My mom has some fantastic landscaping around her home, so while I was visiting over Thanksgiving I made sure to admire it! Yes…that is me…admiring :).
This holly tree caught a little of my admiration…
…and these juniper trees caught a good deal of admiration as well!
I don’t know what these bushes are with the blue berries, but I snagged a bouquet of them for my mom. Aren’t they lovely? Yay for admiration!
So, to make a Christmas swag all you do is place your branches in a swaggy type fashion in the driveway. Add and take away, snip and clip, turn and fluff until you’re generally happy with the swag factor of your swag.
When you have the swag of your Christmas dreams, take some floral wire and start weaving it through the tops of the branches. I worked in connecting two branches together at a time and then connecting those bundles all together.
Use another piece of floral wire to make a circle loop to hang your swag. To finish it off, tie a big bow at the top! (I haven’t quite finished yet. I’ll show you where this swag ended up soon!)
If you are a fake greenery kinda girl, I highly recommend making a fresh swag or wreath for indoors. The smell is amazing and so worthy of all that admiration!
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Beautiful! Love all the textures and it looks so pretty on the gate!
Sweet swag, it makes me long for a white gate 🙂
We have lots of holly and cedar in our yard and I always bring lots of it in for the holidays. Good thing that plants grow so quickly here in NC because they are pretty funny looking when I am done swiping their branches 🙂
Purdy!
What great evergreen material you have to choose from at the family home, Beth! : ) Hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving with your family. This looks great and you've reminded me I need to clip some of my own greens and stick them in the planter in the front of my house.
That brings back memories.
I always used to raid my parents garden (which I guess was my garden back then too, since I lived there) for fresh greeneries too. And I would make swags (didn't know that name) center pieces, wreaths and garlands with it. The house would smell and look amazing.
Miss those days a bit. Ah well maybe next year if I start to plant some evergreens in my garden.
You're so cute! lol I'm inspired. It sounds like such a festive idea to bring in the season. Beautiful too.
So beautiful! And festive. I love it on the white gate!!
xox
Jen
I really want to do the mantel and around the windows, BUT…do the greens last through December??? We live in Louisiana, where it can be freezing one day and 80 degrees the next.
Love the fresh greens & always snag some at the Christmas tree lots too. And I've found a pretty cedar type tree in the woods near me that I can "admire" too. Where are my clippers! It does help get some good smells inside too. I've put fresh greens on my mailbox the last couple years & love that too.
Looks awesome, and I totally agree with the smell being amazing. I love leaving and then walking in again… you get hit with that fresh scent every time!!
Girl, after realizing that the good people at Lowe's would let me raid their cut bin from the Christmas trees for free, I became their best friend and a true believe in real greens last year!
As we started to put our tree up this year a big chunk (really two chunks!) of lights were out on it. We looked at a new tree (for $300) and I love it, but I swear, you were sitting on my shoulder going, "Don't do it girl! Just wrap some light strands!" Ugh… why is being thrifty such a pain sometimes! So… in honor of you and your thriftiness, I will wrap lights on my stinking tree, but I promise you right now… if more go out, I am getting the new tree!!!! 🙂
it looks fantastic! and i completely agree… fresh greens make the house smell like christmas 🙂
Beautiful Beth! I have a faux tree and always try to bring a little "fresh" in the house somewhere.
I bet it smells delicious!
Nice 'admiration' 😉 lol good work Beth! 🙂
-Kristi
@ Creative Kristi
Looks so pretty on the white gate! 🙂