Merry Rustic Christmas!

So, with all this beautiful weather we have been having up here in northern Minnesota, I thought I would get a jump start on some of my Christmas decorating. I decided this year that I wanted to decorate the two whiskey barrel planters that sit in front of our log home. I did a little looking around on the web and found some pretty neat ideas that looked fairly simple (I like simple). Plus, it looked like I could get most of my supplies right here in the woods (I like cheap, too). I thought they turned out pretty cute, so I thought I'd share it.

Spruce top

First of all, you will need a container. Like I said, I used my whiskey barrel planters for mine. I like that they had dirt in them and they are heavy enough to not blow over. My only problem was that they were frozen, and I had to poke holes in the dirt with a screwdriver!

Mixed greens

 Second, You will need a spruce top. We have a lot of those, so the dogs and I set out to find the perfect ones. We were out of luck. They all seemed a little thin or too big or too small...finally I just picked two that seemed "okay" and we headed home.  I got them stuck in the frozen dirt and called it a day.

Umm..?

The next day the dogs and I set out to go get our "fillers". You want to get a mix of greens to fill in around your base. I tried to find different textures and colors. I used Blue spruce, Juniper, Pine and balsam. Arrange the greens around your base, and get it all filled in. At this point, I started to second guess the whole process...It didn't look very promising, but I kept going...

Next was a trip to the local craft store to find some red berries on a stick. According to the info I read you want to get plastic berries. The real ones fall off right away, and the foam ones will pop in the freezing weather. Trust me, It was not easy to find the plastic berries. While I was searching for the berries, I came across these silver glittered curly sticks. I thought they looked kinda fun, and my containers seemed to need a lot of help. The curly sticks were cheap, so in the cart they went. If they were horribly wrong, I thought I could always stick them in the Christmas tree!

Getting better...

I was amazed at how much the little sticks and the red berries helped! It seemed that maybe this was going to work out. I was getting excited, BUT, it still needed a little something more. I decided to sleep on it, and figure it out the next day.The next day I went in to get some groceries, and they have all the Christmas stuff out, so I decided to look around. I picked up a bag of pinecones and a couple of red bows. Hopefully this was the little extra that it needed. I hurried home and put away the groceries. Finally, I thought, after four days of playing around with this , The end is in sight. So, I went out and I wired the pinecones on to sticks and put them in, attached the bows, and WAH.LAH. The finished project! It really was quite simple, and very inexpensive, and Fun.

Merry Rustic Christmas!