Get To Know Us At A Potluck

For those of you who have never met the fun contributors of hello there! house, now is your chance! We'd love to meet everyone and see all the wonderful people we had at our hello there! house home & garden event last October. Join us at a New Year Potluck, Saturday January 7th 2012! RSVP to come at our Hello! 2012 Eventbrite Page, and sign up to bring a dish on our Sign Up Eventbrite Page.

We can't wait to see you all there to talk home & garden with you!

Weekend Pinspiration: Neutral Christmas Palette

1// Silver & Gold Christmas Tree and Table 2// White & Silver Holiday Living Room 3// Mantle Paperwhites 4// White Tree with Cream Felt Ornaments and Kraft Paper Star 5// Burlap & Tulle Garland and Burlap & Linen Tree Skirt 6// Joy To The World Pillow 7// Burlap Stockings 8// Silver & Snowflakes Tree 9// Neutral Layered Gift Wrap with Texture

Garden Seeds: Paperwhites

Today on Garden Seeds we are going to highlight the beautiful bulb flowers that I have been seeing EVERYWHERE!

1// Lovely Table Design with Paperwhite & Pinecones 2//Paperwhites in mini distressed pots with feed sack linens 3// Forcing Bulbs in mason jars with evergreen sprigs and mini hanging ornaments 4//Paperwhites in silver vessel with mini christmas balls

Paperwhites, or Narcissus are gorgeous bulb flowers that traditionally bloom in the springtime- but you can "force" the flowers to bloom indoors early to have beautiful fresh flowers for Christmas! Just follow Design Sponge's directions on how to force your own Paperwhites and to see different ideas of containers to plant them in!

Christmas Tree Tour Stop 2: The Hill Family Tree 2011

I went to visit my parents last week. I knew they had set-up Christmas but I always forget how magical their Christmas tree always is. I could stare at this tree for days and study all the ornaments and details. This year they went red and white with an emphasis on peppermint candies. And can I just say I am falling more and more in love with flocked trees?!?

My mom does the collecting (this tree reflects many years of hunting and gathering) while my dad works his design skills (who knew Landscape Architects have to take art and interior design classes?). Not to discredit my mom--she could decorate a tree just as lovely, but for whatever reasons she always convinces my dad it's his job...or maybe he secretly likes doing it... I have my suspicions it just might be the latter.

What I love most about the tree is all the unique ornaments hanging around. Here are just a few:

 I love the two birds perched together:

 Twin candy cane babes!

 Sparkly snowmen is top hats!

  And the Mark Roberts tree topper! I had a picture of her from the side that blogger refused to work with, but if it would have uploaded you would have seen that her feet are kicked-up behind her with her red high heels and striped leggings. Just too cute!

Thanks, Mike and Terri for sharing your tree with us!!

Christmas Tree Tour: Tips for Decorating a Fabulous Tree

I grew up in a home where every Christmas tree we ever had was themed. The earliest tree I remember as a child was Victorian (mauve, more mauve, and lots of lace), then Americana (there was a major patriotic decor phase in the 90's, remember that?), and from that point it was based more on color schemes. My mother loves to tastefully fill her tree with all kinds of coordinating ornaments and garlands (which you will witness in tomorrow's post!). Her Christmas trees have always had a definite wow factor to them.

However, I don't think a tree has to have large amounts of garlands, ornaments, ribbons and bows to wow. And I don't even think the tree itself has to be big to impress. What makes a tree glow (besides the lights ;) is planning and inspiration. Here are some tips that I hope will be useful. Hopefully you will come across a new twist to improving your tree decorating this year!

photo via gabba gabba gorgeous

1//A VISION: When you picture your Christmas tree, what do you want to feel? What kind of Christmas decor or color scheme fits you best? Do you want a boutique tree in all it's layers or a more simple, sentimental tree with family ornaments?? This is a hard decision, at least for me it was. There are so many directions. By choosing a decor route (just like when decorating a room) you will have a vision and know where to start and where to take all the rest of the holiday decor throughout your home.

