one of my favourite wintery projects...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmukkah! We definitely did, and our menorah stood proudly beside our gingerbread house {pics to come soon}. With even more celebrations next week, I just wanted to share one of my favourite winter decor projects - making lanterns {or wine chillers} out of ice!

It is quite simple: all you need are two plastic containers of different sizes. Place the smaller container into the larger container, and fill the space in between them with water. You may have to weigh the smaller container down with a few rocks so that it doesn't float. Stick it in your freezer {or outside if you live in a chilly winter climate like ours} and let it freeze. Once frozen, remove the ice from the containers - you may have to run the containers under warm water to loosen it up. Just add a votive candle and voila - an ice lantern! And how beautiful it is to add branches or berries into the water before it freezes, a la Kathryn Kleinman's creation above. Note that there are also some lantern molds available, like this star-shaped one from Lee Valley Tools.

I went to a New Year's Eve party one year where the entire walkway leading up to the house was lined with ice lanterns and it was stunning. An easy and cool way to decorate for a party!

cotton

Last week, Joelle and I took a trip to Hofland, and there we had a chance to see AND buy my "flower muse" of the moment ... cotton. Yes, cotton! I sure do think cotton is the coolest looking plant ever, and now it holds a special little place on my shelf. Did you know that it looks like this when it grows? It is literally just poofs of fluffy cotton balls on a stem! These poofs, my friends, become your sweaters, your t-shirts, your undies, your pjs, your sheets...Apparently they require lots of sunshine and water to grow, and with water resources getting tighter around the parts of the world that produce it, our dear cotton gets more and more endangered. So, hey, when you get into bed tonight and sigh was satisfaction about how soft your sheets feel against your skin, take a moment, on behalf of inBloom, to remember how lovely it looked even on the stick!