I learned this last year at a meeting of my teaching sorority. It is the easiest way to make a homemade fresh wreath that I have ever seen. Even the kids helped a bit.

Materials:

• Artificial Evergreen Wreath (trust me, they’ll never know)

• Lots of cut evergreens.
• (Optional) Dried flowers and seed pods from the garden.

Directions-before making the wreath

• Gather the evergreen cuttings. Start collecting early. Mine is cedar, boxwood and other clippings from the yard. Honestly I have no idea what the variegated stuff is. The cedar we scored down the road. A neighbor was cutting back some shrubs and left it out for trash collection.
• Put the cuttings in a bucket of water until ready to use. Keeps then nice and fresh.

  

Directions-How to make the wreath

• Start by setting up your work area. If working inside put down newspaper.
• Put the wreath form back-side down on your work surface and push apart all the branches. Basically you will be using these branches like pipe cleaners to tie the fresh greens to the form. It is easier to do this if you untangle a bit first.
  
• Cut the fresh evergreen into bundles about 4 to 5 inches long.
  

  

• On mine form there are two rings, one inner and one outer. I started on the outer ring.
• Place the first bundle down and twist two branches around the bundle, about 2 inches from the cut end of the greens.

  

  
  

  

• As you work make sure to lay all the cuttings in one direction, overlapping by about 3 inches. Try to tuck the branches of the artificial wreath behind your cuttings. It fluffs up the wreath, and fills in any gaps, but is otherwise invisible.
• Continue adding bundles until you have gone all the way around the form.

  

• Tuck the cut ends of the last bundle under the end of the first bundle, twist into place.
• For mine I did the outer ring in cedar, then for the inner ring I alternated boxwood and the mystery shrub. I then added dried flowers from the garden-gomphrena, seed heads from garlic chives. You could also use pine cones, seed heads from crepe myrtles, berries, bows, whatever you have on hand.

  

Note: I checked with my garden savvy stepmother-the yellow speckled stuff is Aucuba.

We had a great Thanksgiving. I even survived the in-laws. No small matter, that.

I also had tons of time for crafting. Here’s a sneak peak:

I’ll be posting on a few of these separatly later this week. Today I am home from work today. Big-sis has a nasty stomach bug. Go wash your hands…seriously.

And if you are interested in playing along with the Handmade Holiday Craft-Along, jump right in. Let us know what you’re making for the holidays!

 

The husband and I got a day out a few weekends back and we ended up doing the thrift stores. I know, exciting lives.

This is my new favorite thing. It is a lamp for a child’s room.

Aren’t they great? They are painted wood. The center part can be wound up and then they spin and play music.

I am revamping the guest room. Right now it is where the kids play stuff is. The plan is to turn it back into a fully dedicated guest room and do it in red and white. I have an old red and white quilt from my mom’s family, and this lamp will work perfectly.

This makes me so happy!

Look at this over at Crafster…too clever! It’s an entertainment center turned into a kitchen for kids to play in. I love this idea! We’ve talked about doing this with the pre-fab kitchen cabinets from the hardware store, but this is much better.

I think my favorite part is that they wallpapered!

I have a thing for corny historical plates. The top is Abraham Lincoln during the Lincoln Douglas debates. This one hangs in the girl’s bathroom which is pink, green and black.

This is the home of Martha Washington, mother of George. It’s hard to see in the photo, but around the edges are scenes of her garden and her drawing room.

I have visions of eventually having a whole set of president plates…the ones with all the presidents heads, like George through Eisenhower, or Nixon. Hilarious!

So happy birthdays Abe and George!

And if you are interested, here’s a sheet on George Washington I made for big-sis. Print out and enjoy.

This is the question of the day. Little-sis asked this on the way back home from Williamsburg yesterday.

And I have to say we were laughing so hard it took a moment to reassure her. A scary thought no? She seemed pretty freaked out by it.

Hints of spring:

 

The husband got a bargain on some trees for the backyard last week. The spot where he planted them was already occupied by the daffodils. They sprung up in January’s heat wave and it seemed a shame to waste them.

So the girls and I stole some gravel from the driveway and stuck them in the jar. They just started blooming yesterday.

We moved to Florida in 2005 we left right before they bloomed, and we haven’t seen them since…I guess really since 2004.

I have a thing for hearts. Ever since my mom taught me how to do appliques on quilts, hearts have been one of my favorite designs.

So I have been trying to think of a great surprise for the girl’s room for Valentine’s Day. I love the idea of them waking up to a room all decorated for the holiday.

Last year they got their boots. Best gift ever. We usually do not do gifts for Valentines, just mail cards, but these we had to have.

This year I have been using up a lot of their old baby clothes making these, so I think I might pull out the mini Christmas Tree and have that all set up for when they wake up. I have some old potato bread in the freezer, so maybe we’ll have heart shaped French Toast also.

We’re waiting to see if it snows…wish us luck. We still haven’t had a real snow day.