Merry Christmas! Thank you for supporting handmade art during the past year and for your continued enthusiasm. I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year!
~ Iva
December 2012
December 24, 2012
December 15, 2012
Creating a Christmas Home Tour
There is nothing like a Christmas tour of homes to get you into the holiday spirit!
I belong to the Las Adelphas Garden circle, one of 10 circles made up of about 30 members each, and part of the greater, 300-member St. Augustine Garden Club. Each year, the club puts on the Christmas Tour of Homes, in which six historic homes in the downtown are decorated with fresh flowers and all sorts of Christmas cheer. A tea and boutique are also part of the tour - in fact I had to bake some four dozen cookies for it! About 1500 tickets are sold each year and it sells out early, this year was no exception.
Being a new member, this was my first year taking part in the tour. Not only did I help decorate a beautiful renovated 1920's home, I also got to tour the other five and even enjoy some cookies and tea!
It was a lot of work, taking about three full days to decorate and then another couple hours on the day of the tour working a two-hour shift at the house and directing people from room to room. But what a great experience!
The top photo is the moss wreath our circle created for the front door of the Gowen home, a beautiful historic house right on the Intercoastal and in view of the Bridge of Lions downtown. Here it is with all the decorations in place outside. I personally wired the greenery on the fresh cut wreaths that adorn the front windows. Actually, there was a group of us working on them.
Not only did we add the fresh greenery to the square wire forms, we added large pinecones to the backs - so they'd be beautiful from inside the house as well as the outside - but we also added pepper berries, little gem magnolia leaves, a green apple and a large, purchased sugar pinecone hanging in the middle. They were a lot of work, but so worth it!
Here are more pictures of the house our club decorated. I'll share some of the photos of the other homes in a second post. Stay tuned! In the meantime, enjoy the home tour!
The family room...
A close-up of the coffe table arrangement. Don't you just love those horse-tail pine needles!
The beautiful living room fireplace. You can barely see the stairs in the background, also adorned with fresh greenery thanks to our club members handy work.
This is their entry, pink roses and pink poinsettias, magnolia leaves and curly willow. Need I say more?
Wouldn't you just love this view for coffee in the morning?
Their breakfast nook...again a gorgeous view! And check out the neat jellyfish glass lights in the upper left corner. They are stunning!
The back door was decorated with all sorts of dried fruits, cinnamon sticks and small pinecones. One of our members dried the oranges, star fruit and orange peel. Just lovely!
I hope you are in the Christmas spirit now!
Iva Wilcox
I am an artist, mother and wife.
Recent Comments