Decorating with Nature

Fountain Grass

Natural Christmas

I was telling my friend Miki about how I was going to use burlap ribbon on my tree this year.  She wanted to give her tree a more natural look this year as well and shared with me the idea of using dried fountain grass plumes.  She had used them before in an indoor vase.  I thought they would crumble to the touch, but to my surprise they aren’t messy at all.  I have an unlimited supply of fountain grass growing around the perimeter of my house so I was delighted to get some use out of it.  Typically I am cursing it when it’s time to cut it back because of the mess it makes.  All I did was snip off several stalks and tied them in bunches with twine.  I used them in my tree as an added accent and in a vase with some branches.

As I get older, I find more joy in decorating with things from nature or re-purposing things I already own.  My decorating style changes often and I’m left with boxes of decorations I no longer want to use and a storage space full of stuff.  By using things from nature I don’t have to store anything, and I haven’t spent any money so there is no guilt involved.  Also, as much as I love Santas and other Christmas decor I’m leaning more toward displaying things with a winter theme that I can keep out until Spring.  I still have a few favorite Christmas decorations though which I’ll share in a later post.