Xmas wreath

I got asked by our lovely friend Kylie how we made the Xmas wreath from my last post. So I thought why not do a little crafty post!

So..... As is most things I do, it's kinda unique and I never quite stick to the rules. NEVER. Just ask Wayne. But that's me.

So here we go. Years ago, after the whole TB drama, Jonah's first Xmas was a real downer.. So from then on every Xmas was a big deal. I wanted magic and excitement and tradition, so I started making wreaths. Beautiful fresh wreaths in a very half arssed way, that I like to do things. But they always turn out ok. Mostly.

When we spent a Xmas back in Zimbabwe in 95, Wayne's mother was soooooo into her garden, you know, floral club, garden club, flower shows...etc. They had two full time gardeners! John and Samson. They lived in houses at the bottom of the garden, Near the tennis court, on the other side of the pool, behind the mass of bougainvillea flowers. I think your getting the picture. But, if your not, heres a little snapshot of their 2 acre garden.

Actually, I think I have just thought up a million blog posts about life in Zimbabwe.  For another Time of course.

What I will say (just quickly) about Zim is, that yes, life is fantastic (heavenly) not having to do washing, cleaning, cooking, and all the domestic jobs that we just adore doing here, and that after you go and do the weekly shop, you get to park the car, walk inside and go have tea on the verandah, whilst someone else unpacks the groceries. Bliss. BUT, Life is hard there in so many other-ways, it's just very, VERY different. So I am not going to get into all that now.......

Ok, the wreath. The xmas we spent in Africa, Wayne's Mum (Tinker) got John (the gardener) to make a tube shape with old chicken wire, then wrapped it round in a circle, pressed together the wire ends and pulled it back into shape, we then cut conifer into small bits and thread it into the tube circle until full and then put soft bits poking out to cover all the wire. Beautiful! Now me, I asked waynie to make some for me all those years ago. He made a huge one for our front gate where we used to live. Jonah and I stuffed it full of what ever we had in the garden, which was a huge pine tree and what ever else we had in the cottage garden. But where we live now we use native Casuarina, which I use as the green filler, then we use bottle brush, grevillia and kangaroo paw for color. Then you need to add fresh cuttings every few days, so the dried bits blend with the new cuttings. At the end you have a weathered, dried looking wreath. Which I like, because, really we live in a hot, hot place for summer and this is a good representation of the type of Xmas we experience here. I'ts all blowflys and dust here, for us.

Tinker

Any questions, just email me and I will try to explain it better than I have here.......

Good-luck. Hope this helps Kylie.

Fresh wreath...

This is what happens when you dont follow
your own advice......