The fun of decorating for Christmas is in the bringing inside of live plants. The live tree is still a must for me. We had a fresh wreath on the door and the heady sweet musky scent of pine gets trapped inside the storm door and hits you on your way through the door. However, the most fun I get to have is in arranging the flowers.
Used to be that the swanky grocery store would sell three bunches of flowers for a reasonable amount. Maybe $12. And my tradition has always been to go and pick them out and arrange the centerpiece myself. This year, I returned to the swanky store for my meat and flowers.
Except those poor floral women had their floral habitat moved to the front of the store, slam up against the coffee place and the front door. I felt bad for them. I told them so. Flowers are a task that needs lots of space.
Then I felt bad for me when they said that the special I was looking for had been long since discontinued. Oh well. So I went ahead and bought three bouquets of flowers at $5.99 each. A total of $18 for my flowers but I felt they were worth it.
The inspiration colors come from a vintage floral fabric I have stretched in poster frames on the dining room wall every Christmas. There’s an orangey red and a deeper blue red combination in the flowers.
I tried to duplicate that color combo with the orangey spray roses and the red mums with yellow centers. And then added Hypericum berries for a texture.
Wanting to keep the arrangements low, I chose to put them in old cream-colored bowls. Then I made a grid of scotch tape across the tops of the bowls to hold the flowers. My greenery was a couple of handfuls of boxwood from the bushes out front. The little tiny leaves are another nice texture and they stay green a long time.
And then I just started cutting and poking and layering. Once I placed them on the table, I placed the green apples beside as well as votive candles all around and a little green ribbon woven through . I thought to anchor the visual by placing it on top of brown paper which also separates it from the red tablecloth.
I was very pleased with the way they turned out. My centerpiece was charming. I managed a little Christmas creativity for myself after all. The last of the Christmas decorating posts to come on Friday and then wait for the date for the live house walk through. Looks great now so why not?
