It's time to celebrate!

Are you ready for the holidays? Did you decorate your house already?

Our team members are working hard on their Etsy shops but also finding time to make their houses beautiful. Here are some photos for you to see, along with some ideas and recipes:

Buying some new holiday ornaments became a tradition already in Yulia's family (bysiki). They love handmade and vintage toys the best.

 

Through the years, Yulia and her husband collected enough interesting toys to decorate a few of  holiday trees so Yulia can choose the decor style she likes this year and use the rest of her ornaments and toys to decorate the rest of the house. This is a great way to have a new holiday look every year!

Marina (softknitdreams) also lives and works in Moscow, Russia. While this winter is not too snowy there, she keeps her holiday spirit bright and knits cute warm hats for those who love to catch those white fragile snowflakes with their mouth.

We are talking of kids of all ages :)  

Galina from tobestudio knits the cutest fashion sweaters while getting ready for the Holidays.

Elena (DizArtEx) from Estonia will decorate her home with handmade stained glass snowflakes. Isn't it pretty?

Here is two lovely Christmas recipes for you from Italy to try this holiday season.

One is baccala, a traditional Christmas dish for some regions in Italy. Salted cod (baccala) baked with potatoes, vegetables and sprinkled with cheese on top, sounds really good during this cold weather, doesn't it?

For full recipe please visit Katrin's blog (katrinshine)

Warm and aromatic apple gluhwein is Milly's  (millyscolection) favorite this year. The best part, it's non-alcoholic recipe so it can be made for the whole family! Her recipe: clean and slice the apple, lemon and orange, mix it with an apple juice, cinnamon and clover. Cook on a medium heat until boils, then turn the heat off and cover. Let it stand for about 40 minutes, reheat and add some honey. Enjoy!

  

It's summer in Australia right now so Sveta cherrygardendolls will also decorate her holiday tree with flowers along with traditional decor:

Here in USA we love the holidays and we love to celebrate. We are busy with our daily lives but we find time for the holidays in our hearts. So we decorate, we gather with family and friends and we love to be home for the Holidays. We love handmade decor together with store bought items. The holidays makes everything look so pretty!

Christmas in Arizona can be white or not, depends of where you live, so we decorate accordingly: 

We love our Christmas trees! Albina aroundbeads makes her cute tabletop trees from beads and happily shares her technique through her shop on Etsy.

Albina and Tanya socksandmittens are getting together from time to time to exchange some ideas on jewelry and home decor:

For A Holiday Tree cross stitch necklace tutorial please visit Tanya's blog.

Happy Holidays from Russian Artists Team on Etsy!

OOAK handmade Christmas balls

This Christmas ornament look so good on a tree. The bonus is it is made with mostly recycled materials which you might easily find in almost every household.

 

The idea came from our team member, Yulia from bysiki shop on Etsy. Yulia lives and works in Moscow, Russia and her shop is filled with wonderful products for a baby. 

To make a ball like this you will need:

a plastic grocery store bag for each ball (a great way to give them a second life!)

sequins and beads

threads of your choice:

#1 - thread of any color you don't need for other projects  for securing the ball shape

# 2 - pretty thread you want to see you ball decorated with

ribbon

fabric glue

needle

Form an even shaped ball from the plastic bag and secure it with the thread #1. Add some glue to the surface to make sure it will stay in place. Let it dry.

Wrap the thread #2 around your ball in one direction, either, horizontal or vertical. Sew the sequins and beads on top of your ball, while securing your threads from unwrapping. Do not use too many beads to prevent your ball from being too heavy!

Make a ribbon loop and you are done! Your new one of a kind Christmas ball is ready to be hung on your Christmas tree!

Have a wonderful Holidays and fun decorating!