Christmas is in the air!

I realize I have been rather remiss in posting over here. I've been busy - starting my Christmas shopping, hanging out with friends, going to holiday events - a shopping bazaar thingy and then today I did the annual Christmas in Salem home tour! Oh, how I adore snooping in other people's homes! And, for this event, there are professional decorators that come in and do up the houses; some are just spectacular - so this gives me new ideas to steal! I am not above stealing ideas, my friends! Anywho, I've also been busy decorating outside for a couple clients and then also did up a wreath for myself!

Early this week I did 6 planters for one of my clients and she also hired me to do a wreath for her. I did the wreath a few days ago, delivered it and then not-so-promptly remembered that I had wanted to photograph everything, so there ya go! I'll have to make a trip over there to take pictures soon.

Then, my upstairs neighbor always hires me to do her planter, a wreath and a garland around her door. I finished the wreath and planter yesterday but then ran out of time to do the garland - the garlands are pre-made, but I embellish them with different types of greens, berries and curly willow or other types of branches.

Shall we see the progress to date?

Here's the wreath I did up for my neighbor:Quite pretty, no? This year I used many types of greens, some flowering eucalyptus, pepperberries, curly willow and then I made that bow!

Her matching planter:


Here's my wreath. I wanted something very simple, so I just used silver ribbon and a bow for accents:The ribbon wasn't quite right in this photo, but it has since been adjusted so it doens't look like it's just a plain circle. I will sometimes fuss with something over and over and over until it looks just right. I may remove that silver ribbon and just leave the bow by itself. The jury is still out!

Here's the wreath that usually lives on the front door of the house:
It's all backlit and weird looking, but in real life, it's all pretty hues of aqua and greenish. It looks lovely on the front door. Right now it's hanging inside the door of our back entrance in the laundry/mud room.

Mud rooms are a big thing here in New England. Where we are all picking up so much mud that we need to dedicate an entire room to it is rather bothersome to me! How about a dirt room? A salt spray room? A leaf room? I need a leaf room far more than I need a mud room - having two dogs with fluffy hair does not mix well with having leaves on the ground - their fur is like a magnet for leaves! We always have leaves here and there in the house!

As I was outside photographing the wreaths and such, I saw that there are still a few things blooming in the garden! It's been COLD COLD COLD here at night, so I truthfully don't know how these things are still alive!

Asters:


Stonecrop:

And craziest of all, a summer annual, brachyscome:That's just crazy!

Since it has been getting into the 20s at night (I know, YUCK!), I decided to clip the remaining saponaria flowers and buds, as well as the nemesia flowers that all came along with the forget-me-not seeds I planted this summer. The fleurs are sitting by my sink and look so cheerful!


That's all for fleur news today. Tomorrow I am working as a guide for the Christmas in Salem event, so I'll be busy blabbing to hundreds upon hundreds of strangers and friends tomorrow! Tonight we are going to dinner with some friends, and then having dinner with family tomorrow night, so it's a social weekend!

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

Will talk at you again soon!