25 Sleeps till Christmas...

Last night was my penultimate Lessing at college for this term and we are now well and truly into the festive season. I received my first Christmas card as well which was lovely and I'm now definitely in the mood for the month ahead. Well who doesn't like Christmas. It's the jolliest time of year.

Anyway, it was wreath making time last night, which was a first for me but lots of fun. I stuck with my American theme and produced something that I think Christmas Barbie would covet: very pink and very sparkly. The rest of my class opted for very traditional styles, so lots of holly, pine cones and guided apples, and they all looked marvellous...mine thus stood out like a sore thumb, but, I was really pleased with the results and thought it was very pretty and cute.

Have a look at the picture below and let me know what you think. All of the adornments came from hobby craft (Staines) and the greenery came from a tree in my garden. The base is an oasis 10 inch wreath.

Have a go at making one, it was so much fun!

My Pew End

So, it turns out, that my pew end was in fact assembled the wrong way up...the handle should have been at the bottom. Suffice to say, when I showed Janine (my teacher) the photos of what I made last week under my own supervision, she did say I got the shape right and it was very nice...just upside down. Oooops! It just means I will have to make another one.

This weekend, aside from working, I will be heading off to a local hobby craft to get myself some bits and pieces for my wreath which I will be making on Tuesday. I think I want to make an American Christmas theme wreath: so candy canes and lots of sparkle. The hobby craft website, does in fact have some great design ideas, so I will no doubt seek inspiration from there.

I also intend to make an arrangement drawing inspiration from one of the designers I have featured in my portfolio: one of which is Jane Packer, who very sadly dies earlier this month at the age of only 52. I was very lucky to be able to work for Jane Packer Flowers this past summer, as a delivery driver - it turns out I wasn't that good at that part, but I did get to witness some beautiful arrnagments being made and working there was the final push I needed to make me go forward and train as a florist. So I will be trawling through my Jane Packer books this weekend and then going out to make something, that I hope is even a fraction of the quality of her designs. A really sad loss, but she has left a fantastic legacy as one of the most talented floral designers there ever has been.