A look back at 2011 pt.1

First I met my soon to be Husband.

We set a date and were married in April 2011

The happy reception with lots of friends and family.

Wedding cupcakes.

We got married in Windsor.

Christopher is promoted to Manager.

Joni on the upstairs patio.

 The summer patio.

Christopher and I in Los Vegas.

The new backyard garden in July. "whew was it a hot summer"

A fall picnic on the river.

Enjoying the garden.

Snow and Ice

Snow and ice were the theme for this years Christmas tree, actually they were last years theme too. Joni makes a bed in the cotton snow under the tree.

I wanted the tree to glisten the way snow and ice does on a crisp winter day and to be all ckrystally looking if though it was covered in ice. Yep that's Joni again.

Snowballs, and snowflakes, and icicles, crisp and clean.

 If you look to the bottom left of the snow skirt you can see Joni again. Yes he is my Christmas present.

Merry Christmas to all.

TheFront porch cardinals

Our front porch pots feature Cardinals this year.....no, they are not real, that's what make them so easy to decorate with. Could you imagine he amount of poop if these were real birds. Not only that how freaky would it be to have birds hanging around like this?

The big Bad Cat ( Christopher ) saw these branches a our local Farmers Market and liked them, so to keep everybody happy I made sure I designed my winter pots around these Cardinals.

Seasonal colors of red and green in the day. These pots have red and gold lights in them for the night display Two looks are better than one I always say.  

The pots are dressed with Noble Fir collars, faux holly berries, fresh boxwood, and red twig dogwood branches that also act as perches for the Cardinals. I think they are ready for any Holiday or winter occasion.

The holiday wreath on my front door.

The holiday wreath is always a great welcome gesture this time of year. I decided to make...or rather decorate my own this year.

Using some left-over ornaments (glass, that have been sealed for water tightness) magnolia leafs, fake berries, and pine cones. Normally I would not use any glass outside, b t I've herd that by making them water tight they should do fine. I used a feather ornament too, kinda waiting to see how this hold up to the weather too.

I used colors that went with my color scheme of reds, greens, and

golds. I kinda like for things to match, must be the designer in me. Two colors are boring , three

works best for me......sometimes four. Kinda depends on the colors.

 When decorating your own wreath one problem is not knowing when to stop adding things to it. I wanted

my wreath to look natural with some green showing and even if the wreath is fake greenery.By adding some real element to the wreath, I think it come out pretty real looking.



Winter whites and lights

 My Holiday and winter pots all start with the Idea that these arrangements will still look good after the holidays. Here fresh noble fir collars and boxwood are just the beginning of this arrangement.

 The window boxes also get this fresh green collar treatment, though somewhat time consuming, and messy I love the look.

It snowed the night before I did this installation, this is the most snow we've had so far, and it was gone by later that afternoon. Once the evergreen collars are done you can begin to add you centerpiece. Here white sticks,red berries and snowball lights complete the look. 

 This box is on the side of the house next to the drive way and out side the library window. The snow added a nice touch.

 The font of the house gets decorated in White lights of various sizes and shapes, his adds texture. Garlands and wreaths help to ring in the season.

One thing I try to do in all of my winter decorating is try to make it look just as good in the day when lights are not on. The lights bring a whole new look to this display.

Notice how I used lights that look like snowballs to mimic the balls on the branches, this reads very well in the daylight.

 The large wreath has no bow on it,  but a assortment of silver baubles and red berries does he job nicely keeping in-tune with the color scheme here.

The urn in the back formal garden features tall silver and white sticks, the large c9 lights makes the arrangement glow from below at night. Large lights give off so much more light.

The arborvitae, Hydrangea's, and the gold Juniper balls frame this pot beautifully don't you agree?

This house and garden are dressed for the holidays and for the winter in whites and lights.

The garden just glows.

A glance at some winter pots

Here's a glance of one of my clients winter pots. The whole project was a joy to do, and the weather was great which made it easy.

The color scheme is simple, greens, whites and natural. Lights were added to some of the arrangements

A wide variety of materials were used, such as magnolia, noble fir, eucalyptus, and Styrofoam balls wrapped in yarns

These pots are near the front gate entrance and feature protea and gold thread juniper branches.

The four large pots in the rear all have noble fir collars and metal vine climbers wrapped in lights. I'm sure the frog sculptures enjoy this.

Since the clients do not celebrate Christmas nothing red was used, we didn't want it to look like a Holiday display

 the front porch pots have noble fir collars, tall ting ting and fake apples.

Lots of magnolia was used, the amaranthus is not real, but very real looking.

 These wall planters are visible from the clients windows, a important view from inside.

 Pine cones  on sticks and grape vine balls add new shapes and textures.

A pot outside the doors features really tall ting ting branches easily viewed from the inside.

These planters are on the courtyard entrance, the first hint that something magical is going on behind these walls and beyond the gate.

The planters in the dog run feature gold amaranthus, magnolia and noble fir branches. These planters are also visible from the clients inside, as well when the dogs have to go take care of some business.