A nature inspired Christmas

Wooh!  I am overwhelmed with all those over the top Christmas home tours popping up on Pinterest and blogs.  Is it me or have people gone totally overboard  with Christmas decorating? The practical in me rebels.  Where do they store all those new decorations each year?  How much money is invested yearly when one does a complete decor  change at Christmas?  Where is tradition in all of this? 

It’s was so refreshing to visit  my sister’s home this week and see that nature and thrift inspired much of what she has done to invite Christmas cheer. We both love a good bargain and forage our gardens for materials to decorate.  Some of the objects get used year after year in different ways and a small portion are purchased new.   So come along and see what she has done…..

Christmas Welcome

She  has the perfect roofed entry for welcoming  Christmas decor. A centre layout doesn’t hurt either.  She couldn’t pass up these  lovely birch pots even thought she went looking for something larger. I love the colour and texture of them. They  are so versatile and  could easily be used inside too on a table or buffet.

 Birch Pots

 A closer view.  The local dollar store had lots of inexpensive ornaments to add to the cedar and pine.

 Berries and Birds

The red tub and a sprinkling of snow adds to this delightful combination of birds, berries, twigs and greenery.  Happy holidays to all who decide to enter by the back door.  That would be almost everybody in the town where she lives! While I was visiting there were high winds and we were afraid the contents  of this arrangement would  end up in the neighbour’s yard.  Decorating outside in Newfoundland is a risky business.

Dove with greenery

 And inside a stained glass dove, a gift from us several years ago, is incorporated into  this very simple arrangement of greenery in a basket that gets used every year.  This arrangement also serves a practical purpose – it creates privacy and allows the outside in.   Taken at night this shot shows the inside wreath on the opposite wall,  the bare tree outside and  the neighbour’s lights.  I wished I had my camera and not my I Phone for better shots.

 This  versatile candle holder might appear anywhere during the year in her house, but this Christmas it is on the buffet in the dining area. 

 Add a red candle…. 

 

And a $ 2.00  mini wreath, you guessed it from the local dollar store,

 

 and viola …. ready for Christmas. 

We were wishing there was a third one to balance out the wreath.  Spreading them out a little helped.  That shot never got taken.

 And a lovely 3 D snowflake on a spent orchid stalk.   So simple and so riveting .  Your eye will  follow  red anywhere.   We had great discussion about where  the snowflake should be placed.  We decided to put it on the edge of the vignette to move your eye on to the next thing. Two sisters who are both decorators can spend hours talking about very little (according to family)!

An inviting home and a great sister.  Merry Christmas Vera, and thank you for allowing me to show some of your Christmas cheer.

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Christmas, Christmas, Christmas

I love repetition as a statement and it is a powerful vehicle for impact  in art and design.  As you get ready for the coming season perhaps  you would like some inspiration. These images illustrate simple, doable Christmas decor with an emphasis on repetition. Of course Pinterest is the go to site now for ideas of any kind.  These and more ideas  can be found on my  Tis the Season folder.

So simple and effective.  I think this works because of its lack of colour and sparkle against the metal tray.

  How simple is this?  Jingle bells, and white candles on a rectangular white tray.  The variations are endless.

  Pick your choice with this one. Greenery with candles or bulbs in sets of three or four.  I think I would stick to one or the other so it would get noticed more.

 Boxwood wreath with slim tapers massed in the middle.  These little candles and holders usually in clear glass are often found at dollar stores. You could also drill holes of appropriate size in a piece of wood and cover it with aluminum foil for safety.

  While this isn’t specifically  Christmas decor it offers all kinds of ideas about a similar shelf and a repetition of objects for different seasons.

 Love this idea for over a sofa.  Using those plastic snowflakes you can pick up cheaply and gluing them in a circle with  hot glue.  Velvet ribbon  is a must for the look.

 And don’t you just love the repetition of gold vases and two shapes of trees?  Gold is so coming back in vogue. 

 Another set of four but this time using very rustic pots with moss, greenery and candles.

 Lanterns of different shapes and heights can be used with all sorts of
seasonal decor.  I think they are handy to have around for  year around
use.

 Love white and blue at Christmas.  Add in the sparkle of silver ornaments and the scene is set. 

Remember that you can hang wreaths almost anywhere.

If you missed last year’s posts about Christmas decorations check them out here for my house,  for your table,   wreaths,and  mini trees . 

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10 simple accent trees for Christmas

.  There is definitely a “simpler Christmas” trend in the last several years. Simple is good and clean and when you add green to the mix you have the perfect Christmas accent, a small/miniature tree.  From plain to layered, there are lots of options.

 A little woodland whimsy with wooden beads.

