Christmas – Francois et Moi

DIY Star Anise Wreath

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 03:14:42 +0000

How to create a festive star anise wreath using a metal clothes hanger, hot glue, and whole star anise spice. Hint: it’s easy and fast to make! This week’s hygge-ly craft is an easy and fast star anise wreath made with a metal clothes hanger! Supplies: Wire clothes hanger Whole star anise Wire cutter Hot glue gun Floral wire (optional) Velvet ribbon Bend hanger into circular shape. Press kinks into table surface to smooth. For a smaller wreath, cut hanger wire with wire cutter & twist ends together. Use floral wire to secure, if necessary. Attach star anise with a dab hot glue on the back. Tie a velvet ribbon bow on the neck of the hanger. More Holiday Crafts DIY Window Candelabra Made from Scrap Wood Easy Pear and Cedar Centerpiece How to Make a Nordic Origami Star

The post DIY Star Anise Wreath appeared first on Francois et Moi.

DIY Window Candelabra from Scrap Wood

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 13:29:36 +0000

Celebrate light amidst Winter’s long nights with a DIY window candelabra inspired by Scandinavian tradition. Make this project affordably using scrap wood! When it comes to holiday decorating, my style usually comes to life in two ways: Bringing the outdoors in. Celebrating my Scandinavian heritage through handmade decor and crafts. I’ve been wanting to light our front window with a candelabra since we bought this old house 6 years ago. Window candelabras or adventsljusstakar in Swedish, are often used for Advent or to bring a welcoming glow during long winter nights and are common across Scandinavia. Window candelabras are an investment cost-wise though. I love this candelabra from Star Trading and a few other online retailers, but with shipping from Sweden, the cost is over $100 smackers, and I’m not sure it would get here in time to enjoy for Winter Solstice. I was pulling into the garage one afternoon and spotted our big stash of scrap wood collected throughout the year. At that moment it dawned on me; I could make a candelabra pretty darn affordably using scrap wood! My candelabra has a few tweaks, it’s smaller in scale to proportionally work in our windows. It has a curved […]

The post DIY Window Candelabra from Scrap Wood appeared first on Francois et Moi.

Home for Christmas 2019

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 20:11:25 +0000

Come over and tour our home for Christmas! See how our hygge practices influence decor choices + how we allocate our decorating budget. We’re well into December, and it’s high time I show you around the joint! As you may know from previous Holidays, Hygge is a big part of our decorating process. With the weather turning colder and days getting shorter, I think it’s important to surround ourselves with simple pleasures that bring us joy. Read more on our winter hygge practices here. We limit ourselves to one tote for Christmas decorations which holds stockings, ornaments, lights, and some nostalgic pieces like our wooden ‘welcome’ star in the kitchen, our angel advent chimes, and dala horses. Then all other decorations are either fresh (tree, garland, sprigs, oranges, amaryllis bulbs, etc) or handmade from paper. Our MO is to basically keep our everyday decor out in the house and accentuate with fresh decor elements. This strategy helps us keep clutter to a minimum, reins in and helps us be intentional with our decorating budget, and helps us feel cozy and hygge-ified. (Apparently I’m making up words now.) With that said, I’m going to keep the chatter to a minimum and […]

The post Home for Christmas 2019 appeared first on Francois et Moi.

How to Make a Nordic Origami Star

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 03:07:04 +0000

Watch this quick origami star video tutorial, and bring a bit of Nordic flair to your Holiday decor this year. Only one material needed: Paper!If you read my blog, even sporadically, you most likely have some hunch that I love Nordic decor. And as the Holidays approached this year, I cannot tell you how many times I searched for ‘nordic christmas’ on Pinterest in the last month and a half. And with every search I surely came across beautifully minimal Nordic décor pins with origami stars or paper star lanterns in the window or on a credenza. They seemed to be everywhere, and I’m hooked on ’em! I love this look, but had a HECK of a time finding them affordably or in enough time to arrive before Christmas. I found them through an European retailer and though they were like $8, shipping to the US was $50, so I kept searching and found a Danish paper star tutorial that I translated with the help of Google Translate. These origami stars aren’t hard, but there are a few steps that are difficult to decipher with still images alone, so I’ve made a video of how to make the stars. The […]

The post How to Make a Nordic Origami Star appeared first on Francois et Moi.

