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Today I’ve translated my ideas for some unusual wreathes into substance.
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Eliza Waters makes the excellent point that we make our wreathes and arrangements for the joy of doing it. We do it for our own pleasure, and the pleasure of our loved ones. (in the comments, here)
The judgement or approval of others is not really a factor when we’re just “playing around.”
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And I’m still playing around with using moss, sticks, lichens and ivy in winter decorations.
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My partner likes these, and so do I.
We have so many birds in our garden that most years they’ve tried to build little nests in our wreathes.
We have to be very careful how we open our door that we don’t invite one inside accidentally.
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So we took it to the extreme, and peopled our wreathes with little wooden birds to begin with.
Do you think the real birds will still visit the wreathes?
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I’m guessing they’ll find the moss irresistible for lining their nests, and I may need to patch these up from time to time!
The sticks are dead branches from Azalea and Mountain Laurel. I gave the Mountain Laurel a light wash of white acrylic paint for contrast against our door.
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The shells come from the coast of North Carolina, picked up a few years back on vacation.
The moss is all purchased from the crafts store and glued on to the straw wreath forms with hot glue.
The ivy is all alive, roots tucked into a little plastic wrapped package of soil and wet moss. I hope it will grow additional roots into the wet moss over the next few weeks.
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We love having these living, growing wreaths for Christmas. They reflect our garden and the things we enjoy.
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Woodland Gnome 2014
Holiday Wreath Challenge 2014
Forest Garden 
Beautiful wreaths! I love the twigs and birds. That moss is such a pretty green. You really have the advantage of climate to have growing things through the winter and how fun that live birds use them for nests!
Thank you, Eliza. The birds have been busily flying all around the house this morning in their search for berries. It is sunny and clear, and they are certainly enjoying the day! Best wishes, WG
Sun? What’s ‘Sun?’ ;-D
Great minds, WG. I’ve done moss wreaths this year for the first time too although I’m keeping mine inside. I love the shells and the birds – such a wintry homage to Nature.
😉 That is to funny, Barbara 😉 You’re right about the “great minds” part, though! I can’t wait to see photos of yours. Best wishes, WG
They’re beautiful. I suspect you’re right about the birds and the moss. It looks like it would make a wonderful nest lining (better than plastic!). 🙂
😉 You’re right- much nicer than plastic. I offer up cat fur from time to time when we’re cleaning, too. Great globs of it right outside where they can easily find it 😉 Hope you enjoy the day! Sunny here 😉 WG