Origami window dressing

 My window has been looking pretty empty after I took my Christmas decorations down. It's not totally bare because 3 of my orchids happen to be in bloom. I have a total of 5 orchid plants. I did not buy any of these plants. They were all gifts. The only indoor plants I buy are cacti because everything else dies. But apparently not orchids. I've even chucked them outside because I really did not want to deal with them, but they relentlessly survived. I feed them once a year if they are lucky and I water them once a week (which I'm told is plenty) and they just keep giving. My husband says I must be growing old because I have a knack for orchids and only old people grow orchids! But he's just joking, of course.

Being just the beginning of February I felt it was too early for spring and flowers. God forbid, it is still snowing outside. I thought we need a bit of peace and goodwill and someone really needs to use up all that origami paper that has accumulated over the years. I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but when I see cheap origami paper I just have to buy it. I have no idea why. I also buy origami books. I have one math book which describes the geometry of origami. I have another in which the origami insects are so complicated that I have never managed to complete a single one. I actually know why. It says you should use the highest quality paper to prevent tearing. And cheapo me does not have any high quality paper and is not going to invest in any. This is how I came up with the idea to make strings of origami cranes to dress my window. 

All you need to make these strings are:

1. Origami paper
2. Fishing nylon, beading nylon or any other thread
3. A needle with a head big enough for the thread to fit through
4. One weight per string 
5. Blue tac, a glue gun 

First of all make the cranes. I will not go through how to do this because there are hundreds of instructions out there. If you are like me and like an old fashioned paper instruction try this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orizuru (I'm trying to be neutral here!). If you prefer a video ... well you know exactly what to do. Some cranes are slightly easier than others. The one on Wikipedia is the easiest type. If you don't know the origami notation then probably a video is a better option for you. 

I used multicoloured origami paper so I lay them out on the table and swapped them around until I was happy with the colour combination. I mean, I wasn't totally happy with my combinations, but I really didn't want to make anymore cranes so I made do with what I had! 

Measure how much string you need and add on about 30 cm so you have some extra to tie knots and adjust the length. Start with the bottom most crane. Thread the string into your needle, gently press your crane flat, and then pass the needle through the hole in the bottom and out through the middle of the body. By pressing the crane flat it is easier to see where the middle is and it is less likely that the paper tears.  Continue threading your cranes until you have the desired number, which in my case was 4. 

You'll need a weight at the bottom of the string because the cranes don't weigh enough to keep tension in the string. You can use anything for the weight. I happened to find these "things" in my basement. I bought them on sale at a crafts store because they were pretty (and on SALE). I'm sure I'm not alone on this one. My husband keeps me out of craft stores because I can't help myself. And if I do wander in because I really, really need something (like a pot of glue) I always head over to the sale rack, and I ALWAYS find something that has my name on it. I remember when I picked these up. I was standing outside with my husband while my kids were inside buying stuff. Then my husband popped into the bakery opposite to pick up some bread. One of my kids popped their head out of the store just then (I'm sure they noticed that I was alone) and asked me if I could come and look at something they wanted to buy. Unable to resist I took that bold step into the store, I looked at their potential purchase and then was told by my eldest "hey mama, you know they have some nice stuff on the sale rack". I gave her a scolding, told her that she would be in trouble with her father (as would I be), and all too willingly headed to the back of the store. My kids had a field day of it, picking things up and enticing me with them. "Mama, wouldn't this look good", "Oh mama, look how cheap this is. Are you sure you can't use it?", "This looks really, really cute". They got so much fun out of it and I got a whole heap of stuff that was so cute, so cheap, and I so did not need. Including these metal lattice hanger things. When we came out of the store my husband just shook his head in despair and I blamed it all on the kids 😉

Now string your weight on to the bottom and secure it with a double knot.

My window is above my kitchen sink and I have to climb on a stool and lean over the sink and kitchen counter to get to the top. So it's not very easy to adjust things in situ. So I hung my strands onto a curtain in my living room using a safety pin. Then I figured out how to space the cranes. I used a tiny piece of blue tac to hold the cranes in place. A tiny piece right at the bottom. Because I used blue tac I was able to adjust the heights so that they matched. It is also much easier to adjust if you find it doesn't work when you move it to where it should be. You could of course use a glue gun to place a small bead of hot glue at the bottom of the crane. But you then have to be sure that you have the right place. If you don't have blue tac you can use any other type of poster tac or you could use plasticine, clay or play doh (although the play doh may not work quite as well). If you want to be really fancy you can string a bead on before you string on a crane and tie the bead into place. The problem with this is of course that it would be really hard to change it later and you would have to tie that knot before you put the next crane onto the string. 

Then you are done. All I had to do was to move the cranes over to my kitchen window! 

If you are wondering how I attached them to my window frame I used some self adhesive ceiling hooks. I'm so happy with these hooks that I bought a heap more so that I could dress all my windows for Christmas. Needless to say the hooks are still in a drawer and the windows were completely naked! Well maybe I'll get round to it next Christmas.  

Easter window decorations

What with everyone being at home things have been a bit busy lately! But after 2.5 weeks of it I just had to take a break from everything. I was determined to get the house decorated for Easter. I'm not sure when the last time was that we were at home for Easter. We usually get away from home for the 4 day weekend. This year we were supposed to be in Brisbane, Australia. Yes, we had a 4 month sabbatical planned starting April 1st. Biggest April fool ever. After one and a half years of planning we were all pretty bummed. The worst part is that it's not something we can ever do again as a family because of the kids schooling. Oh well, we'll find our way down under for a vacation some day!

So back to the window decor! I found this great site which had all kinds of great ideas http://www.woohome.com/diy-2/cute-diy-window-decorating-ways-sure-amaze. And I fell in love with the umbrellas and the snow bunnies.

The site with the umbrella instructions was rather cryptic. Even more so if you don't understand German. https://dekoking.com/regenschirme-aus-papier-basteln/ So here are a few tips. These are not stand alone instructions, you'll need to follow those on the above website and use these as added explanations.

• Use any paper you like. Don't use card stock.
• The circumference of the circle is approximately 7 cm. I used a spool of wire to draw around.
• You will need to cut out 7-8 circles. 

I used some thick transparent paper that I had left over from making little lampshades for Christmas lights

• When you fold them the "pretty" side should be on the inside (very counter intuitive but you kind of look at the umbrellas from underneath.

• I didn't have the nice thin double sided sticky tape that the instructions used. And as you'll know, going to the craft store was not an option. So I used Uhu. After a few failed attempts I figured out a good way to make it work that was not too messy. So after folding the circle into quarters I glued the upper side, pressed it together and let it dry using some bead boxes to weigh it down. 

Here is where I put the glue

And here they are drying

• While they were drying I made the umbrella handles. These are just wooden skewers with wire attached to them so that they could be hung. In my case the wire was an old necklace. I took a wooden bead and thread the wire through it twice and then rammed it onto the top of the skewer (see pictures below). It worked well even without glue because the umbrella is actually rather light. 

• By the time I was done with the handle the glue had dried on the "petals". Then I opened up the pockets a bit and checked to see how many I needed to make the umbrella. 

As you can see here I needed 7. On another I needed 8.

• I glued as show in the picture, to make two halves of the umbrella. This is necessary so you can put the handle in the middle.

• Then I glued the handle to one side with the pointy part sticking out at the top. After this dried I stuck both halves together. 

And this whole project was inspired by a broken necklace that has been hanging on my cupboard door for over a year. I did a bit of upcycling and used it to hang the umbrellas.