Snowball Garland

3//ADDING LAYERS: Adding festive flowers, holly, pine, feather boas swept in to imitate snow, garland, or sprigs of some kind will add some depth and interest. I think my favorite textural addition I have seen this year is garland made of tree bark. It literally looks like they shaved a long strip of a tree trunk and spun it into the Christmas tree. So different and pretty!

photo via marthastewart.com

3//ORNAMENTS: Ornaments don't have to come in sets of five. If you fall in love with an ornament and can't afford a set, there is no shame in purchasing just one or two. In fact, having a larger variety of ornaments will make your tree so much more fun to look at! I always try to hang my ornaments evenly spaced and picturing polka dots helps me to visualize where the next ornament will hang. Just envision the pattern that polka dots follow and you are all set. I hang the ornaments largest in size first or ornaments that are singled out, and then work my way down to the smaller ones and use those as the fillers.

photo via creature comforts

4//CREATE INTEREST: Something I have been noticing in trees lately is some quirky details. You can create subtle scenes within your tree to make it more interesting to observe. Like two birds sitting on a branch together, instead of spacing them evenly out. Or a single Santa or elf nestled in somewhere.  And don't be afraid to let an ornament rest on a branch rather than hang on a stem.

Vintage Spoon Garland

5//THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX: Just know that Christmas trees are not limited strictly to the decorations you see in the stores. Be creative and have fun! Make it you! If you love lace or burlap, put it on the tree! Add family pictures from past Christmas's or vintage postcards.  Tie bows onto the branches using your favorite fabrics. When you get a Christmas card in the mail, punch a hole in it string some ribbon and hang it up! Or you could choose any color scheme you want! Sticking to tradition is not mandatory.

Handmade Brilliance { local } : Orange Blossom Shop

Question: Could these two gals (and their kids!) be any cuter? Answer: No. You are all in for a real treat. These handmade wooden frames are to die for. Add a frame to your Christmas list, like now. Say Hello! to Shauna and Courtney:

1. Tell us your story. What brought you to now?

Our names are Shauna and Courtney and we are Orange Blossom Shop!

Shauna: Courtney and I have been friends for over 10 years, we both went to the same high school, but just at different times. We live just down the street and around the corner from one another. Courtney and I started off selling magnet boards and chalkboards. We found that we wanted to make something a little more unique, and something with a little more of a "Wow" factor. We came across this idea and instantly fell in love! Our first frame that we designed was the Aly frame. When we saw the prototype for it we instantly fell in love! Then we painted it, and fell even more in love... And that's why we decided to name all of our frames after our children. Our kids love that they have a frame named after them! Hopefully we can squeak out at least 4 more styles so all the kids will get a chance to have their own frame named after them. Courtney doses all of the vinyl in our shop, I do all of the digital designs and we both do the frames.

Courtney: I have always done different little businesses but was always looking for something new.  That is when Shauna and I took our ideas and put them together and we now have Orange Blossom Shop.

2.  Outside of creating, what do you do?

Shauna: We both LOVE to play volleyball and both played at Westwood high school and we still play on a city league team together. It's our outlet, because between the 2 of us we have 8 kids! I have 5 and Courtney has 3. We both serve on our kids' PTO together, so we stay really busy with all of the things that go along with being a mom.  I also LOVE to shop. 
Courtney: I am a mom, wife, PTO Treasurer, Realtor and serve in my church and love to coach and play volleyball.

3.  What does handmade mean to you?

Shauna: I think more than anything I just appreciate the process of someone making something from scratch. I'm continually amazed by the unique things people create! I love to see people's creativity at its' best.
Courtney: It means putting your blood, sweat and tears into creating projects!

4. What handmade item do you cherish the most?

Shauna: My mom made me a volleyball quilt my senior year of high school. I've always loved it because it reminds of all of my fun high school volleyball memories. State champs baby! :)
Courtney:  I have a necklace I purchased that I absolutely adore but I also have some new holiday décor that I love too!

