I've created a Christmas wreath here, but by switching the red berries and the red-check ribbon for something else, you could have an entirely different sort of wreath in just a few minutes.  You can throw together a wreath for any holiday or for every day pretty quickly by using greenery collected from your garden.  I like to use rosemary and bay leaves because I have a lot of it, it lasts a long time and still looks good, and it goes so nicely with the French country theme that I love so much.




I find that the the right tools make any kind of project go so much easier... for this kind of project, heavy-duty wire snips are needed to easily cut heavy gauge wire with minimum effort.



I've used a small grape-vine wreath in this post...these come in a medium- and large-size as well.






First wreath of the season all done!  This probably took less than five minutes to create.  

I've been experimenting with different ideas for a Thanksgiving tablescape since we will be hosting Thanksgiving this year.   



I found these miniature apples and pears, as well as the chestnuts, in a grocery store produce department.  The apples are about the size of a ping-pong ball, the pears not much larger.  Tip for shopping the produce department for decorations-- look in the organic produce section, that's where you will find the unusual and unique things.

I've embraced the idea of faux flowers...... I think. There is no doubt about it, there is no comparison to the real thing-- the depth of color, the subtlety, the fragrance.... I even like the imperfection you get with real flowers, which is certainly what you get if you don't stay on top of fertilizing and controlling disease... (hah, I should have pulled off that nasty-looking leaf in the front).

But they soon wilt and fade away and, with my very limited free time, I tend to forget about them until suddenly the house is filled with the lovely aroma of rotting vegetation.  

"Hey Hon, why does the house smell like a swamp?" I hear my my husband ask loudly from the other room as I stand and stare sadly at my brown and dead flowers. Why indeed.  Because I haven't had the time or energy to put together new flower arrangements.  

One of my favorite time-saving tricks is to buy flowers from the grocery store and then augment them with roses from my garden. The colors of these 'Graham Thomas', 'English Rose', 'Evelyn', and 'Pat Austin' roses are especially lovely.....   



......when mixed with the brilliant fall flowers that are available everywhere right now.  Not having much in the way of interesting berries growing in my yard or near my home right now, and being nervous about bringing anything that might be toxic to my dogs into our house, I like to use the many imitation berries that are available in craft stores to add a pop of fall color.  Dried flowers add interesting texture-- as shown below.  

.... and other Royal Staffordshire patterns as well as Spode on the wall. 

Since the colors in our house tend towards cranberry, raspberry reds and pinks, I avoid the red-brown transferware patterns and go for the darker, more neutral browns.....



...which I find look pretty fabulous with the dusky pinks and apricots of these  'Evelyn' and 'English Rose' blooms...



...as well as the rest of the colors in our house.  I don't worry very much about getting a total match to what I already have.  Too much matchy-matchy can look sterile.




A close-up of one of the serving platters tucked away in the little book-nook on our stairs... for more on how I decorated our stairs this fall, please have a look at this post from a few weeks ago.  There is some variation in the colors in this collection-- as you can see, the color in this piece has a more reddish cast.



When decorating, I like to use patterns and motifs found in one object in other elements in the room.  The fantastical birds and roses on this plate are repeated more or less on the love-seat slip cover...


....and come to life here on the sideboard.



Picking out the apple-greens of the fruit and birds and the pink of the rose in the decorative tray hanging over the sideboard......


and plunking them right down on the little desk that sits catty-corner.....




In fact, throughout this post, you can see an exuberant floral, natural theme in the fabrics, lamp details, pictures on the wall, the ceramic pieces, the flowers, the little creatures. Repeating a motif over and over keeps the eye moving and looking, and creates an interesting, layered look.

I love the way the sinuous curve of this little crane's long neck plays off the tall, simple vase in the background and echos the botanical profusion of the fresh flowers and the more stylized roses and leaves scattered along the border of the serving dish.  






Linking to at Cedar Hill Farmhouse and at French Country Cottage.