Blue Ribbon Wreath

I enjoy making a new and different wreath for our front door every year at Christmas time.  This year inspiration came from the Nov/Dec issue of Traditional Home magazine, which features a pretty Virginia stone house, I noticed further detailed in Loi Thai's wonderful blog, Tone on Tone: A Light and Airy Christmas (includes photos not shown in the magazine, and some nice close-ups of the wreaths.)  I kept admiring the pretty blue ribbon, possibly chambray, that I was not able to find locally (guess I could have made my own...)  I was so happy to finally find some light blue silk ribbon at Merrifield Garden Center in Fairfax -- which has a gorgeous selection of ribbon, and they assured me that it was alright to use silk on our outdoor wreath, which would not be protected from the elements (we'll see).  Here is my version, which I started  from a boxwood wreath bought at Home Depot, then added magnolia and holly leaves/berries from our yard, blue silk ribbon, and silver jingle bells, saved from past years' wreaths:

O Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree this year -- so far unadorned, as we just got it yesterday.  Knew right away it was "the one", and it even had a little birds nest in it! Further inspection confirmed it had a straight, single trunk -- which makes everyone happy!

 

O Christmas tree!

The soft mossy nest found in our tree is, I think, a chickadee nest.

 

Holiday Music: for Thanksgiving/Christmas

I love Christmas music, and actually start playing my Christmas cds before Thanksgiving. A few of them are good to listen to for both holidays -- my Celine Dion cd, These Are Special Times, is one of them. This beautiful song is from that cd: 

Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli -- The Prayer

I have also been listening to:

George Winston -- December,  peaceful and beautiful piano music

The Nutcracker Suite, by Tchaikovsky, and

A Charlie Brown Christmas, by Vince Guaraldi, which is joyful, jazzy and peaceful at the same time...
     

What holiday music do you like to listen to?
     

Let the music, joy and spirit of Christmas be upon us!