Christmas in the Gazebo

 When we completed our gazebo makeover in the summer, I knew that decorating it for Christmas would be so much more fun! Now I've had a few months to plan...but I didn't...I just flew by the seat of my pants decorating it this weekend! That's the way I roll and when I feel the most creative!

Last month, while looking for a place to take photos with indirect, natural light for my etsy store items, I propped this door up in the gazebo. Its been a great backdrop for my wreaths and to be honest dragging it back and forth is not appealing, so I have left it in the gazebo.

I started decorating by hanging my garland up around the gazebo and found an old green wreath in storage and tied it to the old window frame and hung on the door, but it was just too blah. So I set out to spruce up the wreath. I went out back and clipped a few snippets off several cedar and pine trees and gathered a few pine cones. The fake green wreath provided a good base for the fresh greens and I was able to tie the fresh sprigs to the base with the wired branches. A wide scrap of burlap provided the finishing touches to the fresh Christmas wreath.

 While I was digging out my decorations, I decided to place my pencil tree in the gazebo. (Its the tree I usually put up in the house.) It already had lights on it and I placed it in my wash tub along with a few pots of fountain grass. I decided to display some of my watering cans on the tree as ornaments. Then I placed my small gardening tools on the tree as well. After all, its the time of the year when the garden tools aren't used for anything, so on the tree they went! The pencil tree looked kinda blah as well and I had a few extra cedar sprigs left over from my wreath, so I started tucking in the fresh greenery into the fake tree. Ahhh, that made it look so much more natural and fit in with the outdoor rustic feel. Why haven't I done this before?

 Suzy always finds her way into a gazebo photo shoot! She loves this place!

 You know, I might just have to add fresh Christmas greens to my junky tree in the house! That would give the house a wonderful "Christmas" smell....the wheels on the bus are spinning right now!

I had a customer at the flower shop tell me today, that a Christmas Tree Lot give her a few broken tree limbs for free. She was going to make her own centerpieces with free Christmas Greens! We have plenty of trees on our property, but if I didn't I would certainly stop by the tree lot to get a few branches to decorate.

I'm tickled pink how it all turned out and you know the best part - it didn't cost a penny! A nature inspired tree and wreath with fresh tree clippings and ornaments straight out of the greenhouse - no trip to the store for this project! I've had the garland since our very first Christmas here and now that I look at it, fresh greens would be so pretty added into it as well. Hmmm...my next day off project!

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