Merry Christmas!

I'm a day late {or two} and a dollar short. It's just that time of year.

We ended up with a huuuuuge Christmas tree. This is our boys standing on top of our coffee table...

Before Christmas I ended up seeing a beautiful wreath at HomeGoods and should have snagged it...but didn't and still regret it. I decided to attempt to recreate it, this is what I came up with: 

I used a fairly large, metal wreath form and two rolls of burlap from Hobby Lobby. I had a hard time understanding how to get the roll through the wreath form, and felt like a genius when I realized you just pull the loops from the back keeping the roll in the back of the wreath the entire time. It was actually extremely easy. I used a variety of Pinterest tutorials of how to make a burlap wreath.

The bow is just large satin wired ribbon. I hot glued the important places and left very long tails.

I usually let my husband take the lead on Christmas decorations and I fill in any necessary gaps...with all of our moves we have accumulated an impressive collection.

We have two lamps out front that I felt needed a littel something, so I tied some red berries to a premade {fake}  evergreen/pinecone comb...tied a burlap bow and looped them onto each lamp. So easy!

Next year I might even make them BIGGER!!  or redder? not sure...I have a year to make up my mind.

My husband took care of the porch area with some garland.

And I decorated our front table with a variety of Christmas items. The garland is fresh, and looks like it's half dead. The small sleigh and vine reindeer is front Gordmans, and the JOY sign is from Target. The 3D glitter ornaments on the bottom shelf are so heavy for the real tree, but perfect for this tucked away space on our entry!

I feel sort of sad to need to take all of this down already!! 

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Entryway Console Table {DIY}

I've been working on this project since seeing an awesome console on Pinterest. I'd been wanting to put something in the little nook by our front door since we moved in...this table is perfect:

The plans I used from sawdustgirl.com were really awesome. I did make my table base only about 12" wide. I also made the top differently; cutting the staggered scraps of 2x4 and 2x6" wood at a 45 degree angle, and using 1x2" around as trim.

Here is a better picture of the top. The top was definitely the most challenging parts of the project because I was using up scraps from our wood pile. It went together really easily until ONE piece of 2x6 was a little wide and caused the rest of the table not to line up. I ended up having to taking the top of the table apart and then join two pieces together (see in the top row, 3rd from the left!!) I used a mixture of kreg drill + screws, and nail gun, nailing the tips of the boards together. 

The stain color is Kona. I'll have to dig out pictures from the original stain--vinegar and steel wool. It looks like it had been attacked by a pumpkin. 

And here is the table decorated for Halloween: 

Oh, and while I'm at it, here's the flowers decorated for fall/Halloween: 

I previously shared my fall wreath. Here is the wreath decorated for Halloween: 

Just a lone spooky skeleton: 

Now we are ALL ready for Halloween. I mean, except for Halloween costumes! 

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Fall {DIY Wreath}

So it's not really feeling like fall. I swear I keep hearing the weather is going to cool off, and then it's 90+ degrees. I'm sweating. I'm not wearing fuzzy sweaters or jeans or cozy hats. It's seriously hot. It does NOT feel like fall.

Since it doesn't feel like fall, I'm not really feeling like decorating for fall. If I wait for the weather to catch up, I have a feeling like I'm going to completely miss fall all together.

I recently saw a cute wreath on Pinterest and I decided to recreate that wreath. {After some detective work, I determined the original wreath can be found here} and if you are looking for some awesome ideas for fall wreaths check here.

I think all together it cost about $5 to make this wreath because I had most of the materials already. The original wreath is actually very old. I've had it a few years, and it has already served as a St. Patrick's Day wreath and a standard wreath at our old house. The bow is a jute/burlap ribbon that is all over the place. The mini fake apples are from Hobby Lobby with a coupon, $3, I had extras, too, and the red berries are fake and on sale for $1-2 ish. The bow was already on the wreath.

To make your own: 

•Pick your font for the "welcome" lettering. I used Janda Stylish Script as my guide. I free handed one letter onto each apple using pencil just looking at the letters on the computer screen. Covering the pencil template with permanent marker.

•Twist the red berries into the vine wreath. Spread out the berries. Twist some of the vines with the berry stem, just to make sure they're blended.

•Hot glue the apples to the wreath. Making sure each wreath is attached securely.

•(Optional) add a big bow. Mine was already on the wreath, I honestly considered taking it off, but it seemed like it might be a pain to take off...

It's a start. And it seriously took about 30 minutes to make this wreath. The hardest part was hanging it on the "speak easy" door.

Here is the original beautiful wreath from Your Cozy Home, amazing! She seems to have a few blank apples and some orange leaves, too. So maybe I'll add a little once it actually feels like fall?!

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St. Patrick's Day Lucky {Wreath}

I pulled this sucker together last minute when February was over and I had to take down my Valentine's Day wreath. 

I already had the vine wreath. I had previously wrapped cardstock in yard {last summer?} for the #70 (our house number) and added flowers  for a summertime wreath...so for St. Patrick's Day, took everything but the yarn numbers off.

I used cardstock with a layer of spray glue and glitter to make this really quick wreath. I cut the letters using my Silhouette machine. I used toothpicks that I hot glued onto the back of the letters to stick the letters onto the wreath...I didn't want to make anything permanent so I can reuse the vine wreath! {My front door is covered with a porch, this would definitely NOT hold up if it was completely exposed to the elements} I sprayed the glitter with some sealant I had, but Mod Podge might be a good option to keep the glitter from falling off...

I added the burlap bow, using a roll of burlap I picked up a long time ago at Michael's and never used. {I think I googled "burlap bow tutorial" but of course can't find what I think I used.)

To tie this bow, I didn't use any wire, JUST the burlap ribbon. I made four evenly sized loops, with long 15" tails, asked my husband to hold them and then tied a smaller section of burlap around the rest of the bow. I used the excess of the center loop (the back of the knot) to tie the bow onto my wreath.

From start to finish I would say this took less than 30 minutes to pull together...not bad, right?!

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Front Door Swag

Since moving into our new house, our poor front door has been totally neglected. In October, we were having family come into town for my son's birthday party. In other words: the perfect excuse for jazzing up or entry!

I whipped up this beauty using real hydrangeas and some cardborn wrapped in yarn. 

I started by printing out a template from the computer. I traced the numbers onto cardboard and then cut out the cardboard. {Cute chipboard numbers and letters don't exist here!} It was a pretty forgiving process, you might need some serious scissors...

Once I had the numbers cut out, I used my hot glue gun to help stick the yarn to the cardboard. 

I began by outlining the edge of the number first with hot glue, then with yarn.

Then, I carefully wrapped along the edges starting at the bottom. I added a little extra hot glue along the corners of the 7, just for good measure. For the zero, I made a little ball of yarn that would fit into the center and then wrapped away...so easy!

Once I was finished with my numbers, I glued them onto the wreath, and then jammed a few hydrangeas into the wreath. I feel like it's not quiet "fall" enough, so one of these days soon I'll probably change out the hydrangeas with something a little more fall...but then again, I might not, and then I'll just switch out a Christmas wreath....

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