Karoline sent me the link to this article in The Guardian about Yiwu, the Chinese village that produces 60% of the world´s Christmas-decorations.
Photograph: Imaginechina/Rex
I think the images are so captivating, I just had to share with you! Season-workers come here and work all year to mass-produce all sorts of decoration.
Photograph: China Daily/Reuters
Lots of the ornaments are cute, nice, beautiful, and others are probably not.
Photograph: Imaginechina/Rex
As an artist I really appreciate home-made/hand-made decorations. And as a counterpart to the mass-production, I thought I´d share an easy way to make a lovely hanging garland.
I first made a heart shape I liked, and used it as a pattern on several silk-fabrics in my favorite colors. Old saris, vintage ribbons, new silk brocades… cut into hearts. I use a recycled silk sari fabric-yarn to bind them together.
I lay down one heart on the sewing machine table, put the fabric-yarn over it, then a layer of cotton-filling (I´ve actually used cotton-pads here), and finally another heart on top of the “sandwich”. Finally I freestyle machine-embroider the hearts together. The fabric-thread comes out at the bottom, and after 3-5 inches it´s time for another heart. I just sew along the thread randomly. And I also sew around the hearts´ edges 2-4 times in a whimsical way. The design is meant to be a bit quirky 
SO there you have it! Three ranks of hanging hearts. Lots of love  in every stitch!
At the bottom I used a sari-covered, wooden bead I once bought at Etsy.
As you can see, I´ve used the red color-scale, from peach and orange to pink and red. I made mine for Christmas, but keep them up all year, as the colors blend naturally in with the rest of my interior. You can of course make yours in your very own favorite colors. If you don´t live near a fabric store that can supply you with yummy silks, you can of course choose other fabrics. I am sure they would look good both in bright, patterned cottons, or hazy tweed-wool.  Or you can find silk treasures on both eBay and Etsy.