5. What's your secret in life? Any words to live by?

Shauna: I truly believe there is so much happiness to be gained by helping and serving others. 
Courtney: Come what may and love it! Life is full of different twists and turns and we can’t control every minute so I try to embrace it as it comes and make the best of it.

6.  Where do you draw inspiration?

Shauna: I think Courtney and I get our inspiration from each other. We work together to come up with different ideas and products. 
Courtney:Shauna.  We are continually on the phone discussing different ideas and thoughts.

7.  Share with us your top 5 favorite websites:

eighteen25.blogspot.com. Those girls are just so talented and creative! I love to see what they will come up with next. 

houseofsmiths.com. Shelley Smith is amazing! I want her to come decorate my house :)

nieniedialogues.com.  I'm slightly obsessed with Stephanie Nielson and all that she has gone through the past few years. Such an inspiration.

people.com.   What can I say? It's my guilty pleasure :)

pinterest.com.  I love the ideas I get from here.

8. Where did creating start for you?

Shauna: It's funny, I never really considered myself a creative person. I would say it's only been in the past couple years that I've discovered my creative side. 
Courtney:   I have no idea I started doing lots of different designing on the computer about 6 years ago.

9. Where do you sell your items?

We sell our products on etsy.com (etsy.com/shop/orangeblossomshopaz) and at various local boutiques here in the valley.

10. Give a shout-out to a fellow handmade artist like yourself!

Shauna:Etsy by Betsey. She makes the cutest pillows and table runners! They are perfect to decorate with for the holidays.

Another one is Pure Heart Creations on Etsy. We both ordered necklaces from her and we love them! She has such cute stuff in her shop

Courtney:Etsy by Betsey, Bubba Mae

Christmas Tree Tour Stop 1: The Watson Tree 2011

Welcome to the first stop on our Christmas Tree Tour of 2011! I thought it fitting that we should start with me first, so here we go:

We have a tradition here that Braden & Landen go out together on Black Friday and pick out the perfect real tree and bring it home to all us girls at home. This year they came home with a charming little tree to perfectly fit our bay window and I decided it was finally time to do a "Themed Tree". After much hunting and gathering of ideas on Pinterest, I decided on a clean, neutral theme this year full of texture and plenty of sparkle. 

I bought these chipboard words last year for dirt at Joanne's After Christmas Sale, but you can easily make your own with cereal boxes, some glitter, and glue. Just print out a template, trace onto the cereal box {it's chipboard, for free!}, and glitter away! 

I saw these gorgeous ornaments on Miss Mustard Seed and fell in love with them! I also made up some of her glittered glass ornaments. You just can't get enough glitter during the holidays. 

And of course, I had to mix in some of my favorite holiday decorations- paper lollies! If you've never made them, follow Rhonna's tutorial to whip some up!

We are having a Sugar Plum Fairy Tea Party again this year, so I like to sprinkle some Nutcrackers throughout the house to go along with our party. I found these darling mini nutcrackers on ebay last year {the company that makes them went out of business :( }, and sprayed them all white and tied them to our tree using grey Divine Twine 

For the Tree Topper I gathered more inspiration from Miss Mustard Seed and made the same tree topper as the tree she has in her showroom in Lucketts Antique Shop. I made it using the same technique as my book paper wreath I made last year- follow Miss Mustard Seed's tutorial to make your own. 

Design Elements// Washi Tape from Rhonna Designs// Christmas Art Brushes from Rhonna Designs

So there you have it- we have some white velvet ribbon bows ties on and some gittered snowflakes hung up that I bought at Joanne's Black Friday sale for 23 cents a piece. We still have some work to do;  I want to add some large jingle bells, some white magnolias, and maybe a hidden pickle ornament in there, but I am loving it so far! Check my blog I Love Rosemary Watson to see more Christmas Magic unfold next week!