Trimming Table + Door for Christmas

As we  did last year, Peter and I bought our tree down the road at Frey's, collected a few free tree trimmings (Canaan and Douglas fir), bought four pine cones for a dollar and a large bunch of boxwood for $6, and stopped at a roadside stand to pick up two small bunches of winterberry for $8. Throw in a little floral wire, ribbon we already had, and six long forsythia stems cut from my sister-in-law's bush, and all but our tree cost about $16. That and several hours of an afternoon. To the left is the little arrangement we have hanging over our kitchen doorway. Below, an arrangement with candles I have sitting on the dining room table and the wreath we have hanging on our front door. The forsythia stems provided the circular structure to which I wired the fir branches, then the boxwood, winterberry, and ribbon. Again this year, I am starting to understand why wreaths cost so much ready-made! But working with actual greenery and berries and seeing the project through from start to finish is so much more satisfying than buying either a plastic or natural wreath at the store.