Why I Oughta...

Last year, I made my first wreath.  A winter wreath .  That hung on our front door.  I used a grapevine wreath as the chassis.  And, used the 'pre-make piles' of materials process.  The material included Magnolia leaves and Silver Dollar Eucalyptus from Trader Joe's.  And some foraged evergreen material including Cypress branches and springs of Green Velvet Boxwoods.  It turned out pretty good.  And, even survived the Winter.  My original post went up in December .  And, I posted a photo of the wreath all the way into March (at the end of the season) and it held up .   Despite today being the last day of September, I'm already thinking about Winter containers, cut evergreen arrangements, Christmas crafts (like pinecones on a stick) and...wreath making.  I have been poking around on floral wholesalers to see what it takes to buy eucalyptus (including Silver Dollar, Seeded and even red tinted stems) and Magnolia bunches in b...

In December, I p ut together my first (ever) evergreen wreath for our front door using a mix of evergreen boughs, magnolia leaves, boxwood and eucalyptus from Trader Joe's. I used an existing grapevine wreath and followed some videos I found that talked about creating 'piles' of material and then wrapping them around the frame with floral wire.  I liked the project and plan on doing it again later this year.   But, I also wanted to document how the wreath held-up during the season.  Below is a photo showing it still on our front door - three months after being installed.  I'd say it looks pretty good.   Next year, I'll be sure to collect/forage for some varied evergreens specifically for the wreath.  

I put together my first (ever) evergreen wreath this weekend.  Using a mix of Fraser Fir limbs from our tree and some Cypress branches and boxwoods from our yard, I created a few dozen 'bunches' of materials.  I watched one wreath-making video (Thanks, Garden Answer) and sort-of figured out how to make the wreath using those 'piles' or 'bunches'.   Nat brought home Silver Dollar Eucalytus and Magnolia leaves from Trader Joes (one bunch of each) and I cut those up and stacked them on each pile.   From there, it was just winding floral wire around the grapevine frame to attach the pile/bunch to the frame.  I moved around the frame, eventually closing-in the whole thing.   Below is a photo of the (my first) wreath hanging on our front door. I'm already thinking about what to do next time and what I like about this first effort. I like the layering and the contrast from the cypress and fir and eucalyptus.  I also like the contrasting colors...