The little birds...

If you watch little birds you will see they are busy and happy! Using whatever they can find they create the most gorgeous little nest.
I would be the little bird with some glittery thread in her nest!
We can be like this. Happily working away with the things that are available to us to create a beautiful and happy home.
All the while with a little song in our heart.

Banner by Free Pretty Things for You.

Tuesday 4 February 2014

Make your own topiary tree (and refresh your home)

Yesterday I rearranged flowers, dusted, had a big clean and then stared cleaning up the garden after the storm.

As I went about pulling flower arrangements apart and moving things around it reminded me just how much a re arrange freshens things up. It makes such a difference. It changes the energy in a room. So now I've started I will keep going! 

Several side tables are all fresh and look nice now anyway. I went to work on a couple of topiary trees I had in mind since falling head over heels in love with some from Pottery Barn. Have a look at theirs if you want inspiration! Now they have some real ones for around $500 each. They are stunning. Apart from the fact I am not going to pay $500 for one (that might then die!) they are really beautiful.

This is how my first one turned out. The good thing is Andy fell for it and thought it was alive.




To make your own is pretty easy. You need a pot, oasis florist foam (available in cheap shops) a stick... I think a really stick is best, greenery (for a ball you need a surprisingly large amount) and you need moss of some kind, real or fake for the pot. Hardware stores/garden centres have them.

The centre is usually a round oasis ball. These are expensive. So I just cut a block into a rough round shape with a knife. Also fill your pot firmly with a block of oasis and leave a space around the top for moss. Fill in any gaps but cutting and squishing oasis to fill them. 

Stick your stick into it firmly and your round ball on top and then you are simply adding sprigs of greenery to fill that ball. Rotate it and try to evenly cover it adding things in a sunburst style. 

Now that sounds easy and is but the thing is to get the look you want you need to notice proportions. I suggest finding a few pictures of topiary you love. They are your guide. Notice how big is the ball of greenery in proportion to the pot? Ok so mostly you will find the ball is a few times larger than the pot. Getting this about right is important. And how tall to make it? Notice this by imagining how many pots you you stack in the space where there is just stick? Mostly you will notice it is about 3. Studying these proportions and copying them will get you the look you are after. Too short and they look stubby, if your ball of greenery is too small they look weird! If this is hard for you go see some real ones and measure the size of the pot, the length of the stick and the size of the ball. 

Another point is you want to avoid perfection. Nature isn't perfect and that is part of the charm. So a slightly crooked stick is better than a dead straight one. A slight lean won't hurt either. That's charming and sweet.

There are a lot of fake or dried greenery that will look lovely. I would mist these with water so they don't get dusty. Dust is the all time enemy of things looking fresh and real! 

The second one I made I used wire to form a heart and wrapped wire up and down a stick to secure it. Then I "trained" ivy around it, wrapping as I went to keep in roughly in place as if it had grown there. Easy. It looks really sweet too and is a lovely pop of greenery.



This morning my little tree looked so cheery in the sunlight. I really like it!
I have the bits to make several more. I am thinking of attempting the two or three ball topiary, I will see how it goes!


A little change around and refresh made all he difference. Back to the pottery barn catalogue to decide what to copy next!


1 comment:

  1. Looks great Annabel. Andy must love coming home to see what you have created every day. Very inspiring! :)

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