Fresh Holiday Wreath Making Classes and Christmas Coming

We had our two wreath making classes, one on  December 2nd and the other one on December 3rd.  A few days before, the race goes on with people wanting to sign up late and those that want to cancel.  Each event/class we have her at the farm, I try and make myself have people pay via paypal as I still have to buy supplies; get the food ready and all the products that are needed ahead of the class.  Our farm is in a rural setting, so going to get supplies takes a bit of time so I have to have each class planned out early and shopping done as early as possible.

The Wednesday, December 2nd class had 2 people cancel and 2 no shows, rude!!!  The Thursday class, I allowed extra people to sign up since I was going to loose money on the class the day before.  It was crazy, Frank kept asking me how many people are coming, how many people are coming.

The biggest challenge is to make sure I had enough wreath making greens to use.  We had 2 varieties of eucalyptus; Douglas fir; noble fir; redwood greens; olive tree branches; magnolia leaves; heavenly bamboo berries; privet berries; rosemary; I had fruit tree sticks; I had wisteria curvey branches; pine cones; I had pretty

yellow/orange kumquat branches with the fruit on them; Christmas balls; ribbons to make bows.

We cleaned out Frank's shop and as we cut branches and limbs down, we piled them all around the room and I set up the 6' folding tables on each side of Frank's huge center work table.  I gave each person their own clippers, wire cutters, wreath making wire; wreath forms.  I also had door prizes of fresh Meyer Lemons; Fuyu persimmons, fresh dozen eggs; a wreath form; and some other items.  The grand prize was the person won the wreath made by our instructor, Florist Lisa Hunter.

I wanted to make a photo op booth, so I made all these paper flowers along with some gold ones.  Cellii and I are going to be decorating an old barn in a week or o for a special Dutch Bros Christmas dinner.  We are making 2 off these boards for that event, but since I had one finished, I decided to use it.

The food was another project.  I made juice using our fresh pomegranate juice, 7Up, sliced lemons, ice and it was a big hit plus it looked so pretty in a glass container.  I ordered trays from our local grocery store of small sandwiches and a spinach dip along with some cookies.  People got all of this for $35, a real bargain and people went home with their completed wreaths.

Each class had friends coming with friends; Moms who brought their daughters and daughter-in-laws.  One group had 5 people, another had 4 family members.

It is all fun, but the worst part was cutting down all the fresh items in the rain!!!  Of course, it had to rain the day of the classes.

These Windmill Farm classes are a lot of work and expense.  But over the past few years, we have gained such a grateful following of people who enjoy making things; coming together with friends; helping a farm find ways to keep going.  We thank these people for coming.  What better way to get into the holiday spirit then laughing, being creative, breaking bread together; learning, just have a really good time.

Here are some photos of happy Fresh Wreath Making people from our classes:

Everyone had big smiles!!! A special thank you goes out to our instructor Lisa Hunter, local wedding/event florist.  She is so patient with all of us and a joy to be around. Unfortunately, I forgot to take of picture of her whole person, this was one of the wreaths she made.  Sorry Lisa.

And here is a photo of my Annie, she was tired of being out in the shop and wanted to have me and her go back into the house.

  Christmas is getting close!!! Hope you all are having fun and have your trees up.  Write sometime, would love to hear from you.