Simple festive table decoration

If you're looking for a very simple to make and yet extraordinarily beautiful, festive table decoration take a look at what Julie Hall from The Black Hen has created. Julie and I had a conversation a while back about all the simple ways people could make a candleholder for our Bee Lights candles and voila, she sent me these images today to share on our blog. I get to meet some really creative, generous, warm, grounded and brilliant people in my life as a maker of bee created light and none more so than Julie. Whilst I've called it a "festive" decoration, if you removed the festive adornment you could use it all year around. What you'll need: * a fallen tree branch * a drill * festive adornments if you like * Bee Light candles * common sense Method: * Find a beautiful branch (you want one that is stable and won't wobble... if required you could use a belt sander to sand the base so that it sits flat and stable on your table) * Drill holes where you would like to insert your Bee Light candles (I'd suggest using a 6 or 7mm drill bit). While our Bee Lights candles are often wider than that, you want a snug fit and it is easy to warm the base of the candles with your fingers and simply massage it to a narrower diameter at the base) * Insert Bee Lights and fire them up! A word about the common sense required: * you're putting candles (ie a flame) into timber (ie a flammable holder), so you either need to pay attention and blow the candles out when they are say 1cm above the branch OR you could drill your holes wider (say 10mm) and then put some blue tac or something similar around the base of the candle including underneath it and coming to a level slightly above the branch (ie something that is non flammable) and that way the candles will put themselves out when they reach the blue tac rather than setting the branch on fire! Well that's my theory anyway. If you love this, you decide to make one and or you just think Julie is the dogs bollocks for giving us this simple idea, please pop over to The Black Hen facebook page and show her some love or pop a comment below. And if you do make one, please, please send through an image. For creatives, there is nothing more wonderful than seeing an idea take hold and be loved and appreciated. Cheers Cate xx