X'mas Decor Step by Step: Spiral Plant Rack for Hall Entrance (outdoor)

Hello again everyone! Still dizzy for the preparation for the upcoming new year, so this tutorial will be an easy (and fast) one. No decor made from scratch here since we will be using a pre-made plant rack and simple potted plants. But don't be deceived, cause the result will look like a pro.

Enough babbling, for this poinsettia plant rack, youwill need :

- 1 Pre-made spiral iron plant rack, height approx. 1,5 meter and can hold around 9 pots on it but only 5 holes will be filled with potted plants.

- 5 pots pointsettia plants. Choose the bright-red large poinsettia plants that look like velvet

- approx 5-6 m artificial evergreen leaves garland with dia. 15 cm. At least you need 2.5x from length of the curve of the spiral. The longer the garland the better because you need it to cover the unused holes.

- some floral wire

The steps are so simple, first you need to attach the garland onto the top of the rack by using wire. Then simply swirl the garland following the curves of the spiral and secured it at the bottom with another wire.

Last, put the potted poinsettia plants in the pot holes. You only need 5 holes here, the rest should be covered with the evergreen garland. Do it as neatly as possible. In christmas this year, the pointsettia plants used are the top quality ones (maybe imported ones?) for IDR 50.000 per pot !! Wheew, just count the total price....However, the imported ones do have bigger flowerheads and the color is brighter.

And Voila !!! This plant rack decor will look stunning either on the entrance or inside of your house. If you can't find pointsettia plants you can substitute with other flowers plants, just use the ones with lots of flowerheads on them, so it will look like flower arrangements..Have fun trying !!!

Note: The location is still at St. Peter Cathedral and there are 2 decor like this. Each was put at the left and right side of the entrance door of the hall. Both were made by Mrs. Mie Man and her team.

X'mas Decor Step by Step: Christmas Garland for Hall (part 1)

Well... I know Christmas day is over, still lots of Christmas Parties will be held until January so I hope this post will help you decor your house or hall. Location for this post is at St.Peter's Cathedral function hall decoration for christmas this year. Firstly we would like to thank to the coordinator of decorator's team from Margriet, Mrs. Mie Man and the team are Mrs. Ling Ling, Mrs. Fang Chen etc. Good job, ladies!! The decor are elegant....

For this entrance garland decor, we need :

- Artificial garland (dia.15 cm)

- 3 large decor balls ( dia.20 cm)

- Lots of small decor balls (dia.10 cm)

- Red wired ribbon ( dia.10 cm)

- Gold colour leaves and star decoration

- Nails

- Floral wire

Okay, now lets start the step by step tutorial. First put 3 nails on both sides and middle part of the door sill. Next attach the garland to the nails using wire, make a loop at the middle (detail no 1). After that, attach the balls(detail no 2). Here we're using two colours (red and gold) decor balls. Next put on the gold leaf decoration (detail no 3) and last, attach the red ribbon.

For the sides, assembled the small decor balls using floral wire then attached them to the garland. To keep the decor look elegant, one tone pink coloured balls are used but with diferent textures and motifs. I personally like the pink transparent ones with gliterry swirls on top, so cuuuteeee....

And last but not least attach the gold star decoration along the garland and we're done!!!

So here's the finished garland look like.Simple, elegant and can be seen from afar.By the way, this time the decor are put outside the entrance hall so a few things to be considered :

1. The christmas arrangement must be large enough to be seen from afar. If you put it on your front door, the guest must see the decor clearly at least 2.5 meters from the door. So, for outdoor decor, SIZE DOES MATTER :)

2. Use decor that can withstand the weather. Typically in rainy tropical weather like here in Bandung, use decor that won't be ruined when wet.

3. Maintenance. The garland here are put on the door sill using stair, so it will be difficult (not to mention tiring) to maintain if you're using fresh flower which had to be watered continously. On the other hand, artificial decor once finished don't need maintenance until you put it off.

Christmas 2011: Huge X'mas Tree at St.Peter's Cathedral

As I promised you all before, here it is the looks of the iron christmas tree after decorated...

