Last Winter I was inspired to create a French Christmas carol poster to use in this year's Christmas decorations. Wholesale gift shows always have spectacular larger-than-life window and floor displays designed by their professional stylists which usually are beyond my resources to replicate similar ones.  

But, last January an eye-catching wall-size Silent Night Christmas carol poster in the Dallas Market RAZ Imports wholesale showroom inspired me to create similar displays for a French Country Christmas poster this year. Read more for how I selected to use, and how I created a poster for O Holy Night. 

How To Paint Over Wallpaper

Painting over old wallpaper requires special preparation to insure the finished paint job is smooth. Hanging new wallpaper over old wallpaper requires much of the same special preparation. Here are the steps we followed to prepare to paint over a wallpapered ceiling and to hang new wallpaper over existing wallpaper on the walls of the guest half-bath in the entry. 

Please PIN ⇑ to your Pinterest Boards for future reference 

Every house has its own peculiar quirks which means what works in one house may or may not work in another house. Please research wallpaper company sites for additional information since what I write is from personal experience, not professional advice. Nonetheless, you will get ideas about the overall process for painting and papering over old existing wallpaper. 

Handmade Easter Cards | DIY Prints Included

Paper Series Post

Handmade Easter cards are an easy Do-It-Yourself (DIY) with ribbons, card stock, a computer and an at-home printer. Sealing wax stamp and slip-in envelopes make the cards extra special. 

Pin photos to your Spring and Easter Pinterest boards to create DIY cards for future use. 

For lovers of blue and white, there is a print with blue eggs and blue text. For those who prefer traditional colors of Spring, there is a print with green eggs and green text. Links to the two different colored prints are at the bottom of the post. 

Inked Blue Bulletin Board Debut

Today is the debut of my inked blue bulletin board. Just in time to create collages for holiday inspiration.  

For the past year, dark inked blue and gold have become a favorite color combination for my home. Navy blue has always been a favorite paired with white or red or both, but recently I started plans to update an old wood-framed bulletin board with  a blue cork board and gold wood frame. 

Read about why and how I transformed an old inexpensive bulletin board into a freshly painted blue cork board with gold wood frame and get ideas for your own bulletin board. 

How NOT To DIY Flock A Christmas Tree

A few years ago I learned how NOT to DIY flock a Christmas tree. In case you would like to flock a real tree or a faux tree, you may find a few tips from my experience to save you time, money, and energy. 

Now is the time to buy the artificial snow before suppliers sell out for the season. You can wait until later to actually apply the DIY snow, but if you wait to buy supplies until you are ready to flock your tree in December, you may not be able to get the artificial flocking snow. 

Garden Shed DIY Budget Open Shelves

Garden sheds can be beautiful on a budget. DIY open shelves made from real wood and metal shelf support brackets from a home improvement store gave my garden shed French Country elegance I love. 

White-washed wood shelves and gold-painted brackets coordinate with the fleur de lis topped mirror. Sturdy, functional, and beautiful elegance!

A list of materials and sources is at the end of the description of how these shelves were built. 

Garden Shed DIY New Shelves | Extra Space With a Touch of Elegance

New shelves in my backyard garden shed will provide needed storage/display space and some French elegance to the hard-working little shed. The French Country garden shed in my backyard began life as a utilitarian plywood garden shed. Then the little shed was transformed into a special Christmas retail shop for a French Country Christmas Event each December. 

After the Christmas sale each year, the little shed reverts to more of a garden shed with only a few Christmas items stored between the yearly Christmas events. Seed packets, flower pots, gardening cloches, and a fluffy long-haired concrete bunny take over the center table. 

Kitchen cotton towels with lavender and hydrangea designs replace the red-and-white Christmas towels with amaryllis, holly, and poinsettias.  

The French Country Christmas Event has grown over the years, and the shed is now packed each December with special finds that pass the test, "Would this live in my house?" Each year I have to look at the space and create vignettes to display all of the treasures so shoppers will be inspired with Christmas ideas for their own homes.    

The little garden shed needs more shelves! 

DIY Easter Paper Cone | Blue Speckled Candy Eggs

Easter Paper Cones

A Paper Series Post 

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Easter paper cones to hold blue-speckled chocolate candy eggs are easy to make. Attention to details makes them special favors for an Easter table setting. A fleur de lis wax seal adds a French Country look. 

Creating traditions for special times are meaningful for both family and friends. As we mature, we look back on the traditions in our lives with love and happiness.  

I am joining some good blogging friends who are sharing special ways they celebrate Spring and Easter in a Spring DIY & Craft  Round Up Party. Thank you to our hostess, Barb of French Ethereal, for organizing us in time for you, our readers, to get some good ideas to try for your own Spring or Easter celebrations. 

