day never really seemed to get light and I had a lamp on nearly all day to work with.

I may have left Christmas mode behind tomorrow for a while, but Christmas bells were definitely ringing out in my head today as I spent the afternoon in my artroom and finished making five collage postcards for a Christmas swap I am in. I have scanned one, and posted it to the right, I'm afraid the scan doesn't really do the glitter justice and it looks slightly out of focus due to the embellishments that are hanging off it. They are all in that style but with different motifs etc. I was lucky because I have always had a box of scraps that my mother played with as a child and some date back to Edwardian and Victorian times, so this was an ideal opportunity to use some of the Christmas ones.

While I was creating I was musing about things we did at school for Christmas, mainly things we did at Junior School between the ages of seven and eleven. I thought it would be nice to share these childhood memories of Christmas preparations and Christmas events with you. These are some of the things I particularly remember about those childhood years.



First there always seemed to be a class competition for the best schoe box scene. This involved turning a shoe box on its side, without its lid and making a scene inside it with paper figures etc coloured and stuck onto cardboard. We were encouraged to make it a nativity scene. I can remember sticking crepe paper all over the outside of the shoe box and then rolling up cotton wool balls and sticking them on the top and sides as snow. I think one year I even had a couple of snow cotton wool balls actually hanging inside the scene. I used to draw a window shape at the back of the shoes box and cut out a scene from the middle east with minarets in it, which must have looked really incongruous with the snowy outside of the box. I would stick real straw on the floor and also have 'the star in the East' dangling into the box. One year I thought I had hit paydirt when I put a whole family of plastic robins on the roof and a little Father Christmas.

The other item I remember was the table decoration. This consisted of a rectangle of plywood about four inch by 8 inch. We used to cover it with some goopy white stuff, which I have no idea what it was, I just know it wasn't plaster of paris, then we would stick a tall red candle in the middle and decorate the 'snow' covered plywood with pinecones painted white or gold, we would add bits of plastic greenery, sometimes cake decorations, such as a snowman and sprinkle the whole things with copious amounts of glitter and leave it all to set. See glitter entered my life at a very early age. I loved making these, we could only make one at school, but I remember making loads of them at home and dishing them out to everyone as Christmas presents, I thought they were so cool!

Remembering, the Christmas items we made at school led me onto the annual Christmas school play. In those days I was a true thespian, you could have called me a 'lovie'. The play was the apex of my year. I lived for those weeks of rehearsals and the actual night. I always knew all my lines and everyone elses too. I know that makes me sound like an obnoxious child, but I wasn't I just loved the drama of it all. One year I was to be the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, I was thrilled especially as I was told I would be doing a dance as well. My imagination built it up into having a glorious net dress to wear and real pink satin ballet shoes, completely forgetting that the costumes can out of the dressing up boxes at school. I was allowed to make up my own dance and I was absolutely convinced that on the night of the play there would be a famous person in the audience who would be overcome with my talent and whisk me away for a life on the stage. I was ten years old.



Disaster struck, I caught flu two weeks before the show and when I returned to school a week later the part had been given to, how shall I put this, a girl who was by no means a friend of mine. I was devastated. The teacher explained that I had missed too many rehearsals, I tried to say but I knew my lines so I would be ok. No,she had decdied. She tried to cheer my up by saying, you've still got the reading to do for the church service, you read well and have a lovely voice. Did that pacify me, no no no. I didn't want to give a stupid reading about the three wise men in a church I wanted to tread the boards. Then my Fairy Godmother struck, no I didn't get the part back but the girl who was playing Dandini, Prince Charming's friend was struck with the same flu bug that I had had. Seeing I knew everyone's lines I was given the part and played it with a flourish.

I sometimes joke to my family that the parts you get in school plays as a child somehow come to colour your adult life. My first big part in a school play, which I took very seriously, was the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, and even today I can often be heard to mutter when in a hurry 'I shall be late, I shall be late'. My husband refers to them as my White Rabbit moments. My treading the boards came to an abrupt halt at thirteen, yes puberty struck, and for a time instead of being a confident declaimer on stage, I became quite introverted for a while and could think of nothing worse than exposing myself for public criticism.

There I have told you some childhood memories that all sprung from an afternoon sitting in my artroom creating. Nearer Christmas I will tell you some of my childhood Christmas day memories, perhaps, some of you will post some too.

Have some fun
Coming one day next week
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