Cindy and I LOVE Christmas.  We love decorating, baking, the movies, the music, decorating, making gifts, long phone conversations with old friends, entertaining…..and did I mention decorating?  We’ve decided to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas by sharing an easy project or personal reflection each of the next 12 days, with no ‘days off’ so we’re going straight through to Christmas.  Don’t miss a single one!

We’re also going to feature some of the ornaments and stories submitted for our ‘contest’.  There are some really great ornaments coming your way over the next couple weeks.

A HOLIDAY GIFT FOR YOU

Last, but not least, we’re offering another freebie:  Designer Florist Bows.  Leave us a comment on any post for the next 12 days and we’ll send you a PDF with complete photographic instructions on how to make a professional florist bow.  I’ve seen some of the other bow instructions on various sites and I’m here to tell you, ours is more complete (13 pages worth!).  I took clear pictures of every step and walk you through each loop and twist so that you too can have successful, professional looking bows.  Just take a moment and share something of your holidays with us in our comments and we’ll email you your gift.

 SUPER SIMPLE FLORAL CENTERPIECE

I was trying to come up with something easy and appealing and unusual for my dining table centerpiece for an upcoming dinner party.  I’m a florist and I’ve spent years of making the traditional oval arrangement with greens, red flowers and candles so I’m a little tired of that.  But, I love using flowers, so………….

My solution?  I decided to bring one of my holiday collections out of the cupboard and showcase it.  I have a collection of holiday mugs and dessert/salad plates – what’s unusual is that none of them match…on purpose.  The plates get used all season, but the mugs not so much now that the kids are grown (and we don’t drink coffee).

This festive and pleasing centerpiece is as simple as having a row of mugs down the center of the table and stuffing them with red carnations!  Or use your china cups/mugs and fill with roses for a more elegant take on the idea (buy them a couple days ahead so they have time to open wide).  Perfect for a buffet table or dinner table because the look can be broken up and clustered however fits the available space and it’s easy to move out of the way. 

I discovered it’s one thing to have a great idea, another to implement it.  I shopped my little town high and low for red carnations and no one had them.  Roses were too formal for my look so as I went to the third store looking for ANY appropriate flower, I found something that will work….

The heads on daisies are much smaller than carnations or roses, but I thought the volume in a bunch might compensate for size.  As you can see, it was too skimpy and the flowers kept falling to the side.  Luckily I had purchased a bunch of baby’s breath too.  (look at the blooms carefully to make sure they’re not past their prime) I cut that up and tried that look…..

So the perfect answer is clearly to mix them and that works great!  The multi stems of the baby breath is perfect for holding the daisy stems in place.  Plus, the daisies now fill more mugs because it doesn’t take as many per mug.

If you want to take the idea to the next level, put your holiday table table runner under them.  Another level of interest?  Add a bed of greens under and around the mugs. You can keep building by winding ribbon or garland, throwing in a small painted or glittered cone or two, scattering votives among the mugs, or adding a small sprig of green or short bare branch to each mug ‘arrangement’. 

 

A variation on the theme. Look how easily you can change up the look depending upon the situation.  Add a couple of cones and a wrapped box to use as a riser and you’ve got something appropriate for a buffet table.

OTHER CENTERPIECE IDEAS

An arrangement I created with silks, berries and branches.

This arrangement was easy to create using silk poinsettias (3), bronze glitter leaf branches (3), berry branches (4-5), artificial evergreens (3-5) and some icicle ornaments.  The vase is adorned with a short garland spray that’s attached to the greens in the back.  The bottom of the vase was too deep and I wanted the flowers taller so I stuffed crumpled newspaper in there to raise the flowers and give them some support.

 

 

 These centerpieces are from BHG, Ladies Home Journal and ETSY shop NaturesCabinet.

 Thanks for joining us and celebrating the season.  Do you have a favorite easy centerpiece idea?  We’d love to hear about it.

Today we’re participating in a Holiday Home Tour sponsored by Nesting Place- if you want to wander through photos of homes decorated for the holidays, here’s the place.  Lots of links, lots of pretty homes.

FREE WREATH GUIDE

Our FREE Wonderful Holiday Wreaths guide is still available.  It’s yours as a thank you for subscribing to our blog.  We have great plans for the new year – projects and helpful tips and more that you won’t want to miss.  The subscription is free and you’ll get a link to the free PDF guide.  Now you can combine the wreath instructions with the free bow guide to make really gorgeous wreaths.