A Christmas basket

It JUST started snowing outside. I was looking at the weather.gov radar and looking out the window and trying to figure out why it wasn't snowing yet, then all of a sudden it started. How's that for "on cue". It's coming down steadily- in the five minutes it's been snowing, the roads & driveways are white & covered. They say we'll get 6 to 10 inches of the stuff before the weekend's over. Oh joy.

Earlier this week, on Wednesday, it was decently warm (as in, we could stand to be outside), and Josh was cutting some vines that were climbing up our garage, because they'd gotten a little out of hand. During the last snow, I got some pictures around the yard, and was especially entranced with the festive look of the berries on the honeysuckle bushes at the front of the yard. I had to do something decorative with them- especially since those bushes are sorely in need of a trimming anyway (or so says all the visitors to our house, when they make it difficult to see down the road & turn out of our driveway).
I decided to make a wreath! I trimmed a couple branches of berries, and a few more from the bushes in front of the house, and took a few of the vines that Josh had cut, and I was ready. I mean, if Stephanie's son could make a wreath, surely I could figure it out? Um, no, I couldn't. I think it had something to do with the berry branches not being super-flexible and the bush branches not being long enough. I still held out hope that maybe I could get some kind of "wreath form" at Michaels to stick all my cuttings in. I was going to Michaels anyway that evening, but I first stopped by Goodwill (because I can't resist, really, and I happened to be out without a husband in tow, so I could browse as long as I liked.)

My back-up plan for this wreath venture was to make a Christmas centerpiece instead. And what did I find at Goodwill, but the perfect basket for a centerpiece, complete with little tines in the middle of it to hold florist foam stuff? It was $2, so I snatched it up and changed my wreath plan. At Michaels, I picked up the "florist foam" to stick all the cuttings in.

I got home and excitedly started assembling this thing. I used all the berry branches and evergreen bush branches, but the ivy wasn't going to fit. I set it along a shelf as garland for the time being. I was happy with the result.

It's not professional-looking or fancy, but I'm mostly excited because I was able to use plants from my yard to put it together, and it's something that can add a little beauty to our home- especially with all the visitors we'll be having over the next week and a half (I just counted- 2 today, 13 Monday, 11 on the 23rd, 6 on Christmas, not counting spontaneous guests. It should be fun.)

This isn't the type of project I typically make the effort to do- it's impractical, and we all know I very rarely do anything impractical. It makes a mess (though, the berries and needles aren't falling off the branches yet!) and takes up space and takes time and effort to make, and cost me about $4... but it adds beauty and warmth, which, I'm learning, is a part of hospitality. Sometimes it's worth the effort, if it brings smiles to faces. I'm usually not good at details like this, but I'm learning.