Last weekend I got the opportunity to meet up with 13 awesomely talented girls and for 4 days and 3 nights we illustrated, created, quilted, collaged, scraped, designed, photographed and wined & dined. We slept in, caught up on our books & mags, went running (or not ;), and took inCREDible uninterrupted showers. (for Mom's with little ones - this is as good as gold).
Cherry on top is that you actually get a ton of stuff done during this weekend. I finally wrapped up a project that I've been working on and off for way way too long: filling some blank frames on my wall (See first initial brainstorm here). I ended up going in a different direction (with thanks to my RoXy and Quicksilver catalogs), but it was fun to collage and it's great to finally have a little more color up on the walls.
This is our first holiday season in our new home so I've been having a creative blast figuring out how to decorate and make the house festive. :) So many ideas!!! One of my first decor projects is adding a little something to the large vase/terrarium I have in our living room. I started off with a mini mood board.
Luckily I already had picked up a great vase a couple months ago. I found a terrarium at Antiques Americana, a local antique shop, for only $40. Which was a great deal compared to what I've seen out there for even half the size. I had a really hard time finding branches long enough that weren't crazy pricey for each branch. So instead, I bought small faux berries for $3.00/ea bundle at the always awesome, Target. All that was left was collecting a few branches from our woods. :) Tip: grab clean, dry branches that are plenty long. You can always snap them shorter as you design your arrangement.
Simply add the sticks to your vase, break and arrange to your liking. Then break apart the berry clusters (you will probably need a small wire-cutter). Bend the berries around the upper parts of the branches and throughout. These Target berries worked great because I was able to use the corkscrew part when wrapping them around to the branches. Super easy!
I was actually thinking it might need a little bit more. Possibly some greenery or lighted branches like these. I decided to experiment a little in photoshop and this is how it could POSSIBLY look:
Lots of options! What I love the most is that I can easily switch out the berries or other greenery to match the seasons or my moods. I like to change things up throughout the year and it's nice to do it on the cheap. My total cost thus far (not counting terrarium/vase I owned before) was only $15. Not too bad.
