I love to create fresh arrangements at Christmas and what else is as timeless and decorative as a fireplace garland, a staircase garland and a table centre and what’s more as soon as Christmas is over it can all go on the compost heap and your room can return to normal.
I started creating at the start of December with my fireplace garland. I started with floral foam in nice deep trays, left over from when i’d done my evening class in floristry last year! I soaked the foam and left space so they can be watered generously throughout the month. With the amount of central heating most of us have on at this time of the year, without the water these arrangements will last about 2 weeks at best.
I then added foliage foraged from the garden which I used to cover the foam. I used privet, eucalyptus and a bit of holly which is the only foliage my garden has to offer at the moment! Note to self I need to plant more shrubs of various different foliage for this time next year!
After creating the basic greenery I then added battery operated LED lights and wired baubles which I could push into the foam. A couple of bows and some glitter stags and its done. I was tempted to add some longer stems and have a certain amount cascading down the front of the fireplace but seeing as our gas fire is a must in our quite drafty 1930s house, I thought it best not to create a fire hazard!
Next project was the staircase garland I created the following week. I will admit I started the project with an artificial garland I bought from The Range. I decided that getting floral foam in trays to sit neatly next to the banister was never going to happen so nipped off to the range in search of a suitably thick garland long enough for the banister and the newel post. Of course I had underestimated how ahead of the game you needed to be to get a choice! By the time I arrived in early December most had sold out and what was left could only be described as the dregs! Lucky for me there was one sad specimen left that was pre-lit but missing the plug! I didn’t want pre-lit so that was fine and they let me have it for £10! Once i’d uncoiled the lights the garland itself was pretty decent.
Using the artificial garland as a base i could then thread through eucalyptus and some faux white eucalyptus.
Adding lights, some white and silver baubles and white wired ribbon the job is done and my hallway looks festive, even though it hasn’t been decorated yet….a job for the new year!
The final job a week before Christmas is the table centre. Again i started with floral foam in waterproof trays, as I’m limited to the types of foliage I have in the garden at the moment, I started with an Aldi bouquet of Christmas foliage, a bargain for £4.99.
The bouquet had a nice selection of christmas tree, eucalyptus, holly and twigs, which i used as well as adding pivet from the garden.
Finishing off with baubles, candles and lights the job is done, if slightly big for its position!
The trouble is once you get started its very easy to get carried away adding foliage!
Oh well its all about being a bit extra! On Christmas day of course I may have to move it to actually fit plates and things on the table, but in the meantime I like it!
