Christmas Arrangements – Cynthia Reyes

A Family Christmas, A Good Home, Canadian Families, Christmas Arrangements, Christmas Decorations

The Week Before Christmas

December 18, 2017 Cynthia Reyes

Here, for your viewing pleasure (I hope), are some images from our home in the week before Christmas. We started decorating a few weeks ago.

The thing above is our unusual Advent calendar.

Before Advent officially began (December 3 this year), we wrote notes/quotes and put them in the tiny drawers. Important reminders of love, slowing down and appreciating our blessings.

Next, we brought out an oldish but favourite Christmas book.

Blog Photo - Christmas book exterior

Inside are pop-up scenes marking the 12 days of Christmas, which traditionally don’t begin till December 25.

Blog Photo - Christmas Book third day

Blog Photo - Christmas Book Three French Hens

Blog Photo - Christmas Book inside

Then the tree got properly decorated…

Blog Photo - Christmas ornaments Peace Angel

Blog Photo - Christmas Ornaments Golden Dove

Blog Photo - Christmas Tree 2017

Except for the lower branches. We ran out of lights, planned to replace them before adding more decorations, but forgot.

Blog Photo - Christmas Living rm 3

Then I assembled this centrepiece — using birch-bark candles by the talented artist Jean Long, pine cones, baubles, whatnots….

Blog Photo - Christmas plate and candles

And Santa’s sleigh, of course.

Blog Photo - Christmas Santa sleigh

Husband had already filled this very old basket with logs for the fire….

Blog Photo - Christmas Fireplace Logs in Basket

Blog Photo - Christmas 2016 - Logs Burning

Finally, the table was set with Christmas plates ….

Blog Photo - Christmas plate setting

Blog Photo - Christmas table2

And then I apparently ruined the “tablescape”.

Husband asked: “What on earth is that?”

“Those are real autumn leaves and real fake berries,” I replied.

“Hmm,” he said.

I didn’t tell him I planned to replace the leaves with green sprigs. A woman must retain some mystery, after all.
Blog Photo - Christmas Plate with leaves

Wishing you a good week before Christmas and – whatever your special celebration or preparations — I wish you all the best of the season.

A Good Home, Canadian Gardens, Canadian Homes, Christmas Arrangements

The Undomestic Diva – Christmas Planter

December 2, 2017December 3, 2017 Cynthia Reyes

You’ve never seen such a glamorous photo of me, I know!

Blue pyjamas, my husband’s house-robe, black socks and beige slippers. And yes, that’s a single blue curler in my hair. Don’t ask why.

Blog Photo - Christmas 2017 Planter and Cynthia in houserobe

I woke up determined to do this thing that I’m so inadequate at.

It took me such a long time that breakfast had to be brought to me right there on the floor.

Mr. J., the grand-Pug, kept circling me, bemused.

I kept taking out the dried hydrangea and putting them back in.

And this is what The Thing looked like by the time I surrendered….

Blog Photo - Christmas 2017 Planter Outside

As with all my arrangements, it was still missing something — more greenery, brownery, reddery?

Or a birdhouse. Or a shiny thing. Or something.

But that’s for figuring out on another day.

My Ingredients:

Small branches of cedar and pine
Wild sumac flowers from the roadside
Dried hydrangea from our garden
White birch branches from our garden
Magnolia leaves bought at the nursery
Potting soil – I normally use potting soil from the summer garden, but this year I used fresh potting soil.

I have no doubt that you are greatly impressed.

Photos by Dan Leca.

A Good Home, Advent Traditions, Canadian life, Christmas Arrangements, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Greenery, Christmas Traditions, Cut flowers, Domestic Divas, Family Moments, Gardens, Home Decor, Homes

The Un-Domestic Diva Strikes Again!

December 12, 2014November 20, 2015 Cynthia Reyes

Okay, alright, enough already.

I know that I am seriously challenged in some things.

Like cooking. Or baking. Or sewing. Or floral arranging. Or…. you get the drift.

Last year, I tried to make Christmas arrangements. The best I can say for them? They made people laugh.

