You're Invited!

We're opening our home and decking the halls with brand new designs to inspire you for the holidays. Come enjoy shopping, wine & hors d'ouevres while mingling with old & new friends.

Holiday arrangements, wreaths, swags, tablescapes and more with prices starting at $10 & up. We've got something for everyone.

And when you arrive at our house, check out our gorgeous Lightz for the Holidayz by www.lightzatlanta.com.

We even have a private area for those who enjoy a cigar or two.

RSVP & Bring a friend! Call Sharon Norris (770) 945-3601 or email: sharon@synergyinsilk.com

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 19 & FRIDAY NOVEMBER 20TH - 6PM TO 9PM

Ellsworth Preserve Subdivision: 3189 Lauren Nicole Lane, Buford, GA 30519.

Hope to see you there - Drawing each night for a free gift!

"Deck The Halls"

In early October we did a luncheon seminar at The 1818 Club in Duluth, GA, sharing tips on what we do when we decorate a home or business for the holidays.

For those of you who find holiday decorating overwhelming, we hope this 4 step plan brings you less stress for the holidays.

Step 1. Choose a theme. By choosing a theme to design around keeps your decor complimentary throughout your home or office. A theme can be a color (ex. red & green - below), a time period (ex. Victorian) or even a character (Santa).

Step 2. Plan your layout. Where do you want to decorate? Are you having a party? Think about where your guests will roam. Think about curb appeal. For the best effect, have a little something in every room your guests will visit.

Step 3. Check last year's decor. What do you have from last year that can be stripped and repurposed? Do you have a garland with lights? How about a wreath? Did you know a simple change of bow color and adding lights can make a huge difference.

Step 4. Design it. This is our favorite part. Here's another tip that we do here at Synergy in Silk. When designing, we don't use a lot of glue or wire on everything. We'll typically tie on ornaments, cones and additional greenery with chenille stems (pipe cleaners). We can control the height ornaments hang, we don't damage the base greenery, and we don't have excess damage to our hands.  

We hope our 4 step plan helps ease your holiday decorating. For more tips, contact us at sharon@synergyinsilk.com.

If you' ve got tips you'd like to share please go ahead & add to this blog. Have a great time this season!

Sharon

I was thinking of a blog topic when my friend Crystal Spencer (owner Room by Room Redesign, a professional staging company) mentioned she often gets questions on what to do with the space over the kitchen cabinets. I loved the idea.  

So here it is: Easy & practical ideas to spruce up your cabinet tops

Idea #1. Take a hint from our interior design friends and create groupings. Instead of just draping ivy across the top, pick 2 or 3 special items that stand out. Pair them & space them so they create a focal point. For example, in this photo, left is a single vase with grasses, center is a grouping of a large plate & a clear vase filled with fall themed decor, and right is a single vase. It's clean, neat and won't show dust.

Idea#2. Mix up your foliage (silk greenery) to create interest. Mixed foliage is always more interesting than just a single type of foliage. If you've already got ivy, mix in grasses, berries and vines for a more interesting look.

For those that have little space between the cabinet & ceiling, don't be afraid to let your foliage touch the ceiling and bend out into the room. It will take on a more natural look. Just becareful it doesn't interfere with the opening & closing of your cabinet doors.

For a clean look, you might want to do same foliage focal points, i.e. a grouping of just ivy, a grouping of just grasses, a grouping of just berries, etc. Although it may sound contrary to what I said earlier about using a single type of foliage, it's not. Because the result of using the mix of focal point foliage across the cabinet top is sure to create the interest you want.

3. Color is a great way to create interest. Below, I've used a clear vase, clear marbles on the bottom, indian corn, and topped it with rust cymbidium orchids, sunflowers, pods and vines.I then paired it with a large plate. The colors scream fall while they also enhance the colors of the kitchen.

A few last minute tips to consider before you get started:

- if the platform (cabinet top) is lower than the cabinet facade (front of cabinet) you want to boost up your decor so it can be fully viewed. Cigar boxes or old phone books work great.

- use small leafed foliage if you don't want to dust. 

- no matter the season, use colors that compliment your room colors. These days you can find "seasonal" in almost any hue & color.

- when you want to change your display, get a plastic container with lid to pack it all away. It will be easy & clean when ready to put it back up again next year. 

I'd love to know what you're doing on top of your cabinets. I hope you'll share with me. Please comment. 

Yours, Sharon

Here are some savvy tips for those Brides looking to get the greatest value for their wedding budget.

