There is something about the way the sun hits the house at a slant that makes you want to come inside and decorate the house. Is it the crisp air or the way the nights come on faster, that lets you know it’s that time of year again? We, here at Tuscan Garden Works are anxious to help you with the task of transforming your home for the holidays. We can help you along the way to be creative, inspired or just plain excited or we can do it for you. Read on for some quick design rules to help you be successful easily.
Whether you choose to deck your halls, a porch or a table, you’ll want to create a beautiful, interesting and exciting vignette or floral arrangement. Your success will depend on your abiding by a rule or two. Follow these simple design rules for placement of pieces that make a well balanced whole. For easy remembering, I usually call the rules: “Thriller”, “Filler” and “Spiller” but for this season I’ll refer to them as “Bones”, “Tendons” and “Flesh”!
Consider, as you are about to jazz up your front porch with a Halloween vignette or create a harvest table piece, the following design rules. They work for most any creation. You need “bones”, “tendons” and “flesh” - these terms seem appropriate for the up- coming season!
1. The “bones” will be your largest, most colorful item, the piece that stands out the most, creating a focal point. You may have more than one focal point in an arrangement.
2. The “tendons” will be the additives that support your focal point - a secondary item, maybe a pair of items that connects to the focal point. "Tendons" also connect the arrangement to the base. The base is the table it sits on, the mantel or porch or where ever it is placed. For a smaller arrangement, the base might be the planter or vase it is arranged in. This could be as simple as scattered leaves, or straw or it could be a trailing floral piece.
3. The “flesh” will be the final touches, the parts that fill in but don’t detract from the main focal point, perhaps a softer color, a less busy texture, or a smaller supporting piece or two.
Follow these design rules and you’ll produce a porch vignette so perfect, it’s scary!
Word of Warning: If you gather your own floral and grasses, leaves or pods, don’t keep them in the house very long or you’ll have a real mess to clean up. The fine seed heads can spill all over the place! They get into heater ducts, in your food and carpets. Does that sound like I’ve been there, done that? Using fresh fruit is really lovely, until the fruit flies attack it. They take about one day to multiply into hundreds!
Most all natural twigs, grasses and leaves and fruit have a permanent botanical counterpart that will be “everlasting”!
Check out our beautiful foliages, branches and berries.
Many are 50%-70% off.
Decorating Your Christmas Tree
Stop into Tuscan Garden Works' showroom and pick up a free printed copy of a themed Christmas tree...with pizzazz! We have over 20 styles of Christmas tree ideas. You can see how to re-arrange your existing decorations, add a few new blings, or just add filler floral material and make a powerful decorator statement, a real piece of art!
Holiday Recipe Idea:
A delightfully different dessert for the
PUMPKIN CAKE
1box yellow cake mix
¾ cup (1 ½ stick of butter)
3 eggs
¾ cup brown sugar
¼ cup flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 large can of canned pumpkin
2/3 cup (small can) evaporated milk
2 ½ tsp. pumpkin spice
Dash (small) salt, ground cloves, ginger & nutmeg.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Grease a 13 x 9 cake pan
We will need 3 bowls: SMALL, MEDIUM & LARGE
In the MEDIUM bowl will be the crust: Mix the yellow cake mix with 1 egg (slightly beaten), ½ cup (1stick) melted and cooled butter. With a spoon, press it into the cake pan, including up the sides. (Set aside 1 cup of cake mix for the small bowl!)
In the SMALL bowl will be the topping: Take 1 cup of dry cake mix, ¼ cup of flour, ¼ cup of brown sugar, 1 tsp. of cinnamon and ¼ cup (1/2 stick) of melted and cooled butter. Mix all together and refrigerate until needed.
In the LARGE bowl will be filling: Take 1 large can of canned pumpkin, ½ cup of brown sugar, 2 eggs, 2/3 cup of evaporated milk, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 2 ½ tsp. pumpkin spice and a small dash each of salt, ground cloves, ginger & nutmeg. Mix all very well and place into the crust lined pan. Sprinkle the topping over the filling. Bake 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool. Serve with whipped cream. Refrigerate left-overs…if any!
