Rustic and Natural Christmas

The last couple of years I decorated our Christmas tree in shades of coffee and cream with beautiful glass balls, golden bead garlands and some handmade paper birds complete with real feathers and a garland of ivory and chocolate tulle for a soft play on the lights.  Pretty fancy for me!  But I had always incorporated some natural decor with dried plant pods and plumes,  spray-painted in metallic gold, ivory, or espresso.

2012 is the year of the fully rustic tree at our house.  This is more "me" for sure! I think my favorite ornies so far are my twig snowflakes. Some have pine cones and greens hot-glued on, but my favorite version sports tiny cedar and oak "holeless buttons" I had cut 
back in the summer for use at our daughter's wedding in September.  Love those!

The glow of the mini-lights looks so inviting in these first pics, I just couldn't resist turning off the flash for these.

This snowflake has been dressed with bits cut from a candle wreath rescued from a local thrift store.  Why spend $ on brand new items from the craft supply stores when I can pick up thrift shops that can be repurposed like this.

 

OK - so here are pics with flash - shows detail much better.

 I also crafted a star to set atop the tree....

 and a mini-tree complete with real tiny pinecones gathered from beneath a huge, old evergreen tree located on the grounds of the university where I work.  I spritzed those babies with a light coat of red 
spray-paint to add a punch of color.  The finishing touches area couple of rusty jingle bells and epsom salt mod-podgedat the end of each "branch" to add just a bit of sparkle.

 

Other bits and pieces I used on our tree: raffia for garland, ruby red glass pine cones,  real pine cones in various sizes, oversized rusty skeleton keys.  I'm still looking for ways to utilize more of the cedar buttons - maybe a garland?

Can't wait for tomorrow - my daughters and a couple of grandaughters will be joining me for some serious cookie-baking-decorating and crafting!  We do this every year and always have a grand time!

Twiggy Spring Decorating

I'm seeing a lot of twigs in spring decorations this year.  

How great is that?!  I have an endless supply of sticks, twigs, limbs, vines and
more here on the farm! An armful of twigs combined with some
tiny wooden eggs and creamy wee blooms now adorn our
vintage screen door monogram on the front porch.

I bought a large bag of miscellaneous eggs at the thrift store last week for $5 -
among them was a collection of tiny wooden Easter tree ornaments, many
of which were itty-bitty eggs. I painted a couple of those in a pretty blue and
speckled them good with a bit of brown paint.  Then using twigs from the
yard and a bit of faux moss (another thrift store find - a big bag for $1) 

I wired and hot glued them to create a nest.

That was great for one corner....but it needed something to balance it. So out came
my bag of creamy fabric scraps - muslin, burlap, osnaburg - you name it, if it's
off-white, cream, oatmeal, wheat, tan, or anything in-between, it's in there!
I cut simple 4-petaled blossoms to my heart's content.  I scrunched them a
bit and hot-glued them to the wreath I'd wired together from the

same batch of twigs I'd used to construct the nest.

Love the twiggy-ness of this!  Also love the pop of color from the eggs and the

simple, sweetness of the blooms.  But...now I'm thinking maybe my blooms

need some color....they just don't have much impact with the creamy yellow

background of our house siding.  They would look gorgeous on my green

wall in the front room...Hmmmm....may have to find a new spot inside for

this wreath and have another go at this spot with more color

 So, what's happening on your front porch this spring?

Have twigs found their way into your decorating scheme lately?

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