DIY Topiary

We've been having unusually warm (45!) weather for winter in Minnesota, so I've been slightly "springifying" our decor. I've been usually off schedule this past year: I was ready for Fall in July, Christmas in October, and now Spring in February. It's terrible.

I took down the winter decor (the Christmas stuff that wasn't explicitly Christmas- garland on the table, mini pine trees, snow flake votives, etc) on Monday and needed to replace it with something.

A topiary seemed to be just the ticket. Springy without being too "birds/blooming flowers/pastels." Here's what you need:

• A small pot
• Floral styrofoam square AND ball
• Spanish moss (check your dollar store)
• Sticks
• Wire twist tie
• Faux boxwood garland or picks (I bought faux garland at Michaels and cut off all the branches)

Start by cutting down the styrofoam square to fit into the pot. A serrated knife worked great for me. Then push in a couple of sticks.

And plop it in the pot to make sure it fits snugly.

Next, cover the styrofoam with spanish moss. Does anyone know if this stuff is real or not? Probably a stupid question, but I honestly couldn't tell. Well done, Dollar Store!

Now comes the putzy and time consuming part. Cover your styrofoam ball with all of your boxwood branches. This took me two hours. I made my own picks by deconstructing a plastic boxwood garland from Michaels. My guess is that if you used wire based pics, it would go a lot quicker. (Mine occasionally fell out as I was working, and it took forever just to cut the branches off and then cut them down to size. Ugg. But as someone wise once said, "It's painful to be beautiful" (or crafty)).

Leave a little bit of the ball uncovered (less than is pictured in the photo), and push it onto your sticks. I used one big stick and three little ones- I twisted the smaller sticks around the bigger one, and secured them to the big one with a twist tie.

Here she is!

I thought Charlie would think it was totally weird, but he actually likes it. Yay!

Go make yourself one!

I'm linking this project up with Home Storie's A to Z's linky party: go check it out!