My Christmas Stag head decorating disaster

One of the best things about blogging about interiors is being asked do fun stuff like style challenges. When girls at The French Bedroom Company asked me if I would do their Christmas Stag Head decorating challenge what could go wrong? A hell of a lot, as it happens.

Christmas Stag head styling challenge

We all know I’m a bit of a Christmas Lazy Girl (I even posted about my lazy ways) – preferring to skip off to beach in December over hanging up decorations any day. But when the team at The French Bedroom Company as me to join in their Stag challenge, how could I say No ? Especially when the beautiful Stag head (£40 for a large) looks so good.
I put aside my Bah-Humbug attitude, and decided to step up to the styling mark. My idea was to hang the head on the wall and stylishly decorate it with pom pom fairy lights from The Wise House – you know, go all Nordic with my styling – nice and simple.
But the stag head didn’t look right on my existing hooks in my walls. No problems, I thought – I’ll artfully rest it on top my beautiful vintage desk (a £40 Gumtree impulse purchase) to make it a feature in my dining room.
Over a couple of glasses of wine (and that might be the issue right there…) I dressed my stag head with lights, some pom pom trim I had knocking around, shoved my reluctant dog into the shot. Boom! That, I thought it one cool Stag **dusts shoulders**

Then the obvious happened. The deer slipped as – IT IS MEANT TO GO ON THE WALL FOR A REASON,  DAMMIT! And of course, one of the antlers snapped off as it crashed onto the floor FFS. I don’t know how as the deer head is made of solid resin and is a heavy-weight beast.
I tried very hard not to have a Christmas melt down.

This is why I don’t do Christmas decorating

grumble grumble grumble

Despite lots of superglue, the antler would not go back on. ARRRRGHHHH!!!! All I had was bright blue gaffer tape which did the trick. But looked ridiculous. I decided to forge ahead and make this tape part of the ‘theme’. So to blend in the gaffer, I wrapped a ton of Tiger wasabi table all around it. A multi-coloured-bandage-of-sorts.

This is the end result

I want you to sort of squint when you look at it and pretend, for my sake, the blue tape look prettier than it does.

Maybe I can call this my ‘Art’….can you see it in the Tate Modern with the following sign
”Christmas Stag by Maxine Brady
The artist has evoked the spirit animal of a stag to represents how at these difficult, fractious and broken times, us as human race, need more and more the strong forces of nature to help draw ourselves together to create a one that is whole, yet apart all at once.’
Resin and tape, 2016”
Have I got away with it?!?!?!
***Looks hopeful***

Lessons learnt: Do’s & don’t to decorating a Christmas Stag Head

1/ Do fix the deer to the wall. Don’t rest it up, as it will break
2/ Don’t use glue to fix it. Do use tape. Don’t use blue tape
3/ Do cover over cracks with battery fairy lights
4/ Don’t drape pom poms into candle flames as they will burn
5/ Do use wasabi tape and make it look like art
6/ Do try and bluff your way through a red-wine mishap.
If you want to see what other less clumsy bloggers did with their stag, then check out Don’t Cramp My Style who jazzed up heres with pink spray, or The Pink House who gave it a mega bauble makeover. And Sarah Awisombe gave hers pink spots to match her pink tree.

Merry Christmas + Happy & Healthy 2017 to all of us

What a funny way to end my blogging year! Always good to put a positive spin on these things, don’t you think. I’m happy to put my Christmas stag disaster behind me – and instead, wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a very happy + healthy 2017.
This is my last post of the Christmas. I’m off to the Philippines for six weeks. Yipppeeeee.
Don’t worry, I left lots of lovely content up and coming on my blog that will make it worth your while stopping by each week even if I’m away. I’ve blogs on my secret shop of 2017, and how I filled my home for free, as well as my small kitchen planning tips.
I’m also going to be all over social media when I’m away, so I’ll be checking in to say Hi!
There’s lots and lots of fun things planned for the new year (I might stay way from stag heads for a while) and some exciting projects I can’t wait to share with you – all change around here…more to come, I promise.
In the meantime, why don’t you get 2017 off to a good start by signing up to my spam-free newsletter? Start your year off with a bang!

** Disclaimer – obvs I was gifted this Stag head for the challenge. All photos and styling and damages, are mine!