back in the old country, when i was a little girl, Christmas didn't officially start until the 15th of december. it coincides with the start of what the church called the "midnight mass". a few days before that, my mother would be in the hunt for a branch of a tree or a dried bush about two to three feet high, and trimmed to a triangular shape. she would secure it in a tin can with cement after which the branches were painted with white and when dried, she'd let us help her hang little toys and bells. then our father would finish it off by winding the multi-coloured lights around it. most years i had wished we would have a "pine tree" just like in the greeting cards. there never was any present underneath it.
when i was five my father made me a set of miniature living room furniture which he made from scraps of wood. i had been forbidden to go in his makeshift workshop underneath the house for weeks lest i'd see what he had been making. for so many days, i remember him coming home asking us children what our favourite colour was. while my siblings changed their favourite colours everyday when asked, i had consistently said my favourite was green. just to annoy him like my siblings i varied my replies from avocado green to army green to lemon green. he painted the furniture avocado green with beige trimmings.
the irony of it was that the furniture were apt for dolls which i never played with. looking back now, how i liked playing with tiny cups and saucers and other whatnots without liking to play with dolls was something that was so disconnected.
the miniature furniture lasted so many years, until that day when we didn't have electricity and they were thrown in the fire so my mother could cook our dinner.
a composite of two images - the bokeh, which i shot last week whilst i had nothing better to do, was overlaid in ribbet. etsooi'd the decorative ball as it was full of dust and other reflections, and edited first in microsoft to get the golden colour and then in ribbet for the overlay.
You have had an interesting life Ms.V and thanks for sharing your story of Christmas pasts. I do like this image you created, it's very pretty and the bokeh is a nice touch too. :)
@30pics4jackiesdiamond - no, no diffuser. fluorescent light in room. 1 sec exposure so it gets in more light in, f/11 to have a larger area of pic in focus.
@Weezilou - i should have written 'used to make a fire for cooking'. in fact over the years, our furniture whenever they broke, they'd be thrown in the backyard and then retrieved whenever there's an energy crisis. then later seeing similar items at the antique store for more than 15K US a piece made my stomach churn. we hardly have anything from our childhood, either they've been stolen or damaged by flood water.
