Let the wrapping begin

I find there are two sorts of people in life – those who love wrapping presents and those who’ll happily pawn the task off to others.  I’m in the first camp. As a child growing up my mum was always pretty particular about the styling of her Christmas tree. Gifts had to coordinate with the tree and a general colour scheme was adopted every year. I have fond memories of the two of us sitting on the floor in the family lounge room surrounded by rolls of paper and boxes of ribbons and bows, televised Christmas carol special on in background, wrapping presents in the days leading up to December the 25th.

It’s a tradition I continue to keep and over the last few weeks I’ve seen countless images on Instagram and Pinterest of fresh foliage adorning beautifully boxed presents. As it’s so warm in Australia around Christmas, adding a sprig of spruce as part of the wrapping process never really crossed my mind. This year however, I decided to use harness that inspiration and try it myself!

I raided the garden at the front of Adam and my apartment finding holly leaves and a large shrub with red berries, which I believe is cotoneaster horizontalis (budding gardeners, is that right?!) and got busy!

I found some brown paper with glitter trees and reindeers on it at WHSmith a few weeks back.  It’s got a lovely thickness and weight to it, which makes it a delight to work with and in my opinion, heavier paper is much easier to wrap presents in.

After adding a ribbon, bells or a bow, I simply snipped off a piece of greenery and secured it safely to the present.

I’m definitely not in Martha Stewart territory, but for an Aussie gal fumbling through her first cold festive season, I thought the end product turned out ok. I think it adds just a pretty little touch.  The holly presents may need a warning attached to them though – those leaves are spiky!

I still have a pile of presents that need to wrapped, so I’ve arranged my greenery in a vase that’s currently in the sitting room. It keeps it looking fresh and also adds a  festive feeling to one corner of the room.  The greenery certainly pops against our very red walls!

Thank you for all the feedback and support you’ve Wattle and Ash over the last few months and I hope you’ll continue to stay in touch as the adventure in England continues into 2017.  Have a safe and merry Christmas and I look forward to sharing some of our day with you all next week.

M. x