Welcome to readers coming from Cindy at County Road 407, where the fun and creativity never stops. 

Keep reading for instructions on how I made an easy beautiful paper cone to fill with Easter candy as Easter treats for my family. Then, see more Spring and Easter ideas from my friends at the end. 

Gold Berry Leaves Ornament Makeover

See how to transform a ho-hum metal cluster of leaves into a beautiful gold berry leaves cluster Christmas ornament you can use all over the house for the holiday season. 

You probably are not ready to start decorating your house for Christmas right now, but for all of us who like to do DIY projects, you can never start those projects too early. I finished transforming these gold berry leave cluster ornaments in late September, and still have more DIY projects in process.  

If you wait until December for DIY projects, you may find yourself in a time crunch like my sister-in-law one year. You may find yourself in the bedroom wrapping presents on Christmas Day and handing them out through a partially opened door... one at a time... to give to the recipient to open while she wrapped the next person's present. True story... 

ornament after makeover 

I love how the makeover for a ho-hum ornament turned out. Bright gold berries, white over-sprayed gold leaves, and Noel ribbon turned the ornament into one of my favorites for this coming Christmas. 

Paris Prints in Floating Frame | Vacation Memories

Framed Paris prints recall a memorable vacation

A Paper Series Post 

Paper post cards and small prints in vacation spots all over the world make beautiful souvenirs. Wherever you travel, you can find breathtaking images of the sights in gift shops, in museum shops, and on street corner stands. 

But, what do you do with those lovely souvenirs of your summer vacation? Do what I did with a set of small watercolor-style Paris bookmark prints found in a Paris tourist office. 

Display them in a floating glass frame 

to add a touch of French Country decor. 

France is the country I love to visit, but you can do the same thing with images from the country you love to visit. Spain, Italy, Greece, Japan, China, Peru... wherever you love can come home with you as small postcards to help create that culture and style in your own home. 

New Wood Chandelier for the Garden Shed

{Disclosure: If you purchase items from Botanic Bleu, I receive compensation for your purchase. See my Disclosure and Privacy Policy for more information.} 

A new wood chandelier in the garden shed was added above its sink by replacing the new chandelier's hardwired connections with a lamp plug-in cord. 

Summer is a great time for sprucing up the garden shed with both a new chandelier and fresh interior paint. Fresh paint is exciting, but not as exciting as a new chandelier. 

The ceiling in the garden shed/house is vaulted and has a ceiling fan / four-light fixture combination in the center of the room. While working at the sink along the wall, I had to work in my own shadow caused by my body being between the light source and the sink. 

A little creative thinking for installing a ceiling light above the sink was all it took to solve the working-in-a-shadow problem. 

How To Grow Texas Bluebonnets

Texas bluebonnet wildflowers require five things to grow. Alkaline soil, rhizobium bacteria, water, sunshine, and seed are the five things you need to grow Texas bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) and have a spectacular wildflower garden next spring. 

With those five things, you can grow bluebonnets in your  backyard, in your garden, or in your open countryside fields in Texas. You may also need a sixth thing, patience. 

Now is the time to make plans to grow bluebonnets this fall. Seed companies frequently sell out of bluebonnet seeds; May is a good time to order bluebonnet seeds. This spring's plants will have gone to seed, and companies will be harvesting their crops to sell the seeds. 

Refresh Boxwoods for Christmas | French Country Style

Preserved boxwoods can be refreshed by painting them white or gold to give them French Country style for Christmas. 

I love preserved green boxwood wreaths, topiaries, bouquets, and balls, but I like to use other colors for Christmas instead of traditional red and green. White, gold, silver, and blue are my favorite colors for Christmas so decorations will blend with the everyday colors in my home. 

Green boxwood is almost a neutral because it goes well with all colors, but this Christmas I took a leap and painted preserved boxwood. I was not sure how the boxwood would look, but after liking how the first painted boxwood turned out, I updated three more preserved boxwoods with paint. 

See how I changed FOUR preserved boxwoods to white and gold . . .  just in time for Christmas decorating. 

Delicious Double Chocolate Caramel Apples

Making delicious double chocolate caramel apples required a couple of tweaks to the directions last Saturday when we made these for the first time ever.  

This summer one of my nephews and his family, wife and five children, moved near me. To say I am excited is an understatement. I love having family close by, and am enjoying spending time with them, especially the children. 