Asymmetrical Garland DIY

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 21:31:32 +0000

Asymmetrical garland: an unexpected take on traditional Holiday fireplace mantel decor. Hear my thought process and how to create the look at your house.My college roommate and longtime friend, Shawnna of thatsmeinthemiddle.com has a beautiful 1920’s home in Minneapolis complete with original casement windows and a substantial white brick fireplace—all those amazing details my 1936 depression-era house missed out on. Jk. I love my house, but man I also love fireplaces! Anywho, we’ve been talking about doing some kind of house tour at her place for over a year now. And recently over a coffee play date, I finally invited myself over to style her mantel for Christmas. You see, being that we are sans fireplace at the Francois abode, I’ve been deprived of getting to decorate one each year, and that’s gone on long enough! Shawnna was graciously up for it, and so the night before I headed over there, I ran to Bachman’s, Michaels, and Target and rounded up a combination of real and permanent greenery to create a robust garland. I was going to buy a premade fresh garland, and zsush it up with additional faux greens, but the fresh garlands were crazy expensive to the […]

The post Asymmetrical Garland DIY appeared first on Francois et Moi.

Nordic Christmas Home 2018

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 21:01:12 +0000

Come tour my Nordic Christmas home. Fresh greens, candles and texture galore: It’s dressed to the nines for the Holiday season. As with so many of us, decorating for Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year, second only maybe to early May when we finally shed our heavy coats and boots—oh the boots–after a LONG winter. Christmas is a close second though. It’s such a happy time of year! The funny thing is, I don’t actually go ‘all out’ decorating as compared to some. We do a garland on our living room arch, a tree in the corner of the living room, and then little additions of fresh greens, berries, potted amaryllis and candles throughout the house. No décor in the bedrooms. My decorating game plan definitely skews Nordic with a focus on bringing outdoor elements in, celebrating light during this dark time of year, and overall just creating a warm, cozy place. We mostly use the same decorations from year to year with a few additions and tweaks here and there. What is your decorating M.O.? Do you go all out? Use the same décor every year or switch things up completely? I’d love to hear your traditions! Okay, […]

The post Nordic Christmas Home 2018 appeared first on Francois et Moi.

Scandinavian Gatherings’ Sugared Gingersnaps

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 12:00:12 +0000

As a kid, I was very aware of my Scandinavian heritage, but other than token Holiday decorations like the Swedish Star and Angel Chime Set, we mostly celebrated American Christmas traditions, that is until I got older and we discovered all these amazing Scandinavian traditions we’d been missing out on, and now ALL WE CELEBRATE are Nordic traditions. lol. My daughter, Sylvia, is almost two and I’m bursting with excitement to teach her about our heritage and traditions as she grows. My parents introduced Sylvia to Pepparkakor, a crisp Scandinavian ginger cookie, and they are her ABSOLUTE favorite. My blogger friend, Sarah of Room for Tuesday, invited me to join her Cookie Swap Blog Hop, and I thought it would be the PERFECT time to share my favorite Pepparkakor recipe from Melissa Bahen of Lulu the Baker‘s book, Scandinavian Gatherings. Throughout winter months and especially around the holidays, I try to gear into the Hygge mindset which is all about finding joy in simple pleasures. Melissa’s sugared gingersnap recipe is just that: a simple pleasure. Restrained in decoration, and SO darn delicious. I dare you to try to eat just one! Without further ado, here’s Melissa’s Sugared Gingersnap […]

The post Scandinavian Gatherings’ Sugared Gingersnaps appeared first on Francois et Moi.

How to Make Dried Orange Garland

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 18:59:25 +0000

One of the main pillars of Nordic Holiday style is incorporating elements from nature into your decor. With citrus just beginning to come into season, dried orange garland is a wonderfully simple and cost effective way to decorate for the Holidays. This project is as simple as thinly slicing oranges, drying them out in the oven, and stringing them onto twine to form a garland. Drape them across the table, string across the window, or even turn them into gift toppers and ornaments; dried oranges are festively versatile. Catch my drift? Scroll down for the tutorial! What You’ll Need: 2 navel oranges serrated knife cookie sheet paper towel or lint free cloth parchment paper twine scissors scotch tape (optional) How to Make the Garland: Heat oven to 250 degrees F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Slice oranges crosswise 1/8″ – 1/4″ thick using a sharp serrated knife, and pat slices dry with paper towel or cloth. Place in a single layer on baking sheet and bake for roughly 2.5 hours. Flip the slices over after about 1.25 hours. After 2.5 hours in the oven, remove any slices beginning to brown, and slide the remaining slices back in […]

The post How to Make Dried Orange Garland appeared first on Francois et Moi.

