Creating holiday decorations with greenery

Years ago, let’s say like 8, I started purchasing greenery (trimmings of trees & bushes used for making wreaths and the like) at a local nursery. It was fairly inexpensive and I was happy. At the time, I used it to just fill in my flower boxes, to add a little color near the entry ways of my home. Winter time is so dreadfully dreary sometimes (in Ohio) and this adds a lovely bit of color. It’s a nice little pick-me-up on an overcast cold afternoon.

One year, I waited too long and there was absolutely no greenery to be had!
What to do?
I admit, I have difficulty letting things go. I wasn’t just okay with not decorating that year. I like my home to be inviting, inside and out! I had to find a solution and once I did I felt completely ridiculous because in my own backyard was an abundance of evergreen bushes, various berries and branches to decorate with. Forget inexpensive! Free was WAY BETTER! Ever since, I’ve gone crazy harvesting an abundance of usable materials. I like to trim fairly evenly from the back of the bush so it’s not noticeable come spring that a chunk was taken out of it!

This year I decided to step it up a notch and make swag wreaths with my boughs and branches. My 4 year old daughter, Arden and I went out collecting our supplies yesterday. It was a chilly morning, but she loves to help me with all sorts of crafty projects and is already developing an artist eye. Which I have to admit, could not make me more proud!

This is my first ever tutorial, so please go easy. Upon editing photos I realized I didn’t do a very great job at capturing each step. In my head, I know what is going to take place next but obviously you the viewer cannot read minds, so feel free to ask me questions if you need some blanks filled in.

SUPPLIES:
Sturdy cutting tool (for branches)
Scissors
Various types of evergreen from trees and bushes
Berries still on the branches
(Nuts or dried grasses, if you like)
Twine or sturdy string for tying together each segment
Ribbon for bows
Hot glue (for adhering bows if you don’t like my methods)

HOW-TO
1.) I start by gathering a handful of greenery. For this, I’m using False Cypress a fern-like bush. Longest branches first as the base.
I lay it out sort of flat, so it flares out at the bottom. Then I wrap and tie the cut branches with twine as tightly as possible. These are going to need to last several months out doors in poor weather.

2.) Repeat the process above with your next layer of greenery. For my 2nd layer I’m using cut Boxwood. I like to use a different type for each tier that way it provides a little more interest with the varying textures, shapes and shades of green. Again tightly bound with twine.

3.) Layer them together from smallest on top to largest on the bottom. Secure together with twine. If creating the double-sided swag that I did for my window, 2 sets will be needed for each side, which then gets adhered together in the middle.

4.) Add bow. I like to use weatherproof nylon ribbon. It’s a little stiff but has wire for flexibility. It holds up great to all the snow and rain we get here in the Midwest and can be used year after year. If you use a softer satin ribbon it can fade or will get rain spots.
Which is perfectly fine since you can change it out next year if you like. I attached my bows either with feeding a piece of twine through the back center of the bow or using a little “V” twig. Just slid one end of the twig through the back of the center of the bow and then the other stem of the twig through some of the tied branches. Of course, you are welcome to use hot glue if handy, that would hold it as well.

5.) Fill in bare spots with extra greenery to create fullness. Just work them gently either into the tightly bound twine or sort of tangle them among the branches.

6.) Add berries. I do this last because they are very fragile. They can easily get damaged, so I handle them as little as possible. You don’t need much for a pop of color.
Then HOORAY! You are done!

Yesterday I made 3 total decorations. The 3rd went on the lamp post (not shown). With various remnants of greenery finding it’s way into glass jars stashed around the house for added color. Finally, it starting to feel a lot like Christmas!

Moments I live for.

