Carol Duvall travels on a horse drawn carriage through Manistee, a Lake Michigan port town. Although the logging industry that built the town is now defunct, reminders of former days remain in the beautiful Victorian homes and quaint Christmas traditions.
About five miles from downtown, Duvall visits the home of Michael and Rogene Fischer. Rogene has a Christmas tree in every room and drapes them all with her hand-crafted decorations. She makes garlands from plastic garbage bags as well as from fabric and pine cones. In addition, she creates tiny hat ornaments from knit shirt cuffs and miniature "Elmer Fudd" hats from a pattern. One of the trees in the Fischer home is decorated with stuffed bunny rabbits and real baby carrots hung on a parsley-topped hanger. The Fischer's "Tree of 1,000 Stars" is decorated with German paper star ornaments made by the entire Fischer family. Editor's note: Type the number "18341" into the search box at the left to find instructions and a video demonstration for making German paper stars.
This garland is made from strips of plastic bags cut and gathered along a string. It's waterproof so it's perfect for an outdoor tree.
This garland can be found inside the Fischer home on trees and as window decor. It's strips of fabric stitched together by two center seams, then strung onto twine and gather slightly.
The "Elmer Fudd" hat ornaments also find a home at the Fischers. Rogene Fischer made these ornaments using a pattern.
Fischer made this pine cone garland by hot gluing the cones together. If they come apart, just mend with more hot glue.
This tree features stuffed bunnies and baby carrots with parsley tops hung on wires.
The Tree of 1,000 Stars--German stars, that is. The stars on this tree are made entirely of paper. It takes four strips to make each one. The Fischer family has made more than 1,200 of the paper stars.
Guests Rogene Fischer
Owner, Bittersweet Interiors & Designs Limited
Briny Bldg.
50 Filer St.
Manistee, MI 49660
Phone: 231-723-7099
E-mail: bitsw@manistee-net.com Also in this Episode
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