But every saint has a past and every sinner has a future, and since this is the Advent season, I am full of hope for my own redemption.

So I’ve been trying to make Christmas arrangements again. A solitary, mindful activity that suits my Advent mood well.

First off: I had no budget. So all, or almost all, the ingredients had to come from my own garden, or from inside my house somewhere.

The first result is a bit uneven.

I used:

Red dogwood twigs
Evergreen spruce
Dried hydrangea flowers
Pine cones
A couple of grapevine balls
A few Christmas ornaments.

The second one, with much the same ingredients — plus an old fake bird and a single dried rose still on its long stem — showed more promise. Maybe it was just shaped better.

That encouraged me to try a different, larger design. I used mainly spruce branches, dried hydrangea, dried astilbe and a reddish branch of something.

But this one was not quite right – I’m still not sure why.

Maybe the blue Everlasting flower from an indoor arrangement doesn’t fit? (Yes, I kept the dried-up flowers from arrangements sent us when my husband was ill.)

Finally, I felt bold enough to confront the long plant stand. You may remember that arrangement from last year – it was an inelegant mess.

Could I do better this year?

Totally intimidated at first, I cheated.

I bought some discounted southern magnolia branches – 3 bunches at 5 bucks a bunch… a major steal. At least, I think that’s magnolia – those leaves that are shiny-green-on-one-side, rust-coloured-on-the-other.

And here is the arrangement:

My mother used to say: “Self praise is no recommendation.” So I shall make no editorial comment.

Instead, I shall sit back and await your accolades.

Don’t let me down, now.

Fishing for compliments is exhausting.

Dedicated to my sister Pat and all domestic divas, including many in my blogging network (you know who you are).

A Good Home, Advent Traditions, Christmas, Christmas Arrangements, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Greenery, Christmas Traditions, Christmas Tree Trimming, Family, Farm, Home Decor, Interior Design, Nature

THE (IM)PERFECT TREE

December 24, 2013December 24, 2013 Cynthia Reyes

You think my Christmas arrangement was bad?

You should see our Christmas tree this year.

Last year, I chose the tree myself– and suffered a thousand criticisms because it was so small. No-one would admit what I knew: this tree was tiny but perfect.

This year, my husband and younger daughter were sure they’d do better. They drove to a tree farm, hopped onto the farmer’s tractor-pulled wagon…

… and cut a tree. They declared it “perfect”.

Until they brought it home. Neither could explain how their perfect tree turned into a strange creature with few branches on one side, even fewer on the other – and a bare backside, to boot.

Truth is, our family has a really bad record when it comes to picking Christmas trees: too tall or too short, too thin or too fat, too sparse.

The first winter we spent at my husband’s family farmhouse years ago, getting the tree was a no-brainer. We’d simply walk down the hill of the 100-acre farm to where the spruce trees grew, and cut one.

It was particularly snowy that year. We slipped and slid down the long hill, Barclay the dog beside us. But we cut the “perfect tree” and tied a rope around it. Then came the long journey uphill. We slipped and slid again and our knees nearly buckled in the deep snow.

We eyed Barclay, now grown and strong, wondering if we could tether the rope to him and have him do the work, but abandoned that idea swiftly. He was having a lot of fun eating the snow or digging himself out of it.

“What use are you?” we teased him. “We sure could use your help right now.”

By the time we reached the top of the hill, the branches on the tree’s bottom side were battered and broken. To hide the damage, we positioned the tree’s flat side against one wall of the large dining room, but what a sad thing it was.

“It’s a Charlie Brown tree,” I told everyone that year. “It’s got a charm all its own.”

“A tree only our family could love,” my husband muttered, shaking his head in disappointment.

This year, despite all the ornaments, our daughter was shaking her head in disappointment, while her father kept claiming that the tree “has character”.

But that tree gave me a chance to feel like a domestic diva. As you know, that’s a rare thing.

I fetched the branches that my husband had cut from the bottom of the tree, and some peacock feathers, and tried to fool the eye into thinking the tree wasn’t as bad as it was.