I am a hopeless romantic. I believe in “meant to be”. I love reflecting on how many times my husband and my paths may have crossed before finally meeting at the 2010 census. Everything coming together, just at the right time, like cymbals crashing at the height of a symphony. I’m fascinated by relationships and how they work. Movies, of course, play right into my mindset. The heavy disappointment when instead of explaining themselves, the girl and boy part ways, never understanding what went wrong. The elation, when someone finally finds the courage to make a move and spill their deepest feelings, no matter the cost. These are moments I live for, yet are so hard to come by in real life.

UNTIL

A couple weeks back I was waiting in line at the gas station. Prices had dropped for a minute and cars were backed up at least three behind each pump. On my left, an elderly woman waited her turn. Just as she began to roll her car and take her place as first, a pick-up truck whizzed in from the opposite direction, stopping her in her tracks. The older gentleman that stepped out seemed distracted and confused. He obviously hadn’t seen her and now was flustered by the scenario he found himself in. The startled old woman noticed his apparent distress and got out of her vehicle. Instead of admonishing him for stealing her rightful spot, she offered assistance.

At first, I thought they may know each other. A friend helping another. Totally eaves dropping on their interaction, I found that was not the case.

Gentleman: I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened. I’m so confused.

Lady: Here, let me help you. (as she pulls out the nozzle and starts to pump gas into his car.)

Gentleman: I just haven’t been right since my wife died several years ago.

Lady: Ah, huh (nods in agreement and sympathy) Is there anything else I can help you with?

Gentleman: Can I kiss you?

Lady: Oh heavens, no!

Gentleman: (Talks more about his wife and various body ailments) then asks
“Are you married? Do you want to be?”

Lady: My husband passed away too. No, I’m fine, I don’t want to be married.

Gentleman: I’m 87 and my wife died 4 years ago.

Lady: I’m 87 too. My birthday is in July. When’s yours?…

I giggled to myself, thoroughly enjoying having been a fly on the wall to their interaction. I wanted to stay and listen longer, but my tank was full and it would only be rude to continue to hold up the line. I pulled away, feeling elated and smiling. I loved how the elderly man, with nothing to lose but his loneliness, totally laid it all out there. How the lady, despite her refusal to his brazenness, still stayed to chat with him. Sometimes I find myself wondering where they are and how it ended up. Of course, secretly hoping I was a witness to “meant to be.”

Welcome Home!

The things I enjoyed as a child are oddly enough the same stuff that I find that I still enjoy doing as an adult. Somewhere along the way, I stopped, because I guess I thought I was supposed to. To grow up, be an adult, be serious, make money, pay bills. I have found though, that a lot of that last sentence sucks and eventually it actually sucks the joy out of your life, if you let it. There is no point of depriving yourself of the things you love doing because it may be frowned upon. As long as you aren’t harming yourself or others, ultimately, allowing yourself to be who you are is going to make you happier to be around. It will make your partner happier and your kids and basically everyone else you come in contact with.

For years I wanted to make banners. All I could ever find at the store is gaudy, shiny-looking cut out letters or hearts, not very fitting for what I wanted to decorate a party with. But it wasn’t just that. You know the feeling of excitement that you get when you walk into a decorated room for a party? Whether it be Halloween, or a birthday, whatever. Someone made the effort to make it special and take it to a whole other level. The room is no longer a living room or a basement or a VW Hall. It’s now alive with balloons and steamers or spooky with cobwebs and hanging skeletons.

I wanted that feeling all.the.time. I wanted a banner hanging in my house year-round.
Yet I held back. What if people thought I was stupid? I’m rebellious, but this might be a bit much even for me. At the time, I didn’t even have kids. I told myself it was silly and pushed it deep down. For like 6 years I held back. Just like anything you push down deep, it resurfaces again and again until you deal with it. Damn those craft-making urges I have! For wanting to feel mini child-like wonder every time I walk around my house. I want warm and welcoming, fun and colorful. I want every person that steps through the door of my home, to feel happiness surround them.

