Yup! 1000 purple ornaments with silver glittered swirls on them. For several years I was a bridal consultant. I made bouquets, centerpieces and did the decorating for hundreds of weddings.

My last wedding was in December of 2008 and the bride wanted purple ornaments in clear vases for centerpieces. After the reception I asked the bride what she wanted done with the ornaments. I assumed, as I guess I should not have, that she would want them for their first Christmas tree together. She did not; so they came home with me in a 4 foot long, 2 foot tall rubber container. They stayed in my garage until the following December of 2010.

Around that time I found that I was unable to work, due to a horrible surgery that had gone very bad for me. I was beyond grief and experienced physical pain that I had no idea that I or any human could endure. I went into the garage and stood there, just looking around, not for anything particular and crying. It was Christmas time and I had been given the blow of my life.

Well, I found an evergreen base and those 1000 purple ornaments. Through my tears and anger I grabbed the wreath, hauled the box over to a table and found a glue gun. I started gluing purple ornaments all over the wreath. The placement was not planned, no design made, just randomly placed.(angrily I may add) Slowly I started to stop crying and my focus turned to the wreath I was creating. I couldn't believe what I had just made and it looked pretty darn good.
I made over 20 purple ornament wreaths and everybody in my family had one that Christmas, whether they liked purple or not!

A lot has changed since then. I opened a second Etsy store: SparkleForYourCastle.etsy.com and my wreaths have expanded beyond just ornament wreaths; but each and everyone I make are full of color and sparkle! My health...well, I have good days and bad days. Maybe the bad days are a reminder that I need to slow down, as I can make wreaths all day and night. There are times I cannot sleep, as I think of all the cool wreaths I want to make.

I never went to an art school or trained in floral design. I was a CFO for a roofing company and before that a head accountant, just crunching numbers. I do not know where this God given talent came from, as for the rest of my family, how should I say this...well, they could do stick drawings on a cave wall and that would include me as well!

Often I am asked how do I make wreaths. I honestly do not know. I just grab a wreath and go, everything just falls into place. No drawings, no sketches, just color and sparkle are all I have to go with.

I have 3 children ages, 30, 29 and 28. They have given me 4 grandchildren that I just adore to pieces. I am a young grandma of 48 and I am thankful for this, as I can do so many things with my grandchildren right now in this point of my life.

I was raised in Colorado and love to hike, camp and fish. I can clean a fish so fast, my husband said that is what sealed it for him to ask me to marry him. Did I impress him or scare him into the proposal? My husband and I love to travel and we scuba dive. I love seeing all the colorful fish when we dive and all the color above when we travel.

I want to give the love of color, beauty and sparkle to all my customers! We all deserve that little spot in our lives. I know I sure do!

Dar