Decorating With Silk Flowers

I received a free product from Silk Plants Direct and CSI Wall Panels in exchange for my honest review.

The sun is shining here in the Hudson Valley, but it is still very cold out. I’m starting to grow impatient for spring, and finding myself wanting to have flowers in the house for pops of color. My cats, however, tend to nibble on fresh flowers, so I enjoy using silk flowers instead.

I was given the opportunity to try out a silk arrangement from Silk Plants Direct  and I was happy to oblige! The first thing that struck me was the vast selection of gorgeous silk plants on their website. Whether you are looking for greenery, stems, or finished arrangements, Silk Plants Direct has it all.

I knew I wanted something with lots of color, so I chose this Peony arrangement:

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It arrived quickly and extremely well-packaged. The glass vase was very secure and the silk flowers were not crushed. It just needed a little bit of fluffing before I put it on display.

The flowers are incredibly realistic looking! In fact, my mother-in-law was surprised when I told her that the flowers were artificial — she thought I’d purchased the arrangement from the florist!

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Originally I had planned to put these flowers on my nightstand because the colors coordinate perfectly with my quilt, but I love it so much it is in my kitchen where everyone can enjoy it


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Silk flowers are one way to give a quick update to your decor. Another way is using 3D Wall panels from CSI Wall Panels. These lightweight panels have so many creative uses — if you’re itching for a change, check them out!

In the Garden

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Well, this year my garden is overgrown and underwhelming. The one-two punch of some heavy rains and two weeks of crazy hot weather made the weeds go crazy and sadly I’m just not motivated to keep up with it. (Happens every year — I’m a gardener in my head, but not in reality, LOL!) But I figured I’d share a few snapshots of the plants that haven’t died!

First, there’s my knockout rose bush. This is one of the hardiest plants we have in the front! And what’s amazing is that a few years ago, I bought the plant half-head on clearance for $1, just to see if it would take. I love how bright the pink is.

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Then there are these Black-Eyed Susans that came from my mother-in-law’s garden.

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And the Tiger Lily from my mom’s garden.

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Even though Queen Anne’s Lace might be considered a weed, I love having it around the house. It’s so pretty and delicate and when I feel motivated to cut some flowers to bring in the house, the Queen Anne’s Lace makes such lovely filler.

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This one is called a Balloon Flower and I think we might have gotten it as a bare-root plant from Spring Hill. We placed an order when we first moved here and while a lot of the plants didn’t take, a few did! The flowers close up in the evening and look like little balloons.

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And here’s the Spoon Flower my dad made. This one is pretty rare 😉

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I found this spiderweb this morning and I never tire of how magical they look. I left it alone — I feel bad anytime I have to wipe one away. I know it’s silly, but they just seem like so much work and this web wasn’t in a place where it was bothering anyone.

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And finally, my hydrangea. I had only one pathetic bloom last year and it doesn’t look like I’ll have any flowers this year (no idea why!). I did, however, find this adorable little toad hanging out on a leaf! 

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Maybe in September I’ll put out some mums and marigolds and kale… I’ll try to take advantage of fall flowers and pretty things up for autumn. So, how are your gardens doing this year?

String Up the Lights

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Do you have a Christmas tree decorating tradition? Ours is to hang up all of the ornaments while Christmas Vacation plays in the background. It’s something Drew and I have done since our pre-kid days, and every year without fail we laugh at all the same parts.

While I love the idea of a real tree, the reality is that our artificial tree just makes more sense for us. We can put it up whenever we like (in our case — last weekend, even though we didn’t decorate it until today).  We can use it for years. We don’t need to water it. And honestly I love that it has glitter on it. Find that on your local tree lot 😉

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This year, the ornament hanging went much smoother than in years past. The kids all listened, and there was minimal frustration. We have some very old and very fragile ornaments that they’re not allowed to touch yet.

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And yes, there was hot cocoa. (The grown-up version had a little extra “Christmas cheer” thrown in!)

christmas tree 2012

Over the next few days we’ll move ornaments around until it’s just right. I had planned on making a popcorn garland this year, but I just didn’t have time last week. Our old garland is at least 30 years old. Have you ever seen 30-year-old popcorn? Yeah, and I thought the ornaments were fragile. We strung it up last year, but this year it’s staying in the box.

christmas tree 2012

This early in the month, it’s still a work in progress. And I really need to find our tree skirt!

christmas tree 2012

Flower Pillow “Ta-Da!”

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Earlier this summer when Lulu made the transition from her crib to a “big girl” bed, I knew I wanted to make something pretty for it. When my mom was visiting back in June, I started on a blooming flower pillow, using the pattern from Attic24. Only instead of using dozens of colors, I decided to make one enormous white flower.

And enormous it is! It took me forever to finish this, not because the pattern was hard, but I guess I got a little bored with all the white. Nevertheless, I’m happy with the way it came out, and my little girl loves it! The backside is a light green and the side is a dark purple, so everything coordinates with her room.

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Of course, now the boys want pillows, too (only not flower pillows…) Good thing I have a couple of extra cushions laying around. I guess I’ll be added their requests to my never-ending “to crochet” list, LOL!

Ridiculously Easy Initial Wreath

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I have been getting quite a bit of crafting done lately, which has been awesome! It’s a combination of finding just the right items at just the right price, and the fact that Laura is starting to play a little more independently, allowing me bits of time to play 🙂 Last weekend I completed a project I’ve been wanting to do for a long time: make a new wreath for our front door.

I wish we could have a really cool painted front door, but our house is mahogany and stained a reddish-brown. Honestly, there aren’t a lot of colors besides white or cream that look good with it, so it definitely needs a bit of adornment. When I found a big “B” on clearance at Michael’s, I was totally inspired! Then, when I was at Hobby Lobby and I found burlap ribbon, my life was made much easier.

Basically, I took a straw wreath and wrapped it with the burlap ribbon, securing the back with floral greening pins (like these). I carefully positioned my letter so that I could feed ribbon through the top, allowing me to change it with the seasons. Then I hot-glued the letter to the wreath, arranged my silk flowers (hot-glueing when necessary and hoping it will peel off easily when I decide to change up the wreath), and fed the ribbon between the wreath form and the “B” to create the hanger.

And voila! A new wreath that I made in less than an hour (complete with interruptions). The real genius of this wreath, though, is how it is hung. My mom gets all the credit for this idea. Basically, I created a loop at the top of the ribbon (yep, again with my hot glue), and cut a slit for the wreath hanger to slide into. Here are a couple pictures — hopefully they make it clearer.

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This way, the ribbons doesn’t get all twisted and you can use one of those inexpensive wreath hangers from the dollar store. So far it’s holding up great! I am sure you could sew the ribbon in addition to glueing it to make it extra secure.

Anyway, I am really happy with the way it turned out and now my front door is a little more welcoming.