So now, I make banners. Personalized ones with peoples names for birthdays or for anniversaries or because they got a promotion or because it’s Fall. Life is hard a lot times, but it’s all the little victories that get us through, that deserve recognition and to be celebrated! The banners sell well and they make me super happy, while making others feel special. My clients love them! And that sassy little girl inside of me says “It’s about time you started listening to me.”

From trash to treasure

Yes, I know, I have been totally MIA. I won’t go into a huge tirade about how the Summer has flown by and I was way too busy with work to enjoy it. Thankfully, I’m starting to be able to breath again and dig out from under my office of card stock and clutter to enjoy the beginning of Fall. One thing we love doing that is semi-cheap, fun and relaxing, is just driving around the city. Checking out new renovations, building murals & billboards, admiring architecture, people watching, listening to music and enjoying the crisp air. {I will provide some photos of these in the weeks to come, just to show you what I mean.}

On our adventure yesterday, through German Village, there was a pile outside of trash by the curb and of course, me the always-ready-to-spot-a-diamond-in-the-rough was on the look out and my husband, always-ready-to-stop-the-car-at-a-moments-notice was on the ball as usual.

I have been recently trying to cut back {a little} on dragging things home, because our garage is PACKED with furniture I can barely find time to redo, despite my best intentions. Fortunately, this time, it was just a little item. I spied a leather messenger bag/satchel on top of the pile. *Pull over please, honey!* It was scratched and roughed up, but clean, without spills! {which is way more than I can say for the insides of purses and totes that I use!} So I hopped out of the trusty Outlander and ran down the street to claim my prize. Later that evening, after an hour spent rubbing on polish, buffing, more polish, a sprinkle of water and a good rubdown, it is a true find for sure!

25th Anniversary of the Route 127

I am all about “the experience”. I don’t enjoy spending money, unless it’s money well-spent and the things I purchase don’t always have to be tangible. I like feelings. While most people run from them, I embrace them. Drowning them out with a substance, pushing them away with denial. To me, there is just no point because all the stuff resurfaces eventually. So why not embrace them and enjoy the ride?

Thus is the fun of the Route 127 aka “The Longest Yardsale”. http://www.127sale.com/ It is a road trip, bargain-finding, treasure hunting extravaganza! This 4 day long wonder spans from Michigan all the way down through a total of 6 states to Alabama. Although I have never made it through all of the states, (just due to the lack of time) even partaking in a small snippet is cathartic.

Maybe it’s the fresh country air, where we can get away from city smog and actually breathe. The scenery, where woods and farmland outnumber buildings. Maybe it’s the people that aren’t in a rush, the friendly elderly ladies that loved that my almost 4-year old daughter was hunting for a deal. The older gentleman, that sold me the beautifully ornate, 100 year old farmhouse door and told me about a Pork Festival that is held there in Sept. (We may need to go back and visit for that!) Or the sweet, bubbly mom, who wistfully mentioned that her daughter was at her first job interview and gave us permission to go feed her horses in the field with the melon rinds and sweet feed she provided.

All of this and the fact that I got to bond with my husband and daughter without a care in the world. No schedule or work bogging me down and stealing my attention away. We have fun and we sing and we just enjoy the ride.

I’m going to try something a little different.

As my past track record has shown, I’m super bad at blogging. I’m always worried I won’t have enough to say or anything interesting to say {which is true for me in real life too.} Except 2 things happened fairly recently that made me start looking at myself a little differently.

1.) About a month ago, Donna on Funky Junk’s blog 
http://www.facebook.com/FunkyJunkInteriors
 challenged her readers to start doing something they were scared of. Yuck. I knew I was scared of writing. I have always been awful at writing in journals too. I make excuses. But when you own a small business, I’ve been told it’s important to get yourself out there any way you can. The less expensive the better. Yes, the world is filled with now millions of blogs and mine is not deeply unique from all the others. If no one even reads this, I had decided I was fine with that. If anything I can look back on all this to see all the awesome projects I’ve accomplished and have it documented. Which leads me to #2.

