Virtual Southern Exposure!

Marmelade Gypsy friends know how much my friends and I love going to Southern Exposure for their workshops, especially during the holidays.

While they do have distanced workshops on site, it wasn't the time for us to go -- but gratefully, they came up with several virtual workshops. They delivered our project bags (along with pieces of Jennifer's wonderful chocolate cake!) to our doors and sent us a link to the project video.

 All three of us got one one of the same projects, a candle holder. So Kate, Jan and I decided to zoom our creative time! First we watched the video with Micah, our teacher and the terrific designer who leads most of our Southern Exposure workshops. Micah explained that the concept behind adding the botanicals to the candle holder was based on the tussie mussie of Victorian periods, where women carried small, fragrant bouquets of blooms and herbs, in part to ease the body odor that might emerge in days with fewer bathing and laundry opportunities. As the tussie mussie would brush against fabric, it would release fragrance.

There are the supplies that came in our kit -- a very nice rustic candle holder with three tealights to add in; two faux evergreen branches; several lengths of glittery gold leaves; six sprays of red florals; three pre-cut wires and three floral picks; a long length of raffia.

Using the wire and floral picks, we made three sprays, connecting two of the red blooms together into one larger one. Then we tightly held the greens in one hand (cris-crossed) and added the gold pieces. Then we TIGHTLY wrapped the stems with the raffia to hold it together. Once done, we tucked in the red floral picks and lit the tealights. Voila!

We were proud to share our finished pieces!

Of course, then you have to decide where to put it. For me it was an easy decision.

I decided to place mine in the entrance hall, next to my Greeting Angel.  I had been a little worried about the gold glitter leaf picks, wondering if they might be too much with the rustic look of the candle holder, but it works well in the hall, with the golden angel and lower light.

We were all very satisfied with these pieces. The concept could easily be duplicated for other projects in the spring or summer (using a different holder, of course!)

It's always wonderful to do a creative project. But the best part of this one was doing it with friends. Kate said "it feels normal!" (and then we realized something has changed when Zoom feels normal!)

Wishing you creative times with people you love -- even if it's virtual! (And we didn't even have to mask up!)