Jennifer and Amy: Topiary Envy

So, here's the deal, one of my dear friends in Fresno had these two great topiaries and from the very first moment I saw them in her living room I tried to devise a plan to get them to my home. Unfortunately, it's a bit difficult to stash a 30" high tree in your handbag or sweatshirt. So in my efforts at not becoming a full on criminal, I started to search high and low (and really low sometimes) for something to match the beauty of these fun little decorating accessories. I was amazed at just how pricey these guys can be!! Of course, with my cadillac tastes, I was finding them for upward of $50 (or MORE!) each! OMGoodness!!! Are you kidding me?? I really had no idea when I started my hunt that they would be so expensive.

Bring in Dave Ramsey... UGH! Dave certainly has no room in our current budget for these trees. But my living room really needed at least one. I have a teensy home decor budget each month so I began searching blog land for how to make one... remembering that I am really better with paper than anything else. But oh how I was dreaming of my very own topiary! Finally, after months of searching I found exactly what I was looking for! Right HERE. So I gathered up the stuff and spent an afternoon burning my fingers all in the name of decorating.

Here is a little look at my steps:

First, I ripped all these little boxwood pieces off of close to 4 stems I picked up at Hobby Lobby at 50% off. YAY! Couldn't have created this without that sale.

Next, I used my extremely scientific tool to poke shallow holes in the green floral ball to push the stems into after adding a drop of hot glue on the ends. There was an insane amount of hot glue used in the creation of this topiary, but that's ok with me. After all this trouble, I don't want this sucker falling apart on me!

Using the tutorial from Miss Mustard Seed, I proceeded to add the boxwood in all around the ball while it rested on another scientific-topiary-making-holder.

After a few hours of ripping stems, poking holes, cursing the hot glue gun, and general praises to myself of "look how cute this is gonna be!" it was finished. Look at her in all her topiary glory! I had to run out before it snowed again to find the perfect stick from one of our trees (shhhhh, just don't mention this to Ken) but I LOVE the way she came out. I have plans for a second one just as soon as HL has another sale. He He!