A funky Christmas texture...

So I saw this really cool image on facebook yesterday morning. A clump of small red Christmas berries. She/He had a lovely fading background and at least one texture added to the image. It blew me away!!! The simplicity of the image, the background, the texture... made that little clump of berries into ART. I wonder how many times a day someone walks by the little clump without ever really looking at the possibilities? I tried and tried to find the image again so I could give that person the recognition they deserve but I can't. :( It is like it vanished into the night.
I knew I had no Christmas berries around my house and I had about 15 minutes free yesterday before I had to leave for work. I knew the tree next to my house had seed pods. So off I went to try and get the same effect. I had been inspired! But... while focusing on my little seed pods, I thought what a lovely background this is making. So with my camera still set to focus on the pods, I moved over so I got just the background. Looks like Christmas lights doesn't it. All it is, is leaves. Possibilities are everywhere!!! It screamed out... I am a texture; shoot me! =)
I added a few other bits to it for some jazz.

So here is my seed pod image before applying my texture.


And here it is with my texture added.


I did mask the texture off of the pods and gave it a soft vignette.
Now neither of these live up to the image of the little red Christmas berries but I found a texture I would not have had. "Possibilities"
It is the "On the 7th day of Christmas" freebie at kimi kreations "The Shop".
Enjoy!

Some info about the shot. I was using my 18-200mm lens. This had become my go to lens when I want a soft blurry background. Zoomed out to 200mm I get this dreamy blur of a background. So try and remember, the longer the lens, the nicer the background. I want to say my aperture was set to 5.6.

Now I am off to look for a small clump of red Christmas berries.
~kimi~