Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Holiday Decorating Can be Simple...

We've got a family birthday at the end of November. I've been party planning and cake decorating my little heart out. 
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That means that Christmas decorating gets put on hold until December every year, which I guess isn't a bad thing.  But it does mean, with all the other obligations at this time of year, that I like to keep things simple. 

I took the time yesterday to work on two simple projects I felt needed some Christmas attention and would give me BIG decorating for little EFFORT.  First, I have two urns in front of my shed, beside my house.  They are an attempt to makes the giant white shed not so, well, giant.  The urns are exposed, which in turn means they get snowed on...a lot!  Anything I put there has to have enough height to still be visible in a couple feet of snow.

I  went to go to the local grocery store and picked up a bundle of spruce clippings, a bundle of mixed branches, a pine cone and a round ornament for about $25 for each of the urns.  This is my before...embarrassing, but true.



After pulling out the dead plants, and doing my best to loosen up some of the frozen soil, I was able to start by putting in my spruce branches first.  The tall ones went at the back, in the hopes you'll still be able to see a bit of the arrangement with the snow.  Next I layered in the other branches, clipping them when necessary.  I used a really long screwdriver when the soil didn't cooperate.  I have heard that a drill also does the trick.  Finally, in went the large pinecone and ornament, both of which come already fastened to a stick (thanks Loblaws!).  I took some ribbon I already had, did a bow and attached it to the ornament.  I think it's a huge improvement.



My next project was to dress up my mantle.  I have a new painting from Matt Leblanc over my mantle that wasn't there last year.  I decided to use it as my colour inspiration and do all the ornaments in similar colours.  The garland is tied to the mantle with nails and string (it's an old house, so it's ok...otherwise you could use the 3M removable hooks), the ornaments are attached with craft wire and I tucked in sprigs of gold and copper faux branches.  I'm really happy with the outcome.


The garland is something I reuse every year, but what I attach to it changes.  It'll be our pretty until we get our real tree next week!  I'm very excited about that, as it will be my first real tree since I was a baby!  We'll see after this holiday if the tradition will continue next year or not.

Happy Decorating!




Certified Interior Decorator,
Solace Interiors

2 comments:

  1. Your urn looks great, you did good :) And so does the mantel! And I have to say those cupcakes look yummy!

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  2. Thanks Lisa. They'll look even better once there is a wee bit of snow to cover up the dirty driveway! Not sure that will happen with this weather, but here's to a white Christmas.

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