2.) I realized, I am pretty friggen’ good at A LOT of things. I say this confidently, because in the past I haven’t been so confident about my abilities. I always downplay what I can do. It makes me uncomfortable to talk about myself. God forbid I get some recognition, because something wonderful might start to happen. And that is what has been holding me back. Fear. Yeah, not good. But after you haul 65 sheets of drywall with your husband up a set of stairs in 50 minutes (because you can only have the Lowe’s truck for 70 min. which includes drive time) and you learn how to mud and tape corners on drywall because your husband is busy installing a tub and laying a tile floor and the remodel has to be completed ASAP to get the house rented out, you start thinking “Well if I can do that, what ELSE can I do?”

You see where I’m going here. Even so, it has taken me weeks to get going. And now I’ve drug it out long enough and I’m just forcing myself to post. Instead of just focusing on one thing (which I find hard to do) , this blog will be about my love of re-doing furniture, making over trash into treasure , crafty goodness, my invitations business: dfmi designs, along with all the fun stuff I list on my etsy store, 
http://www.etsy.com/shop/dfmidesigns
 , and of course stories about my family. Hopefully, if anything this blog will provide you with a little inspiration to try something new or to find a new use for something old that might otherwise have gotten thrown out.

So without further ado, here’s a little project I did a couple months ago. While out having lunch in Italian Village, I spotted a old metal prep table out back by the dumpster of the sandwich shop. At the time it was pretty lopsided and looked like too much weight had caused the shelf to fall down. Plus, the tables feet were broken. My husband being the sweet man he is, helped me load it up and bring it home. After some scrubbing, pounding back into place and leveling the feet, it wasn’t looking too bad. Adding metal wire baskets bought cheap from Habitat Re-use It store (love it there!) and it has a cool industrial feel for our shoes.

 

Oh thank you for letting the holidays be over!

I do not like Christmas. It does not mean a joyous good time. It means let’s-see-how-much-crap-we-can-cram-in, in additional to our ordinary lives. There is present buying, with money you don’t have. Trips all over to visit family and far-off friends and in my case, taking on a million projects and then stressing to finish them all. These activities are supposed to bring happiness, but all I know is that I feel dread as they approach.
Somehow, I manage to pull it all together. Or at least have allowed myself some lee-way. Gifts are no long wrapped perfectly with hand-crafted tags; the house is not perfectly clean. We went out for wings for Christmas dinner and it was glorious. As a matter of fact, the actual Christmas day was perfect. I love when there are barely any cars on the road and the world seems like it is just ours. It was relaxing. Oh, how that doesn’t come frequently enough!

It is already the end of January. 2011 is in full swing. I’ve resolved to prioritize, do things smarter. I’ve begun looking at things in a different way and breaking them down to reasonable tasks instead of one more deadline looming over my head. Instead of thinking: I have X, Y and Z to do, I have just been working on them bit by bit. I am surprisingly getting more done. I guess my actual resolution is to find more of that peace and relaxation that has eluded me for so long.

roller coaster cont: the ups

I know, I know. I started a blog, make a couple posts, then disappear for weeks. Now I write 2 entries in one day. Random. But after that last post, who couldn’t use a little pick-me-up? I know I sure needed one.

For the last couple months, I have been putting together packets of my cards and mailing them out to carefully researched stores. I want them to be a perfect fit. OR what I think is a perfect fit anyway, obviously the store owners/ managers do not. Most places say that they aren’t looking for new inventory until Spring, which is a bit disheartening, as wedding season is slow now and the point of this, is well to make money when it’s slow.
Plus, I wouldn’t mind building a card empire. Okay, maybe not an empire, but enough accounts to keep things steady and growing. Now that would be cool! (As thankful as I am for all my wonderful clients, wedding invitations are not exactly rich with repeat business.)

