Bling on the christmas girls

I've got the flu, hence the quiet time. However, the world doesn't stop revolving when you're ill and the world of housebling is no different at all.

First up is this stellar effort from Gerry in the US. This is the Elvis House where the bling never dies. This fellah is bling to the core - all year round! No part timers required and the King need not apply. or something. Anyway, get a gander at these babies!





Not a snowman or a santa in sight, so does this qualify for the Housebling prize? I think the answer to that is most definitely "YES"! Here's the deal - Housebling is not a time of year thing, it's a state of mind thing. Garden gnomes, stone cladding, bizarre imitation seagulls and cats on the roof; they're all examples of housebling. Christmas is just the time that the closet blingers come out and announce to the world that they're not ashamed. I guess for them there's comfort in the number of likeminded footsoldiers. Or maybe it's because they can hide in the shadows of the long nights behind the glare of their halogen-fired reindeers. Whatever, the world is a better place for having them in it, but I wonder what it would be like if they were open all year round...

Next up, I've been given a steer by Jake to have a look at his website: www.houseblinger.com.

This example is in Hockley. I particularly like the reindeer and sleigh taking off from the roof.


The site is far more technically adept than this little blog, and hopefully we can all help him to build up a nice little library of pics between now and Christmas. Only a couple of days left folks...

He's got a distinctly Essex feel to the site, in his own words, "The epicentre of UK housebling". He's also coined another term to describe these efforts: "bling-stallations". I quite like that - it adds an air of respectibility and artistic integrity to the activity. It works especially because it makes one think of a fine art sculpture and suggests that the people who put these displays together spend a long time planning and designing before getting to the execution stage. There's no way these guys just wander up a ladder with a hammer and a pocket full of tacks baning the stuff in randomly. No, you can really see the time and effort spent in the preparation stage in the way the these displays hang together as the visual equivalent of a Wagner opera.

Case in point. These guys are in Australia (again). Apparently they've raised a stack of cash for Charity, and they've been doing this for 14 years. Now try telling me this wasn't planned!



So where are the girls alluded to at the top of this post?

The first one is sad story of a young terminally ill girl whose street is mucking in to help her raise money for charity.



If you happen to be in Pembrokeshire, get yourself down there and show your support. The lights are on until Jan 6.

The second story, perhaps a little late, is of Girls Aloud turning on the Christmas lights at the Trafford centre in Manchester. I know it happened back in November, but it is an excuse to put their name in my blog and maybe rustle up a few more hits! Cynical, me? Let's see what happens...

GJ.