Meaningful Holiday Home Tour

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 12:00:54 +0000

Call me curious, Christmas-crazy, or maybe even downright nosy?! But I love seeing how other people ‘do’ Christmas at their house. From decorations to traditions, its fun to see all the creative ways people celebrate the season. All this to say, I’ve been following along with Laura from Meaningful Spaces ‘ Meaningful Holiday Home Tour the last 3 days, (If you have been too, you just came from Heidi of Honeybear Lane’s home) and I’m excited to welcome you to my own decorated home on the last day of the tour! When it comes to Holiday decorating, we draw inspiration from two areas: Natural elements like garland, spruce tips, amaryllis, dried fruit, etc. We like using these kinds of things because they smell delicious, they’re pretty, and fresh elements mean it’s less to store in the basement the rest of the year! Our Scandinavian heritage: simple, neutral & nature-inspired decor, Dala horses, Norwegian flag bunting, etc. Playing on the Nordic vibe, we did a Charlie Brown-style real fraser fir Christmas tree this year from our neighborhood nursery, Tangletown Gardens, and I love its open, sparse feel. Less tree branches mean less ornaments, so we limited the display to clip-on candles, […]

The post Meaningful Holiday Home Tour appeared first on Francois et Moi.

A Perfectly Plaid Holiday Table

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 16:10:52 +0000

After an insanely fun media console styling session last month, Tasha from Tchotchkes Interior Design and I have teamed up again to bring a little nostalgic yuletide inspiration to Holiday gatherings this season. This time we’ve brought Retro Wanderlust (the shop in the Minneapolis area for all things vintage home) along for the ride and challenged ourselves to think beyond the quintessential red and green palette and instead focus on less ‘in-yo-face’ festive cues like greenery, Holiday motifs, cozy textures, and candlelight to bring home the warm, merry appeal. Below we’re talking through how we arrived at this look, so you can recreate for your own gathering! The intent was to create visual interest by layering textures and materials. Let’s take it from the top, shall we? We started with a beautiful woven plaid fabric as the jumping off point for the entire scheme. The cognac, frosty blue, and black tones offered a non-traditional, yet nostalgic take on Holiday entertaining. Once the color palette was nailed down, greenery was the next natural step. See what I did there? (wink. wink.) We separated bunches of spruce, pine and cedar into smaller branch clusters and intertwined them with one another. There’s no wire […]

The post A Perfectly Plaid Holiday Table appeared first on Francois et Moi.

How to Hang Heavy Garland Without Damaging Your Walls

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Sat, 02 Dec 2017 21:48:59 +0000

I’m popping in quickly this weekend to share how to hang garland in your house without permanently nailing it to the wall. This is not sponsored; I’ve just had a lot of questions on my Instagram about how I’ve hung mine, so I thought I’d share what really works. I’ve tried several different hooks that never seemed to be strong enough to hold a full garland. In years past, there were so many mornings, I’d wake up to a sad garland on the floor and cedar flakes everywhere. When I finally discovered temporary hooks that were strong enough for the job, I did a little happy dance. Here’s what we do: We use big daddy 3M Command hooks. The ones that hold up to 7.5 lbs each. They’re damage free and the packaging has a photo of the hook with a step ladder hanging from it, so you know they’re strong! For the arch pictured, we’re using 3 hooks one on each side plus one in the middle. In years where we have an especially full garland, I’ve doubled up the hooks at each location just to be safe, but looking back it was probably overkill! The hooks are […]

The post How to Hang Heavy Garland Without Damaging Your Walls appeared first on Francois et Moi.

How-To: The Nordic Style Christmas Tree Basket

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 12:00:58 +0000

As I was naming this blog post yesterday, it occurred to me just how simplistic and all around ‘common-sense-esque’ it sounded. How hard can it be to put your real Christmas tree in a basket? The truth is I’ve been trying to figure out how to use a basket (in lieu of a tree skirt) for my real Christmas tree for the last few years, and I finally figured out a set up that works. So here we are! You see with real trees the stands are often 20″-24″ at their widest point, making it difficult to disguise in a basket without the basket being MASSIVE. I recently came across a 16″ diameter plastic tree stand that holds a 6′ tree. Our tree this year is a real Fraser Fir, known for its more “open” Nordic feel. The top of the tree thins to a single branch with a few small off shoots. Technically, the tree is a 7-footer, but considering the sparseness at the top of the tree, I decided to give it a whirl with the 6′ tree stand. And SPOILER alert…it works great! The 16″ tree stand diameter makes the basket so much more doable. Here I’m […]

The post How-To: The Nordic Style Christmas Tree Basket appeared first on Francois et Moi.