 Grouped with a sign 

 Welcoming visitors, no need for ornaments

 A “tree” constructed from branches of boxwood, but easily done with any type of greenery. I would cut oasis in a cone shape and go from there.  For all I know you can get oasis in a cone shape!

 A  shaped rosemary tree with wood accents.

 Rosemary again with starfish for a beach Christmas.

A lovely tree with pinecones in a recycled wooden box.  Nice candlestick holders too. The black and white accents provide a great backdrop.

Love the bucket and bench  (it’s all the texture and gray) but the simple ornaments finish everything off beautifully.  Who would think white card trees could be so elegant?

Did you make these 3 D hearts as a child?  They bring back happy  memories for me. With all the great paper designs available the sky is the limit for this idea.

 And finally a little colour for those who want it.

All links can be found on my Pinterest page.

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Christmas staples: Buds, twigs, branches and berries

There’s nothing like the real thing for Christmas decorating.  You get to go for a little adventure in the woods with your trusty snippers, and come away with a red nose and a trunk full of inspiration.

Sometimes you just have to go to your backyard, but there’s a limit to happy cutting in a small space. That’s where I got the materials for my front porch planters, if you don’t count the leftovers from my summer planter and feathers I’ve recycled several times.   

 Hubby made me a trough box for my trunk/ottoman.  I knew what I wanted to put in it, but I couldn’t hack away anything else in my yard. My sister came to the rescue.  Remember last year when I posted about her nature inspire Christmas?  She  had already made her yearly trip for bough and twig cutting to complete her planters and agreed to take me to her spot. Bonanza.

Here’s her efforts …

Don’t you love that hit of yellow with the red?

Now on to my family affair project..

My son sprayed the box for me with  Krylon Colormaster  in nickel.  Then I taped it off and used gold to create two stripes around the box.  I figured I may as well get with the mixed metal trend.

  I had three LED candles (so safe and they actually flicker- daughter tip from Costco) I wanted to use and went to the dollar store and bought seven square glasses  to put oasis in to keep the boughs fresh. The alder twigs looked a little boring so they got the spray treatment too in a mix of nickel and gold.
Then I began the arrangement.

Fresh flowers are a must anytime of year.

A favourite vase, fluted and textured makes a stunning centerpiece on my coffee table. Nothing else is needed.

And my favourite berry wreath that has been in every room in the house over the years surrounds a vase of baby’s breath and white carnations.  You can tell I like my flowers simple and usually white because they work anywhere with anything, especially with red.

I was very lazy with the  dining room  additions….

I’m not a theme driven decorator, but  nature is always a staple in whatever I do.  My new purchase for 2014 was two white carved reindeer.  I always buy a green plant;  this year it is a Norfolk pine in a faux burlap container.  May it live for awhile.

For my dining table  centrepiece I simply added some fresh cranberries to my Boblen vase, and used it as a candle holder, added a string of red wooden beads  (at least 30 years old) and fake red berries  to the well used  vase of twigs.  In honour of the season I changed my tray to my favourite white one with the silver leaf birds and leaves.

And wise silver bird  looks on knowingly because he’s seen it all before.

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Simple Christmas decorating

  Margaret Ryall

We all have our Christmas rituals and mine usually start December 1st..  I  always make something for my entrance first.   I am not one to overdo things.  I re-use what I have
or forage in  my garden or the gardens of friends. Then I added some LED
lighted twigs and silver balls and a hit of mesh ribbon.   The purple connects with my front door. The blown leaves remind me that we are between seasons.

Margaret Ryall

 Each year I allow myself one  or two new purchases and send at least one small bag of assorted objects to a local charity shop.   I’m extravagant this year with two purchases.  I’ve been looking for a plain wreath to change around each year and found this great one with LED lights  for 25% off at Canadian Tire.  This year the theme is snow flakes and silver… just because.

 

 Margaret Ryall

 This year I embraced our new Target ( very near my home) and purchased three  dark silver vases that you will be seeing around my house through out the coming seasons.  I love repetition in threes as you can see.   A little sparkle with red is refreshing.

   Margaret Ryall

I have a fondness for trays to corral objects into a composition.  This lovely white one was a gift from my husband last year. It has silver leaf leaves and birds on it (see below). 

Candles are always a must at Christmas time and I usually arrange those I have on a tray, add in some flowers and ornaments and call it a day.  I am still fiddling with this arrangement and I may need to invest in some new candles  because these are looking a little worn.  There’s nothing like a photo to help you refine a composition.   The finials are going and I must put in one more pillar for a chubby candle.     Love plain white mini carnations because they last forever.

 

 The new  version with finials removed. Looking better.  Every time I pass by I move something!

That’s it until December 14 when I usually add the second layer of decoration and put up the tree.

I hope you are putting a little sparkle in your home. 

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