Christmas at Home

Just a few pictures of the decorations around our home. Hope your holidays are merry and bright.

Wreath Making

This past weekend my mother-in-law and I went to Russell Nursery to do their wreath making class. I took the class last year and loved the results. I think the fresh, real wreath looks so much nice then the plastic berries and glitter wreaths they seem to be selling these days. This year I decided to use cedar as my base. I don't usually wear gloves to these classes because I find they just make things harder but this year I wish I had. I ended up with an allergic reaction to the cedar all over my fingers. But I slapped some Aveeno on it as soon as I got home and it cleared up pretty quickly.

 The cedar made for a floppier looking wreath than the one I made last year but I like the natural look of it.

 Again, I went for the traditional holly to accent my wreath. I have a white front door so I really like to add a little bit of red to anything that hangs on my front door. Red and white are just so Christmasy!

The finished product! I used those beautiful sequoia cones for the final touches. They were beautiful, they had an almost rose-like appearance and I love how they look with the holly. This wreath is now proudly hanging on my front door!

Wreath Making

This was something new to me. I have never made my own "fresh" wreath. I decided I wanted to learn how to do it properly so I signed up for a class at a local nursery. I ended up enjoying the whole thing immensely so this will probably become a yearly thing for me.

We began by stuffing a metal frame with moss. The moss they use has been salvaged by a man that live up island. He goes and collects the moss ahead of logging vehicles up near Cowichan Valley. The moss doesn't look all that neat when it first goes in but it tidies up when you secure it in place with wire.

Then it was time to select our greenery. It was a tough choice because it was all so attractive but I decided to start with some cedar. We snipped the ends so they would go through the moss easier and did the entire outer edge. Then you had a choice of using some different greenery for the inside or making the whole base out of the same type.

I decided to add a little fir on the inside of my wreath and I was really lucky to find some branches that still had pinecones on them. Then I also added a few more little piece of greenery to give it a variety of textures. That was the basic wreath and all that was left to do was to embellish.

I chose to embellish mine with some winter berries and a few rosehips. I am thrilled with how it turned out. It is so natural looking and just screams Christmas! If you are in the Saanich area and you would like to try making your own wreath visit Russell Nursery for information on their classes. If you aren't interested in the classes, they do have a great selection of greenery and berries if you want to make your own at home.