Christmas Garland Tutorial

I am so thrilled with how my first fresh greenery garland came out! I have always loved the way fresh greenery looks in homes for the holidays, but felt that it would be extremely challenging to make one myself. I was wrong. This garland only took me about 45 minutes in total to make, and you can make this just as easily for your own home!

Fresh garlands look and smell amazing! They give your home instant charm and warmth for the holidays. I love tying a thin ribbon into a big floppy bow for the top and the bottom banisters to finish the look. I feel like it gives the garland a feeling of whimsy. If you want your garland to look more polished and traditional, I'd recommend making two large bows with a few different types of ribbon, and keep the greenery tight in the garland.

For our holiday party this year, I decided to serve these delicious cranberry mojitos in wine glasses to make the drink more festive and formal. I placed them at the front entrance by my garland so guests could grab one as they enter. You can snag my recipe for them here.

HOW TO MAKE A FRESH PINE GARLAND

I looked at a few other tutorials before making my own, and saw that many other DIYers recommend using a rope. I like the idea because you can throw away the entire garland once you're done with it but I instantly realized an issue with this method. Last year for Thanksgiving, I made my very own magnolia garland using rope. I remember it being very difficult to get the garland to lay flat the way I wanted it to. Also, using this method typically requires more greenery.

I decided to use a traditional wired green garland to work the pieces of fresh greenery in and it worked great! The great thing about the wired garland is that you can continue to use it for years to come, therefore, saving yourself money in the long-run.

I began taking photos of this tutorial, but I realized it would be more confusing to use the images and explain in my writing, than it would be to just film what I did with my iPhone. I realize I'm not going to win any awards here on the quality of my video, but hey, I thought the video would help you guys out. 

Without further ado, here are my tips for putting together your very own garland.

( Also - for some reason I had the word "work wreath" on the brain...this is a work garland. )

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

Work gloves (optional)

Shears

Florist wire

Fresh greenery

Regular faux garland

Ribbon

Christmas music playing in the background :)

I hope these little tips helped you to build your very own gorgeous garland for your staircase!

Cranberry Mojitos

Christmas is almost here! It is such a wonderful time of year! Friends and family coming to town, communities coming together to celebrate and decorate, and best of all, holiday treats and drinks! I love getting into the spirit with seasonal libations. I enjoy putting a holiday spin on traditional favorites. Mojitos are one of my favorite drinks to make during the summer, and I found myself wanting to make them festive for the holidays. Rather than using cranberry cocktail, I decided to make a cranberry-infused simple syrup and add it to a traditional mojito recipe. Warning: these are so tasty you may forget there is alcohol in them! I just love the way they look, too! With fun pops of red and green, these gorgeous cocktails are sure to be a hit at your next party!

Cranberry Mojitos

Preparation:  10 min Cook Time: 5 min Total Time: 15 min

Serves: 4

Ingredients

        

          1 cup of fresh cranberries

          1 1/2 cups of fresh mint (just the leaves)

          1 cup water

          4 tbsp lime juice

          1 cup (or 8 oz) of rum

          Soda water

Instructions

          1) Place the cranberries, sugar and water in a medium size pan over medium heat and bring to a simmer.

          2) Once simmering, lower the heat to medium-low for 10 minutes.

          3) Remove from heat and allow to cool. Once cooled, take a mesh strainer and place it over a bowl. 

                Pour the mixture into the strainer, and using a large spoon, press the cranberries to try and extract 

                as much liquid as you can.

          4) Arrange the glasses you plan on serving the drinks in. Place about 8-10 mint leaves and 

              squeeze one tbsp of lime juice into each glass. Muddle the leaves with the lime juice. 

             (Note: I infused my simple syrup with the mint leaves...this is a nice option if you want less of the 

               leaves in your drink.)

          5) Place ice in each glass and then pour 4 tbsp (2 oz) of rum and 4 tbsp (2 oz) of the cranberry simple 

               syrup into each glass. Top with soda water and garnish with fresh cranberries.

Cheers!

     

Christmas Stovetop Potpourri

Are you ready for the simplest way to make your entire home smell like Christmas? You may still have these items on hand from Thanksgiving! All you need is four simple ingredients to make this amazing-smelling mixture. You can put this on the stovetop, or throw all of the ingredients into your crockpot on low to keep the aromas going. When the water runs low, simply add more to keep the smell going. 