Yes, I love seeing my nephew and his wife, but being around children keeps you young and up-to-date with the world. Being with curious, creative, happy-to-be-alive, frustrating, crazy teenagers is one of the things I miss since I retired from education. Every day was a new world in a high school classroom. Some days were routine, others fraught with drama, but there were those days when the best teachable moments occurred . . . either me having a chance to really reach a student . . .  or a day when a student really reached me and taught me something. 

This past Saturday my nephew's wife, her mom (visiting from out of town), and four of the five children came over, and we made double chocolate caramel apples for the first time for all of us. 

Saturday was one of those perfect Fall days you look forward to all year. Clear blue skies, low humidity, and temperatures in the low 70s. Pure perfection after so many days of overcast rainy days. 

And topped off with a family Fall activity!

French Inspired Fall Window Box | Step By Step

Window boxes are possible at my house, but only for limited seasons of the year. Fall is one of those seasons, and this year I created a window box, with lots of help from my professional florist sister, for the front of my house. 

We love how it turned out! 

One of the things I enjoy about France, and all of Europe, is the abundance of gardens and flowers in every city, town, and small village. In Paris, it seems window boxes are everywhere, from large hotels to the tiniest apartment balconies. I come home with picture after picture and am always inspired to create my own window box at my house. 

This Fall is THE year I created a French inspired window box.   

In case you are inspired, too, and want ideas how to create a window box for your house, take a look at how we created my front entry window box. I took photos at almost every step of the process to share with you.  

Inspiring Creativity | No. 3

With the firm belief creativity can be nurtured, this is a series that features inspiring creativity from bloggers who share their visions and how they create them. With insightful words and images they not only create, they inspire others to create. 

This third part of the Inspiring Creativity series is filled with beautiful ideas for celebrating Fall. And, best of all, you will see HOW this featured 'inspiring mind' creates her works of seasonal decor, cooks delicious Fall recipes, and gathers props, with photography tips, for shooting captivating images of it all. 

Paper Crafting Pumpkin Book Art 

DIY Wood Bathtub Tray | French Country Charm

While refreshing our master bathroom I looked for ways to add more French Country charm to the bathtub. 

What was I looking for? Something beyond the French Country chair, French script candle, carved pedestal, and natural cotton bath mat. 

Friend Lives in Your Heart DIY Envelope

Friends live in your heart forever. 

A Paper Series Post 

Paper is a versatile, inexpensive medium useful for wide-ranging projects. What better way to begin a new series than to celebrate friendship since this paper series post, and more to come, are offered as tokens of friendship to you, Botanic Bleu readers and followers. 

Any gathering of friends for whatever the reason is a good time to share small hearts as tokens of friendship. Whether the gathering is for book club, a friend's birthday, a Bible study, a Valentine's party, a retirement luncheon, or a bloggers' luncheon, party favors with hearts are a good way to recognize special times together with friends. 

I made these DIY envelope/place card party favors for friends who attended my retirement luncheon as an educator, but can be made  

for any occasion celebrating Friendship 

Today's post is a tutorial with templates for creating a beautiful glassine do-it-yourself (DIY) small envelope to use as a place card and to hold a party favor. 

Spring Narcissus Pillow

If winter comes, can spring be far behind? 

Percy Bysshe Shelley 

Dark days of cold dreary winter continue here, accompanied by steady rain. As I stared at the rain spots on the window, I was glad the trees, shrubs, and BULBS were getting the water they need. There are already buds on the Erlicheer narcissus in the front under the oak trees and on the Thalia narcissus on the sloped hillside in the backyard. 

I thought of spring and remembered a pillow I saw online. The pillow was perfect for bringing spring inside now before its official arrival on March 20. Rather than buy that one online, I decided to create a similar do-it-yourself version. 

This is an EASY project that requires no sewing! 

Hanging Horizontal Boxwood Wreath

Hanging Horizontal Wreath 

Step-by-Step Directions 

Updated: December 4, 2024

Christmas is the time for "hanging the greens," mistletoe, holly, ivy, evergreens. Traditionally businesses, homes, and churches now hang greens the first day of Advent, but the tradition has deeper roots in ancient Druid, Celt, Norse, and Roman cultures that celebrated the winter solstice which occurs around December 21.

If you love hanging greens in your home as part of your family's traditions and would like to hang a horizontal evergreen wreath, it is much easier than you may think. Since this post first appeared, horhzontal wreath hangers are now available to buy. Hanging a horizontal wreath became as easy as 1, 2, 3!  1) Attach a ceiling hook where you want to hang your wreath. 2) Place wreath on a horizontal wreath hanger. 3) Hang wreath from hook. 

If you do not have a horizontal wreath hanger, here is a DIY step-by-step guide for how to hang a horizontal boxwood wreath.