Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hopefully some day Santa will bring me a house that I can decorate as cute as this one.

*Photo from One Kings Lane

Christmas Florals

I spent some time today arranging some Christmas floral bouquets to give away as Christmas gifts. I wanted these gifts to have a personal touch, so instead of ordering bouquets, I picked out my own flowers and vases and arranged them myself. I was a little surprised, but there were really only 2 red flowers to choose from; roses and amaryllis. I thought roses were a little too Valentine's Day and I really liked the way the amaryllis looked with the hydrangeas and holly berries. Here are the 2 different holiday arrangements that I made.



This past week I also helped my sister make a wreath for her door to coordinate with the rest of her cherry red and white Christmas decorations. Here is our finished product, so much more fun and personal than buying a pre decorated wreath!


While I was at the wholesale flower warehouse today I saw so many different types of real holiday greenery for mantle and doorway garland and real leaves and needles made into square or round wreaths. There is such a huge difference between real greenery vs. faux, which I didn't really realize until I had a closer look at it today. It's a little late to start now, but next year I'm definitely going to see what I can create using real foliage.

Holiday Home Tours

Speaking of holiday decorating... After I posted about my own holiday decorating services yesterday, I decided to do a little research and see what other holiday decorating cheer is going on in Orange County. Here is some info that I found on holiday home tours going on in our area:

The Lido Isle Women's Charitable Foundation is putting on their 6th annual "Home for the Holidays", touring 3 beautiful Lido Island homes dressed up to the nines with holiday goodness. The Tour is this Thursday, December 3 from 11:00-3:00. Read more information and how to get tickets here.

The Newport Shores Holiday Home Tour is this Sunday, December 6 from 2:00-5:00pm. This is an annual event and this year the proceeds will provide gifts for the military troops who are stationed in Iraq. Find more information here.

The Balboa Island Walking Holiday Home Tour is Sunday December 13 from 11:00-4:00 pm. More information available here.

And in case anyone is lucky enough to be heading off to the Big Apple in the next week or two, you can tour The Holiday Showhouse on the upper east side with some big name decorators like Charlotte Moss, James Rixner, and Eric Cohler. The showhouse is open until December 14 in NYC. Read more information on Charlotte's website here.

*The photo at the top is from Charlotte Moss's spread in the Nov-Dec issue of Veranda. Amazing as always.

Holiday Decorating

Three years ago I started holiday decorating for a client in Dana Point. She has an amazing home overlooking the ocean, so it's basically like I have an office with a view for the three days that I spend decorating her home for Christmas. Who can argue with that?

Her house has a really earthy, rustic feel and her main request is that the decorations mesh well with her existing decor and furnishings. I could spend days and weeks shopping for wreaths and garland with all of the perfect elements to coordinate with our desired look and feel, so instead, I buy plain greenery and then make custom wreaths and garland. I start from scratch every year, so I use the same color scheme, but each year the decor turns out a little different! She loves ribbon and bows mixed with sparkly poinsettias and ornaments. I keep everything in rusts, browns, and golds to blend well with her furnishings and wall color. This year I integrated wood and bark type elements with feathers nestled in the garland to add to the woodland, rustic feel.

Here are some photos of the festive decor...

Wreaths on the front gate.

I was really happy with how this family room mantle turned out. This past year we had these cushions and pillows custom made to fit around her fireplace so this is the first time that I got to see the finished space decked out for Christmas. Having the cushions and pillows around the fireplace adds to the cozy Christmas vibe and the colors in the garland fit right in.

This is the living room mantle. We both decided we really liked the loose hanging look instead of propping the greenery up on the mantle.

There was actually a lot more greenery throughout her home but it was dark by the time it was completed and my camera flash + shiny reflective ribbon and ornaments = not so great photos. If I go back over before Christmas, I'll have to snag some more photos.

If you or anyone you know wants to get decked out for the holidays but doesn't have a lot of time, give me a call and I'll have you feeling festive in no time. Or, if you only want one strand of garland or a wreath, check out my holiday etsy shop here for custom options. Happy decorating!

Handmade Stockings and Christmas Crafting

It's time to say good-bye to Thanksgiving and hello to the Christmas season! While we were home for Thanksgiving my sister decided she was going to sew a Christmas stocking for her new husband. My dad and oldest sister are great with the sewing machine so it was the perfect opportunity. I went with her to the fabric store and since I have a little bit of weakness for fabric... before I knew it I had an armful of fabric and trim and decided that I needed to make some stockings myself.

Through the process, I realized that I am much more of a designer than a "crafter". Luckily my oldest sister wanted to help, so I was the designer and she was my little worker bee, but I did end up doing a little sewing as well. It was a fun bonding activity for all of us and I think they are so adorable. Since I don't really need 4 stockings for myself, I decided to open up a little Etsy shop for the holidays. Check it out here.

The stockings are made of various textured fabric including burlap and wool and the red trim is a custom made ruffle that we sewed ourselves.