I love using this easy mixture before I entertain, to make the house smell like it's right out of a Christmas catalogue! As soon as I put this mixture on the stove, my husband asked what I was cooking because it smelled "amazing all over the house." While the mixture doesn't last as long as a candle (the mixture keeps 1-3 days), it certainly smells better and stronger than any Christmas candle I've found....not to mention it is beautiful to look at! 

I hope this seasonal medley makes your home a hit at your next rendezvous!

Christmas Stovetop Potpourri

Preparation:  5 min

                  Cook Time:  All Day                     

Ingredients

        

          1 bag of cranberries

          1 orange, cut into thin slices

          2-3 cinnamon sticks

          3 fresh pine clippings

          Top with water or red wine (the water is to keep the mixture moist, add more as needed)

           Optional: 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

          1) Bring all ingredients to a boil on the stovetop. Lower the temperature to low heat, and enjoy!

Boxwood Wreath - DIY

Tomorrow is finally the first day of December, which means I can gleefully bust out all of my Christmas decor, music, cookie cutters and giant red and green bows! For the first two years of my relationship with my now fiancé, we were in love with getting a fresh cut tree from the church down the road. I have the best memories of our first Christmas together and picking out our tree. At the time, I was living in a cramped one bedroom on a tiny salary that could barely afford Christmas lights, let alone a tree. We waited and waited, trying to decide if we wanted to splurge and buy that gorgeous plush evergreen we had our eyes on each time we drove by the church that sold them.

About a week before Christmas, we drove by the tree lot again, looked at each other, took a deep breath and said "are we really doing this?". Yep - we bought one...not just a little tree either. We brought home a biggin'! At 7 feet tall, we barely fit it into the apartment. We chuckled like children carrying the monstrous fir through the hallways, looking at each other and laughing out loud every time a neighbor gave us a look...we knew what they were thinking; 'how in the world is that going to fit into one of these apartments.'

We wiggled and shoved it through the door and left a trail of pine needles behind. We had our first tree for our first Christmas together and we wanted to do it right. All we could afford for the tree were a few lights Target had already discounted because no one seems to buy lights the week before Christmas. Once we finally got the lights on it, we sat on our lumpy sofa and just stared. That tree was our gift to each other that year - and a gift I'll never forget.

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My love for fresh greenery has since been evident in all my holiday decorating - from magnolia garlands to orchid arrangements and the like, I love making my own holiday decor from nature all around me.

This year, I wanted to go for a more traditional look for the holidays and make a boxwood wreath. I love their simple elegance. It just so happened the boxwoods in our yard needed pruning too, so really it was a win-win. This wreath took me about 30 minutes to construct and around $10 dollars to make including the wreath form and fairy lights. The bow I used is one I have had for a few years now.

You will need a wreath form, boxwood cuttings, fairy lights, ribbon, and florist wire.

I began by cutting a foot-long piece of wire, bending it in half and poking the wire through a hole in the wreath form. This first piece will be what you use to hang the wreath by. The way I made this is pictured in the next few photos below.

Now we have our wreath hanger. Don't worry about it looking pretty, the bow will cover it up.

Next, take a handful of trimmings and bunch them together at the bottom. For each bundle, I used about 1 1/2 - 2 ft of florists wire to tightly bind them together and laced the remaining foot through the wreath form hole, and then around the form to make sure it was on good and tight.

Begin working your way around the form until each hole has been looped with a bundle of boxwood trimmings.

Once this step is complete, your wreath should look something like this...not what you expected right? Don't worry, we aren't done yet!

Take your additional trimmings and lay them on top of the empty patches. Here's where our wreath will begin to take it's form.

Grab the section, and with a 1 1/2 - 2 ft wire begin to criss-cross the wire from front to back to adhere all of the sprays of boxwood trimmings to the form.

Go around your wreath repeating this step until it is complete.

Your finished wreath should look like this!

Once I was finished, I tied my bow around the top and draped the tales off to one side so that the wreath wasn't fully covered up. I laced my lights around the wreath and hid the battery pack behind the bow.

And there you have it folks! A quick and easy tutorial for a sophisticated and natural boxwood wreath.

If you liked this tutorial, let me know in the comments section!