Using Indigenous Organic Materials to Enhance your Home for the Holidays

Those of you who are regular readers know that my house was photographed for Tuscan Style Magazine (not to be confused with that other “Tuscan” magazine recently on the stands).  The magazine comes out the end of this month so I can only show you snippets of my Christmas Décor. I wasn’t going to decorate much this year. Why is it that once you start you can’t stop?  Is anyone else afflicted with this disease?


I am a big advocate of using organic materials that are available in either your own yard (or your next door neighbors). Utilizing greens that are available in your own yard  makes the transition from inside to out much more natural. I have no problem  using some “faux”  greens to jazz things up a bit. In our yard we have Eucalyptus, Olive, Boxwood and two different kinds of Pepper trees.  My neighbor has tons of overgrown juniper that they are always happy for me to trim so I am always willing to oblige! This swag on the door going out to the side garden was created with a little of all of the above, and one of the German Glitter Stars from Wendy Addison that I have had for years. You can see more of her work and collaborations here http://www.wendyaddisonstudio.com/

The chandelier in my dining room is dressed with a faux garland to which I have added simple seeded Eucalyptus and my German glitter garlands from Wendy that I use every year.

I am all about using what is indigenous to my part of the country.  It doesn’t snow or even get cold here so I think anything with snow kind of looks silly.   My dining room is neutral except for the blue grays.  Here is my Santo (dressed up as queen of the forest) that sits on my sideboard.

This corner wasn’t photographed for the magazine and it houses one of the first paintings I ever bought from my friend Pat Hube rhttp://pathuberfineart.com/ . Every corner doesn’t need to “scream” Christmas.   Dried hydrangea and eucalyptus do the trick.

This is the same basket I had on my door for Thanksgiving.  I removed the rust berries and hydrangea, added some juniper and these pink berries from my neighbor’s tree and that great ribbon from Michaels.

Admittedly I get a little lazy with my transitional decorating from Fall to Christmas.  I decorate my mantle for Thanksgiving and just change out a few thing for Christmas so I don’t have to redecorate the whole darn thing. In this case I added the juniper and called it good.


I have so many ornaments that have sentimental value that I can’t bear doing a “decorator tree”. My tree remains traditional.  I know it has too much stuff on it.  This year my daughter and daughter in law are going to come grab some ornaments.  Next year it will look a little less like I threw the ornaments on it and left them where they landed.

All of the wrapping, ribbon  and tags I scored at Marshalls. The burlap with the red stripe came from Michaels. 



The kitchen chandelier is adorned with Eucalyptus and faux berries.







The rest of the kitchen I left alone except for a few simple embellishments.

You know those flat as a pancake wreaths that you find at HD etc?  They are super reasonable and if you add a bit of flora from your own yard they can look pretty good.

The door to the wine room will  wear a similar wreath.  Inside I added a few touches here and there.  I think this little hanging corner cupboard looks great with my belsnickel collection.  I wasn’t going to drag this out this year either!!

How is your Christmas Decorating coming along?  Are you finished or just beginning?  The Winner of the giveaway is Terry please email me your address.  I am sending you a goodie box of things!! I will be back next week with another giveaway!!