Getting prickly..

Yesterday, in the true spirit of the Season, I hauled my not inconsiderable butt out of bed at the weekday time. Not the Sunday lie-in time of anywhere between 7.30 and 10am.  I grumbled a bit as I dressed for public consumption. (I can easily spend a Sunday in a dressing gown).  I grumbled less as the coffee started to filter through and work its magic, and by the time my chums arrived to whisk me away, I was able to speak and be pleasant.

My two amigas.  Yes we needed the aprons.

Amy, helpfully giving the greenery a perspective!

 

We were off to The Petal Boutique at Weyhill to make ourselves a Christmas wreath.  I have never done anything involving floristry, apart from pretending to arrange the odd bouquet in a vase.  And I mean odd.  In nearly 29 years, I've had more bouquets from family and friends for birthdays than as reminders of unbounded love from my life partner.  He knows who he is.
 

Helen, showing us floristry tricks for wiring

Helen's shop is lovely, filled with the scents and colours of floristry and hanging with gorgeous decorations for sale, and some really fab re-purposed and painted furniture.  She's a very stylish gal.  And very patient. She showed, helped and encouraged five of us to make the wreath from the wire frame up..to make sausages of moss, to bind with wire, to feed in the greenery and bind with wire.  To add decorations that are - surprisingly - wired..and finally to add a beautiful bow.  Well, everyone else had a beautiful bow.  I couldn't see why it was so hard to do, so tried myself and hmmm....should have asked for help. What I did do however, is become more relaxed over the course of the morning and therefore more able to be vocal and whiney when the holly stabbed me.  And it did. A lot.  It was really sharp.  But it didn't stop me using it, of course. I had a really lovely morning, and will be signing up for more as next year unfolds.  I'm never going to be a florist, but I like what Helen managed to make me do.  Clever. And I now have a really nice fresh wreath hanging at my door. I even went to the trouble of making sure it wasn't too close to the doorbell so that others don't have to suffer the holly prickles. Really, I'm like that.