Fauxliage - again!

I went into Michael's the other day (again) and found a lot of great stuff in the 50% and 90% off areas, mostly in the 90% off. Here we are talking about faux-liage (love that, courtesy of The Nester via another blogger) and our love/hate relationship with it, and I am throwing .49 cent faux plants and branches and bunches into my cart as fast as possible.
The problem is, when things are .39 or .49 cents, how can you possibly resist? You start inventing new places to put faux arrangements:









The last 3 pics are my front door area. The last pic doesn't look that great, it looks like 2 different things seperated, but it's actually really cute. I hung a faux plastic grass-&-cattail bunch with some weird fuzzy red things and real-looking grass together and tied them up with a coffee-dyed fleur-de-lis stamped welcome tag. Its pretty cute in real life, not translating that way in this pic.


Here are 2 more of my .49 finds. Which one looks better in my hall/guest bath?

*excuse the yellow-tinged images






So what do you think: faux lavender or faux grass?



And, last but not least: my POOPIE arrangement was buggin me big time. Here was it's latest version, complete with the addition of berries, more hydrangeas, a couple faux zrtichokes, and other random goodies:












I actually think it was quite stunning. The problem was, it was just feeling too "formal" for me, what with all the branches and flowers and feathers and veggies. Do you know what I mean? It wasn't farmhouse or cottage or frenchy enough for me. It wasn't natural enough for me.... too posed and contrived, maybe?


What I really crave is this natural, organic, branchy kind of look, courtesy of Pottery Barn (who in the heck else would sell one stem of leaves for $29.00!?!?)







Problem is, I don't have lots of one kind of branch. The background green things, or the "huckleberry" as the tag called them, were not on sale so I only have 2. I do have some little dried (e.g. real) branchy/crunchy things and some very real looking anemones. How does this look?





I don't think it's as natural or organic looking as the PB branches, but I think it's a lot less imposing in the room and a lot less "formal". I just wish it would look as if I took a nature walk and plunked some things in a vase, without looking like I purchased an arrangement or "put out my fall arrangement". Does that make sense??? I am just not that formal of a person. And it needs to be more of an accent than a focal point. Am I going in the right direction?
I would love some feedback on this!


Thanks,
Kari


p.s. the cute vintage birdcage was my Mom's and Uncle's for their pet cockatiel in the 40's, and then was my little birdies home in 5th grade. I dug it out of her basement the other day in a mad crazy "I have to have a birdcage NOW" kind of way. It has my vintage coffee tin w/ dried hydrangeas, 2 cool crunchy old books, and a little milk glass bird-on-nest jar a friend gave me, and a real feather my Dad found on a hike.