I have been able to sell at Emperor’s Newest Clothes in the Short North for the last couple years and most recently at Voda Emporium in Olde Town East. I know both of the owners and am thankful for the opportunity they provide.

On a particularly fateful day last week, I took Arden to the mad house that is the children’s play area at Polaris. After about an hour there, we were leaving and I noticed a store over to the left. They had giant cardboard letters to buy. I cannot resist the lure of letters, so I had to check it out.

The inside was lovely and I don’t know what possessed me, but I asked the sales woman if the store was family owned. She said it was. Then before I knew it, I asked if I could bring my cards in for them to consider. She said that would be great.

The next day I drop off my packet of samples. With my holiday cards, there is a total of 22 designs. I was SO NERVOUS! And by the time I had walked across the mall, out to the end of the parking lot and just starting to drive away, the store manager, Israel Jones, of Shine called me and asked me to come back. The entire Jones Family (who own both Shine and Nest at Easton) were there and Laura (mom) and Addison (daughter) placed an order for 24 of each card. (Some for each store) OMG!!!! Not to mention, these people are so nice, you wish you could be a member of their family. Each one of them is a creative genius onto themselves. Combined they are UNSTOPPABLE.

Ok. Enough with the dramatics! This is super exciting though!
Needless to say, I feel extremely fortunate to be working with them. Going back in the first evening the cards where there, on display, was total awesome-ness. They look amazing. (From what I heard, are selling well, so we are all very excited.)

HOORAY! (Also much jumping up and down)
Be sure to check out their stores the next time you are at Polaris (Shine) or Easton (Nest).

roller coaster of emotion: the downs

There are many times in my job where things are very last minute. It has come to be expected. So when I received a call to make these fancy frame awards for a ceremony that would be presented in a week (along with a crystal award), I didn’t think much of it. I was working with a member of the organization’s board, she wanted things to be perfect. I was in such a hurry, I didn’t charge a sample fee upfront. My first mistake. Thankfully I didn’t end up wasting as much money on supplies as I did my time. Because when it came down to pay, this individual freaked at the thought of using Paypal. “Why would I go through a third party, when I am comfortable just giving you my credit card over the phone?” she had asked.

Well for one, I am not comfortable with that. I like the safety and security Paypal provides. And two: I am a small business, I try to save money where ever possible. Paypal’s fees are less costly than running transactions on a credit card machine. A couple hours later she informed me that her husband obtained a virus from downloading Paypal. Ummm, what? That doesn’t even make sense.

Her solution: She could wire me the money.

Well, great, but I wasn’t giving up my bank account number, so I suggested she go through Western Union. OR if money was no object, as she had previously stated more than once, her company could cut a check and have it over-nighted as others have done in a pinch.

No go.

In the end, the project was a complete waste. She berated me for “not accepting credit cards”. I had even offered to complete the order and ship it and she could mail the payment. She declined saying she couldn’t guarantee payment for my services.

Was it a scam? Were they just after the paltry sum in by business account or looking to rack up debt with my information? OR was it a quirky client? (I mean I have had some unusual circumstances that have been legit.)

This kind of circumstance takes it’s toll on me. Sigh.

 

hooray! holiday card give-away!

So as a lot of you know, every year I make holiday cards. Some years they have been witty, some have been just plain awful (cause I tried too hard.) A couple have been rather pretty, if I do say-so-myself. This year I have been forced (well, given a little nudge) to get a jump on the designing, since they will be sold in stores. At least a couple (fingers crossed there will be more soon!)

Here’s what’s new so far for this year. Ta-da!

These little beauties are printed on iridescent (shimmery) card stock and come in 2 colors. Green with the holly or periwinkle with the palm design.

Now for the best part!

I will be giving away a set of 30 of these cards (winner chooses color). To enter harass your friends to join dfmi designs FB group, “Like” this post and/or follow my fledgling blog. Be sure to post to me on FB to let me know how you entered. Winner will be picked at random on Monday, Nov. 15th.

Good luck!