Winging it. — Grandbari

Last year I thought a life sized angel was just the thing we needed for the annual Carson-Newman Christmas dinner. I also thought if one was good, two would be even better.

Full disclosure, I'd never made an angel before, but the one in my head was lovely. She had feathery wings and a flowing skirt of greens, and she smelled like Christmas. And, as every well dressed angel at a party would, she wore a necklace. But my angel's necklace was super snazzy and would light up. Oh, she was a beaut. Now, to make the vision a reality...

The angels started as dress forms. I stared at them in our family room for about a month as the wheels in my head kept turning. Extra entertaining was Outdoorman occasionally being startled by thinking a stranger was standing there in the dark. 👻

As party time approached, my North Carolina rock artist/garden guy friend offered his greenhouse for me to do some creating. This was a huge help since his place is a beehive of activity at Christmastime with more varieties of evergreens than I knew existed.

First up was giving each angel a skirt using chicken wire. Fair warning, if you're gonna try this at home use gloves (ouch). After that, it was just dressing the skirts with a mixture of greens and wiring them in place. I started at the base and worked up to the waistline. We decided to give the angels a belt of magnolia leaves because it's Christmas, and it's the South, and ya gotta use some magnolia.

Since I had sorely underestimated the size and weight of fully dressed angels, they stayed cool and comfy in this North Carolina greenhouse until rock artist/garden guy hauled them over the mountain for our Christmas party (thanks again, Tommy).