Christmas greenery

Oriental bittersweet my brother gathered for me in Sewanee, TN.

  I love bringing the outside inside. Maybe it's because I grew up in the country, maybe it's because my mom is an expert at it, or maybe I just find it a bit more serene to have green things around. Throughout the year there are always flowers or grasses or branches sticking out of some old bottle on a tabletop or windowpane in this house. So Christmas, for me, is the ultimate excuse to have even more of it around. Here are some of the things that I've been making and the greenery that inspires it.

I stopped at a gas station in Sharpsburg and there were people selling Christmas trees in a parking lot next door. I asked them if I could take their left over clippings to decorate with and they said yes. I made this wreath from those clippings and from holly tree branches from my parent's house.

I've never had my own Christmas tree before, but since it's the first Christmas I'm sharing a house, this year feels a little more special than the last few. Trae and I cut a tiny cedar tree at his parents' home in Jasper, TN. While we were driving around, I spotted a shortleaf pine, so we gathered some cones. I made this little star from those. (interesting fact: the scientific name for shortleaf pines is Pinus echinata, which comes from the Greek "echinos," meaning prickly, hedgehog.)

 

I made this tree skirt from some beautiful scraps of fabric my mom and I bought recently in Philadelphia. They're from a husband and wife textile team, Galbraith & Paul, who design and cut pattern blocks to print on linen, a process done entirely by hand.  Trae also made some curtains from another scrap of their fabric:

I think he did a good job!  The only thing we're missing now is some mistletoe.

Are there any holiday decorations that you've put up this year? I'd love to hear about them!