A couple of weeks ago Mr. Pinoochi and I travelled to our farm to gather the "fixins" for our holiday decorating.

We gave some of it to our kids (so they can use it for their own decorating) and the rest I will use indoor and outdoor. This is my second year trying to decorate an urn.... I'm no floral designer (disclaimer) but I think I'm getting better. Here's my process......

I like a mixture of greens, so I bought fir and pine that we don't have at the farm and some magnolia leaves that definitely don't grow anywhere near where I live.


I stuffed the bottom of the empty urn with some newspaper then held the 3 birch branches upright while I cut and wedged green floral foam into the spaces surrounding them.

I poked fir branches into the foam at the back of the urn. Fir branches maintain their height and shape and are a good foundation for the design. Cedar boughs are placed all around the perimeter of the urn and they fall gracefully over the edge. I continued to fill up the spaces with cedar, pine and some fir before I added 3 sprays of magnolia leaves. Then I added the dogwood and some curly branches I found in my basement. I finished by placing a few "fakes" into the mix (again from the basement stash).

Voila! Mr. Pinoochi carried the finished urn to the front porch. Is it fair that I get to do the fun stuff and he has to carry the heavy load? Thanks Mr. P!
UPDATE: The latest Holiday planter (an antique Copper Boiler) and DIY with step-by-step photos can be found HERE