1). Silk flowers come per stem or per bush. The quality is typically higher per stem, but the value is much greater per bush. By having the majority of your bouquet and other designs created with per bush flowers, you can then add a few per stem flowers for quality. This will help you realize a great savings and still have a gorgeous, quality looking design.

2). Bouquet holder vs. hand wire & tape: A bouquet holder is a plastic handle with round foam secured at the top. This holder makes it easy for a designer to create almost any style of bouquet with minimum labor. Hand wire means almost every flower is fixed with a wire extension & hand wrapped with floral tape. This way is very labor intensive and drives your cost way up. By asking for a design in a bouquet holder your savings will be much greater.

3). Church flowers: Always go with large-leafed greenery in a variety of textures. The flowers should be large headed and in bright colors or white. You will end up needing less of them and you will create a bigger impact for the space.

Alter flowers are bright red gerbera daisies, hot pink snapdragons & berries with monstera & fern greenery.

4). Pew bows: These can cheer up a gloomy church especially if you have a floral spray added to the center of the bow. Once the ceremony is over, have a friend bring them to the reception, while you're out getting photos taken. Pick pre-determined areas for the pew bow placements and they become added décor. For example, the front door entry way, Bride & Groom chair backs, an existing planter, etc.

5). Reception centerpieces can be wonderful gifts for those special people in your life. Let your favorite guests take a table centerpiece home as a keepsake of your special day.

6). Your wedding party too can have a keepsake of your wedding day with a silk bouquet, corsage and boutonniere. Plus, regardless of the weather their flowers will look great all day.

Creamy gardenia corsage with gardenia greenery, sheer bow and gold wire accent.

7). Bride's bouquets can now have it all. They can be created mostly in silk florals and have a few fresh flowers inserted for fragrance and style. After the honeymoon, simply bring in your bouquet to replace the now expired fresh with its silk compliment.

Three fresh pink roses can be seen in bouquet at positions 3pm, 12pm and 2pm above the 2 large headed center silk roses.

I hope this gives you some great ideas. As you can see, it's easy to have gorgeous wedding flowers, even on a budget.

My friend Cyndee has many talents, one of which is decorating. Her profession is home stager. To see more you can visit her website at www.redesigned-spaces.net. Recently she staged two homes that sold in less than 2 months. Amazing in this tight market.

Yesterday Cyndee helped me take all my designs for the Annual Clearance Sale, Wed. July 8th & Thurs. July 9th, and staged it for display. (See photo below). It looks great.

It got me thinking that many people are now using their private homes for occassions like rehearsal dinners, receptions, parties and more. A new idea might be to think of Cyndee or a home stager to help  transform your home to better reflect your event. It's a great way to create a gorgeous setting without breaking the bank.

Cyndee will be at the Annual Clearance Sale, 3189 Lauren Nicole Lane, Buford GA., on Thurs. July 9th if you'd like to meet her. Or, you can contact Cyndee on her email: cynthia@redesigned-spaces.net.

My friend just had a baby girl named Maddy. She was born in April but I just saw her for the first time today. She is beautiful baby with a gorgeous smile, expressive hands, long legs and lots of red hair.

I wanted to make something special for her, and I found out Maddy's room theme is birds.

Since space is always in demand with a new baby I decided to make her something she could hang on the wall. 

I went with a grapevine wreath for a natural look. I added light green vines with pink edging (perfect) and some rex begonia leaves that are dark green with purple veins. I tied a grosgrain salmon/pink ribbon as the wreath hanger.

I glued the greenery on the wreath using a combination of my glue gun & a glue pot. (Glue pots look like mini frying pans and can be purchased at a craft stores).

Next I added angels wings (lacey looking florals) for a light creamy look and mixed in a few bunches of variegated ivy for fullness.

To make sure the wreath didn't look "fake", I added some preserved boxwood and some natural reindeer moss. It made a huge difference - see if you can tell in the photos below.

For the bird theme,  I added a quail top right and her bird's nest is bottom left. Note: The quail I tied in with barked wire because of it's weight. The nest and the little eggs I glued in with the glue gun.

In the wreath's center is the "night light" feature I bought at a wholesaler. It's basically a cylinder of sheer fabric filled with white Christmas tree type lights. This had to be tied in at the top & bottom of the wreath. I used barked wire so it would blend in. The night light has a long cord & this I rolled up like a garden hose and tied on with a chenille stem.

Here's the photos of the wreath with the light on and off. Either way on a scale of easy, moderate or hard this wreath rates moderately easy.

Let me know what you think.