AEDM -day 27 Christmas

My creativity was certainly stretched today!  I'm frantically working to get all the decorating done on this long weekend so the house will be ready for a party we're having next weekend.  I want to be able to focus on the food, etc. later in the week, not decorating the house.

So, we put up the tree Friday, I put out my Santa collection and hung the outside lights and stuff on Saturday and today was tackling the mantel and stairwell.  The mantel was the main "new" decorating and though I thought I had a plan (ha!), it didn't quite work out.  I purchased these fabulous lighted stars from Ikea along with some wonderful silk amaryllis blooms with the idea of a white and silver elegant mantel.  I wanted a contemporary linear look to the flowers but didn't want to spend $$ on the long shallow glass vase cuz I thought I could make something. Uh huh.

I used florist foam to hold the stems then wrapped the "vase" with a sparkly narrow garland and added the bird for some color.  Too plain.

So I jazzed it up with some red and white berries and silver twirly sticks.  While I like the way the arrangement turned out, it didn't look good on the mantel - the white on white elegant effect is totally lost because you can't see the flowers very well.

As you can see, it looked a little schizophrenic - the dark trees on the right, the invisible white flowers on the left - no connection, visually uneven cuz the trees are so dark (they're hiding the cords to the stars).  Suffice it to say I tried several other options - moved trees, added Santas, took away the flowers and tried a giant sleigh.  By this time it's 4pm, the room is a total mess with glitter and greenery and ornaments everywhere, I'm exhausted and my creativity is running a little low.

But - I had one more idea.

I put the flowers in staggered heights in a series of vases so they could layer (front to back) and fill up some of the depth (2') of that mantel.  Breaking up the trees put something dark on the left while the little Santa finishes up the left side.  I'm not sure this will be the final version, but it's final for today!

It's late to post this but I did get it done for my AEDM entry!