Wednesday, November 6, 2013

A Winter Wreath

Where the heck did autumn go?

wreath, DIY wreath, wreath making

It's cold. Can't feel your fingers cold. And guess what. I still have a summer wreath on my back door. Yeah. While I was watching the snow in the air this morning, it dawned on me - perhaps it's time to retire the sunflower wreath.

But, since it's so cold - the kind of day you just want to curl up on the sofa, with a cup of coffee, and watch Long Island Medium re-runs (maybe that's just me?). I decided to at least take that summery wreath down. But once I took it down, I realized I wanted to get into the spirit of things. Sometimes that just happens. Just when I was getting my lazy on.

Ergo, the little man and I were on a mission. (Sometimes you've got to use a word like ergo, don't you think?) Okay, maybe this was my mission, but my guy's always game for heading outside. Especially for a pine cone gathering mission. Armed with our Wegman's bags, gloves and hats, we clomped out to the woods in our boots.

Half an hour later we had a bag full of pine cones (and dirt). Score!

As mentioned, the pine cones were dirty, and wet, from lying on the ground in the woods for centuries. So I put them on top of the heat registers around the house. Big A loves when I do this - when you step on them, it's almost exactly the same as stepping on a lego. After a few hours the heat dries out the pine cones, and makes them all nice and fluffy. If a pine cone can be fluffy.  (I know there are ways to dry pine cones and de-bugify them, but is all I did was stick them on the registers. I live on the edge.)

Once they were all dried, it was time for my evil plan...

I used a grapevine wreath, which I love on their own, so I decided to cover only part of the wreath. I wrapped a strip of burlap around the bottom 1/3 of the wreath, and glued the pine cones onto the burlap. Honestly, I didn't have a plan. Not even an evil one. I just glued them on with gay abandon. 

I glued some burlap bubbles, and bunches of burlap, just to fill in the spaces.


I tied a bunch of the tiny pine cones using some jute twine, and hung them down in the middle of the wreath.

Finally, to give the pine cones a little color, I brushed them with gold glitter paint. (Of course!)

And, voila! We're ready for the snow! Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration.

26 comments:

Unknown said...

Love it!
*pinned

Unknown said...

Thanks Stephanie!

Katherines Corner said...

this is lovely. It would get a bit of snow on it at our house today. It didn't last long but it did snow giggle. Hugs!

Unknown said...

SNOW is a four letter word to me!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Barb @ A Life in Balance said...

I love your wreath! I always forget about using pine cones for decoration.

Thanks for sharing your wreath at Fabulously Frugal Thursday.

House in the Heights said...

This looks great! Pinned!

Sharon @ Elizabeth & Co. said...

Really pretty! I love natural and rustic winter/holiday décor!

Hani said...

Beautiful.. This will be fun to make.. :)

Jenna said...

This is lovely. I would love it if you would link up to my link party at http://ihearthandson.blogspot.ca/2013/11/show-off-fridays-3.html

Have a great weekend!

Pieced Pastimes said...

Your wreath turned out wonderful! Love the burlap bubbles and the gold paint was a wonderful finishing touch.
Thanks for the inspiration,
Suzanne
Pieced Pastimes
PS-Would love to have you link this up to Saturday Sparks. Links are open till Friday.

Unknown said...

Suzanne, thanks! Will do!

Thank you everyone! Any ideas for another grapevine wreath? I have another one to go! Julia

Erin Bettis said...

Julia,

This wreath is great! Thanks for sharing the idea.

Erin
erinbettis.com

KirstenM said...

Love it.

Well, it's summer here, so we tend to use gum leaves and bottle brush flowers, but then we have to make it afresh every year!

Hi, by the way, I just popped across from Inspire Me Monday.

This post would also be a great fit for my Simple Seasonal Goodness Linky - come on over! http://sustainablesuburbia.net/simple-seasonal-goodness-celebrating-advent-with-a-difference/

Maria said...

What a lovely, natural looking wreath! I love all the pinecones, beautiful!

michie scott said...

I love the christmas decor,so beautiful
hope you can visit my Inspire me Monday

Kayla @ Home Coming said...

Beautiful wreath! I love it's rustic look. I'm hosting a giveaway for an awesome starburst mirror that you should enter! http://homecomingmn.blogspot.com/2013/11/starburst-mirror-giveaway.html

Unknown said...

Thank you all for stopping by! :) Julia

Deborah@Green Willow Pond said...

Cute, cute wreath! I love the little pine cones hanging in the center. Thank your for sharing it and your Thai Peanut Noodle recipe at What We Accomplished Wednesday.

Hani said...

You have been featured at weekly creative... Thanks for linking up!

Unknown said...

Thank you Deborah! I love those little ones too!

Thank you Hani!

Sweetwater Style said...

This is so pretty, I have never seen "burlap" bubbles, but now that I have...I am gonna use this technique! I have a "naked" grapevine wreath just waiting for a look like this! Great job!

Create With Joy said...

Dear Julia,

Thank you for sharing your fabulous projects with us at Inspire Me Monday at Create With Joy - I loved them all!

Could you add our party to your list of linky parties?

Thanks so much! I will be featuring your wreath this week and look forward to seeing more of your creative projects at Create With Joy!

Unknown said...

Added! Thank you for stopping by!

Tammy Killoough said...

What a pretty wreath...I just love having loads of wreaths! Thanks you for sharing with Twirl and Take a Bow! ~Tammy

Alexis Tanner Lane said...

This is so pretty! And I love that you collected the pine cones! I'm featuring this at my link party tonight and pinning!

Unknown said...

Hi Tammy, thank you!

Alexis - thanks for the feature!

Julia