After a busy and messy day involving three little boys, a lot of mud and a lot of soap (you would think the soap was the clean up part but it actually got as messy as the mud:) Josh and I decided to spend some quiet thoughtful time putting together a wreath for our front door.
I like to use what ever plants we can find that I think will stay green a while under our summer sun,
last year we chose rosemary as our house had a huge lush bush of it, this year we have lots of beautiful Australian native trees in our garden to choose from.
I'm not sure what type of tree this is but it smells great (sort of like eucalyptus or tea-tree) so it was a winner!
We bent a coat hanger to a circle and twisted thin pliable branches around it. The first few branches needed to be fastened into place with some fabric scraps but after that we were able to weave the ends in between the coat hanger and the branches that were already twisted on.
At the end we added some bell ornaments. I put these same ornaments on mums wreath at her house the other day and they jingle each time the door opens, fun
Last week i was laying at the park in my home town waiting for Benny to come from his dentist appointment. I was marveling at these beautiful bougainvilleas which were in full bloom and had spread their beautiful flowers all over the grass.
I remember visiting that same park when I was little and making cubby houses under those very bushes. I also have fond memories of walking past them on the way to school on summer mornings and grabbing hand fulls of blooms to scatter on the rest of my walk.
They scream summer to me and also happen to retain their colour for a long while as they dry out so I knew they would make a wonderful Summer Solstice garland
I simply tied sewing cotton to a needle and threaded them on. Now I can enjoy them until the colour has gone and then they will go back to the earth and I will look forward to next years blooms.
Those of you who have a Summer Christmas, I would love to know what you are doing! Also if you have blogged about Summery Christmas ideas/decorating/preparations please leave a link in the comments section so that i can find inspiration from your ideas:)
Head on over to
Natural Suburbia to see more creativity on this happy Friday
10 comments:
Both are beautiful :) That is such a wonderfully vibrant colour for dried flowers, and your garland looks so classy and pretty :)
Love your garland, gorgeous colour
Thanks! Cant wait to show this to Lyra, she'll be excited.
It all looks beautiful!
Hi! How lovely idea to make a garland with bougainvillea! I have one but it has never been very well and makes only few flowers every year - but in different colours!
Merry Christmas from Greece! x Teje
I LOVE the bougainvillea garland! We recently moved from Florida, where I grew up, to the northeast US and Christmas really is more like summer there most years. If I still lived there I would most definitely be making one but instead I suppose we will have our first wintery Christmas we have had for some time. Happy Holidays to you and your family!.
I just love the adbent wreath and also the bougainvillea as you know we have bougainvillea in the garden and it seems to bloom all year around Els gave me the original plant so it often makes me think of her. they are here now and it is wonderful see you Saturday.
Thanks for the note Karen. Lyra really enjoyed reading and seeing all your decor- now you've hit on her favorite topic, food! I cant wait to show her.
It is really fun to see how you decorate for Christmas with it being almost summer on the other half of the world. Just beautiful.
Karen, your wreath is really beautiful and I love the bouganvillea garland!! If it wasn't raining (looks like another wet Christmas) I'd be going out right now to make some too! I haven't gone too well on thinking up summer Christmas ideas. I have just gone for red,green and white. But I am going to get started on our summer nature table and decorations as soon as Christmas is over! Have a lovely day tomorrow!
Actually, I did hear a nice idea - one lady had a little mini tree and hung a starfish on it. I've just made a few green and red birdies and hung them on a banksia branch. Hoping to post today!! But I'm always late....
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