Another home beautifully decorated for the holidays, and using the bounty of Mother Nature, is Marcie and Craig Corry's 1850's farmhouse on Highway 751. They're just the second family to own the property. What an unexpected bright spot in last weekend's drab gray weather.

Craig is a veterinarian and musician, and Marcie's a dancer and an artist. They bought the house five years ago; and two years ago Marcie converted an old, 100-year-old barn on the property into a shop that she calls Sunflowers.

"I needed something to do when we moved out here," Marcie said. She owned Sandell Dance Studios in Chapel Hill for a dozen years, and also performed in Chatham County Schools as a cultural arts liasion. "We had this great old barn, and its perfect for Sunflowers."

Sunflowers is filled to the brim with consignment pieces from North Carolina artists, while outdoors Marcie combines natural elements from the garden for unique—and totally interesting—holiday decorations.

Pine garland lines the white picket fence around Sunflowers, and clippings from her old oak tree (that's 250 years old and should live to be about 700), holly, nandina, magnolias and other evergreens are spray painted silver, gold or white and tucked everywhere.

"A great secret to gardening is a grapevine," she said. "Soak it in water for about forty-five minutes and then unravel it—it looks like Shirley Temple curls. Then you can shape it and stick things in it." That's a great tip, because I have always just used grapevine wreaths in the circles they're sold in, rather than shaping them into doorway arches or swags for mailboxes.

• Do you decorate with grapevine?
• How do you shape it?
• What elements to you add to it to make your decorations more interesting?

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Sunflowers is located at 1515 Hwy 751 in Apex. Regular hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 10 AM - 5 PM; call Marcie at 919.303.4635.