As much as I love to cover the house in tinsel and anything else shiny or glittery at this time of the year, there is a part of me which prefers the natural look. Wooden ornaments, dried flowers, garlands up the bannister – that sort of thing. So when we were out walking Scooby the other night and passed a house with a huge pile of holly with berries attached and a big sign saying ‘help yourself’ – well what would you do?

I could only take a few sprigs but as I hadn’t decided what I was going to do with them at that moment, I figured that would be enough.

When I got home, I had a good look around and a big think – what could I use these sprigs of holly and berries for? I came up with this: