Oh, okay, so apparently my plan to schedule life into my calendar LAST MONTH backfired- but yeah, back when I talked about more blogging and deadlines and productivity, I REALLY did mean it! I just didn't realize how busy my life would get. So, here I am again, apologizing for the long pause between blogs again... Maybe this will be a New Year's Resolution that I'll start today =)
This blog is dedicated to two dear friends; Andrea and Becca. They have never met each other but I think they'd both get along quite well. It was Andrea who had the craft idea and it was Becca who reminded me today that she wanted to see a finished result photo and that she enjoys reading my blog - which to me, translated, I needed to do a blog =) So thanks to you both!
My first December in Oklahoma greeted me with pleasantly warm weather, we're talking 70's here folks. While I have been told that I've experienced this type of December before, I do not remember it. And while I will admit that I did enjoy those temperatures I feel the need to remind you that I am an Alaskan Girl through and through.
Driving around our neighborhood made me a little squeamish. Giant ornaments on bare trees. Brown lawns outlined in multi-colored Christmas lights. Santa and his reindeer on very dry shingles. Eaves adorned with fake icicles... thanks for trying folks, but this just looks silly!
I was having some serious cold-weather-snow-laden-frosty-nose-cravings for Christmas. But it didn't feel like December and it didn't feel like Christmas so I was really dragging on hiking up the rickety ladder to the attic to pull down holiday decorations. Don't worry - even though the thought of just not worrying about it this year crossed my mind a couple times, I did buck-up and decorate!
AND Andrea (my crafting buddy) found an amazing project for us to do that only took one afternoon and turned out FANTASTICALLY. Here's the link to the original project - but, I'll warn you, we pretty much disregarded it and did our own thing... =)
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas; Wreath
Andrea was brilliant and directed us to purchase shatter resistant ornaments. We looked at a number of different stores and much to Hubby's dismay purchased our products at Wal*Mart. The original project's supplies were all purchased at the Dollar Tree I think but we went a little more crazy =) I'm pretty sure our wreath's center is the size of the finished Original Product... *shrug* So, our's cost 7x's more than the one LiveLoveDIY did. Anyway, I'll stop blabbing and share the good stuff!
We got 4 large (41 ornaments?) tubs of ornaments (2 green, 1 red, 1 silvery/gold), 3 medium packages that had odd shaped ornaments (maybe 18 in the container) and 6 mini containers. I forgot to measure the wreaths but they are easily 12" in diameter. We actually had enough glue on hand, which was good because we managed to grab the sticks that were too big for our mini guns. So, our project cost us about $55. We did have a whole container of ornaments left over - mostly green but some of the silvery/gold ones too. It would have really been tight if we hadn't bought that extra container (btw- we need another project that uses green shatter proof ornaments - suggestions please!)
We thought about trying to secure the branches of the wreath better but they ended up not being a bother. We started in the center of the wreath and just applied lots of glue and then an ornament and repeated.
Once we finished the center we moved to the outside and then started filling in between! I glued my outer edge farther away from the center than Andrea did, this made my wreath a little more flat compared to her's because I could fit almost two ornaments in the middle section and she could only fit about 1 (sorry, I don't have a close up of that). Both wreaths turned out great - Andrea's looks a lot more full because she stacked more ornaments in her smaller middle section - but you can barely tell the difference.
Andrea and I have decided that we REALLY like projects that turn out like this... we've worked on long-winded projects together in the past but we seemed to lose interest in those and they never quite turned out the way we wanted. So this easy, one afternoon/nap time project, really energized us!
Before I sign off for the night (how is it after 10pm already?! shees!) I thought I would share a little of the Christmas cheer that made it into my house this season - despite the "non-wintery" feeling Oklahoma is shedding =)
Remember the reason for this season. Enjoy the time you spend with family and friends. Take time to bless those around you. Much love to you! Goodnight!
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