HOLIDAZE

 

What a world wind.............Christmas retail, decorating a home for the Christmas walk, winter containers......a virtual haze. But, I am grateful. Grateful to be busy and blessed with wonderful clients

 

 

Time is clicking.......... loudly. Clients are all cared for, family and friends are not. Eleven days before Christmas........how did that happen!?

    Will I buy cards, send them?   probably not

    Christmas gifts? Not a one!   yikes!

Until that last moment of madness I wanted to share with you some of our projects

LOVE creating clients winter urns. The beauty of "planting" this season is that once complete, they are truly complete. No waiting for them to grow, watering, fertilizing, pinching.........FINISHED, instantly.

We use many faux's, apples, berries.............

Never use styrofoam, they will explode. But hard plastic will last for many seasons

Faux rose hips

Large oval urns were filled with red twig dogwood, pulling in the color of the roof

Have window boxes? Never leave them naked!

The variegated leaf is faux holly. Real holly turns black quickly.

Yellow twig dogwood for a garden of blue and chartreuse.

A stately manor's urn hosts a double juniper tree. With each season the base changes, the juniper tree remains a constant.

The base has a variety of seeded eucalyptus, silver fir and blue berried juniper repeating the elements of above

Back to the blue and chartreuse garden...........we repeated the yellow twig dogwood, faux white berries with blue toned "greens" and yellow seeded cedar

Massive bronze containers match the color of this homes outdoor lanterns.

Yellow and red berries.....yes, faux!. A popular berry is 'winter berry', do not bother.........as soon as it gets cold they too turn black.

On another note I was inspired by a post from friend Eddie Ross. Hosting a contest, Eddie suggested that readers submit their examples of wreaths created with a wire hanger and ornaments. Go to his post of December 12th to see the final submissions, vote for your favorite and view his instructions. Isn't this gorgeous!

PS:  Watch a repeat of Eddie's HGTV special 'Celebrity Holiday Homes'......I am partial, Eddie's portion is the best!

Onto that inspiration...........I pulled from the shop boxwood balls ($7.00 each), double sided satin ribbon and a few other bits

Open the hanger and spear the boxwood balls, use an odd number. Fill the hanger formed into a circle, re-twist the ends to form a hanger and tuck down, below the boxwood balls.

Hung from one of my fav pieces...........a lantern from New Orleans, split. One half frames each side of a window.

Turquoise ribbon and a vintage looking skate.

Without the skate, I added a turquoise ornament garland

Back to our Christmas house................if you recall from our previous post, the theme was turquoise. To my surprise, blogger friend Maria of 'Colour Me Happy' responded that Pantone designated turquoise as the color of 2010, yeah!. If you get a moment visit Maria's wonderful blog.

 

Utterly exhausted I may not get to a tree for our home. BUT if I did, what do you think of this design? Fueled by all that caffeine VOILA! Great use of diet Mountain Dew cans..........now that is going "green!"

But.........now that I am unwinding think I will indulge in this treat my husband found

A mix of chocolate AND red wine........divine!

'Christmas Gift Suggestions'

To your enemy, forgiveness
To your opponent, tolerance
To your friend, your heart
To your customer, service
To all, charity
To every child, a good example
To yourself, respect


by Oren Arnold

  xxo
Debra