The Holly and the Ivy

At long last, the next instalment of the 2006 Christmas story... Once the tree was set up, we went about the mantlepiece decoration. It was my first time ever to do such a thing, because as mentioned before Sean doesn't really like celebrating Christmas at home, and before I came to England I was not familiar with the tradition of swags and arrangements around fireplaces, and mostly didn't have a fireplace anyway!
It is very convenient that we have loads of ivy very prolific on the fences, the female type that makes flowers, and also a berry-bearing holly tree in the neighbour's garden that vastly overhangs the fence. So I only had to buy some oasis to hold the arrangement in the basket, add a candle and tie some ribbon into a big bow, and voila - the mantlepiece in style (well, it wasn't quite so easy, but I was happy with the final effect and it lasted for a good 2 weeks...).

Credits: based on quickpage by Club Scrap ("Ivory Elegance" digi kit); with swag by Tricia Oliver;
corner swag by Vickie Fernandez; and bows and holly by Jen White