The tree are first covered in lots of outdoor digital printing in pine leaves pattern (detail no 1). This creates the illusion of a real huge pine tree. On top of the printing, they lay white styrofoam board with christmas motifs carved on it (detail no 3), such as bells, snow flakes, reindeer,etc. Cable lamps are then attached on the styrofoam's sides (detail no 4). Next are the gold and silver balls made from spray painted cheap plastic soccer ball (detail no 2) and some red stars made of styrofoam.

Well....I know styrofoam is not environmentally friendly, however it's easily carved into beautiful motif like this one...

After dark, the lights are on!!!!!

Christmas 2011: Nativity Scene at St.Peter Church

Howdy Everyone!!!!

A Very Merry Christmas to You All!!!

It's been a very WET (no, not white) Christmas here in Bandung due to frequent rain almost everyday. And that's why the nativity scene at St.Peter's Cathedral was protected with tent, at least until the 25th. And if you wonder what's the design for the cave this year, here it is....

Right there on the front is the angel's piggy bank, surrounded by rose flowers which me and mom painstakingly arranged (more stories about this later), pointsetia and silver grass. All the statues belong to the church, these are the sheperds ..

The horse and cows....

And finally all of them including The Holy Family ( of course!) and the three kings assembled together. Usually the three kings are assembled later on th 28th, alas all the workmen are on vacation since the 24th so they all assembled on the 23rd.

The stage was surrounded by red & white pointsetia plants and silver grass in pots, evergreen leaves aaand...SWEET STUFF!!!! Yep, there's various fruits such as apples, mangosteens and rambutans hanging, plus jelly candies, chocolates and spekulaas cookies..Yummy...

If Y'all wondering how this cave are made, there will be more blog post on this, so be patient okay...

Oh Christmas Tree....Oh Christmas Tree....

Well, judging from the title of course it's a chistmas tree, but what kind of christmas tree ?

Yep, you got it!! It's a very huge steel iron christmas tree frame in front of St. Peter's cathedral a few days ago. I forgot to take pictures before they were installed, but the frames are knock down. When installed, they measured approx 4 meter wide and 10 meter tall. On close up they look strong, however, a heavy wind sometimes moved them abit.

Right now the frames have been decorated, so wait for my next entry......

Tips 02: How To Overcome The High Price of Flowers

Flowers price that rises suddenly in high season often makes it difficult for florists to determine the price for their products. Especially when demand increasing such as at 111111, a special date of 11 November 2011. The price of the flowers before that date continue to increase and peaked at a day before the big day but unfortunately the amount of the flowers is decreasing because of lots of orders from big decorators and if there are flowers available, the quality is far from satisfactory, such as flowers of casablancas, roses and hortentias. The flowers were small and have more buds than the blooming ones as they’re actually not ready to be picked but finally harvested also. Even though not worth enough, they were still looked for by lots of people. What such a tense moment! It was really making stress. And to overcome this situation, here are the tips:

1. Combine the flowers, do not use expensive flowers all but also cheaper ones such as gladiolus, daisies, gerberas, chrysanthemum, anthurium etc. Besides cheaper they are also more durable, especially anthurium. Anthurium has maximum durability compared with roses or casablancas which can only last for 1-2 days.

2. However it’s undeniable that in general, roses are still favorite flowers. So, make sure you keep the humidity of the roses by spraying them with water more frequently. And if they haven’t been used yet, always soak the stems in water so as not to wilt quickly. This also applies to hortentia. This beautiful big round flower is easily withered after being cut or if placed in room temperature in summer or hot season. But do not be upset and in rush threw them into the trash. Here is the secret, just soak the withered hortentia into a bucket full of water. Within an hour, your favorite flower will be fresh again and ready to be arranged in a vase.

Tips 01: The First Step You Should Prepare Before Arranging Flower

1. Before arranging flower, prepare in advance the materials (such as flowers, foliage, wire, ribbon etc), containers and tools (such as scissors, cutter, pliers/tongs, glue gun etc). Place them all near the table where you work so that you do not go back and forth when going to use it. It’s really time saving especially when you do not have any assistant to help.

2. Make sure the oasis being used is really wet. Soak a few hours before and check whether its center has absorbed the water completely. If not, then the flowers you are using will certainly wilt soon so that you are doing in vain.

Note: it would be better if you soak the oasis overnight and do not push it into the water but let it absorb the water slowly till it sinks by itself.