Sprucing Up the Window Box with Yew Cuttings

Normally my sister brings me evergreen cuttings from their cottage in the U.P. (upper peninsula). But this year she stayed home because she had puppies.....little black labs.  Oh so cute.

So this meant that I had to go to plan B, which was to walk around my yard looking for green stuff to cut.  We had some high winds the other day and I was able to pick up some pieces of spruce but not enough for the window box.  The spruce pieces and a few yew cuttings went in the large pot by the front door along with some white silk poinsettas.

I also added the white silk poinsettas to the window box along with the yew cuttings.   I've used the same silk flowers for about three years now and they seem to be holding up nicely.  I think I originally purchased them on sale for 75% off.

It looks like I will need to buy a fresh Christmas tree to cut up and make my wreaths.  I normally make three or four wreaths and leave them up until March 1st.  From year to year they are different depending on what kind of greens my sister would cut.  I usually prefer a combination of different greens.  This year the wreaths will all consist of just one type of cutting and it will probably be spruce or fir.  I like how full spruce wreaths are but I love the floppy and non perfect fir wreaths, too.

 UPDATE Rejunvation is sending me a new replacement shade.  They were very pleasant to deal with on the phone.  The only downer is that I never received a reply from customer service on my email detailing the broken shade and documenting with photos.  After not hearing anything after three days I just phoned them.  Fingers crossed that the shade arrives safely and is packaged more securely than the first shade.

 Why is this photo crooked?  Camera or user error?