Wreath Rehab!

Along with the rest of you, or maybe a little later than some of you, I am getting the home decorated for Christmas!!!  I really enjoy decorating this time of year...makes me feel like a kid again. Santas, snowmen, jingle bells...I mean, who doesn't LOVE decorating for Christmas???


I pulled this pitiful, plain wreath out of the attic, hung it by the front door, stood back and felt sad! I actually haven't used it in a few years and now I remember why. A wreath rehab was in order!

Off to Dollar Tree I went as fast as I could. I came back with 4 tubes of Christmas balls for $4 in various shades of gold...what a deal!! Having all these ornaments on hand, I had a fleeting moment of wanting to make a wreath of just the ornaments on a hanger. I am sure you have seen some version of a tutorial and how easy this is supposed to be. I worked at it for a whole 5 minutes, gave up and grabbed the glue gun.

The Santa hanging out in the moon always has a hard time finding a place in my decor too, but I just couldn't get rid of him.  Pretty sure I have had him for 3-4 years from a gift exchange and just knew I would use him at some point...this is the time. Lots of glue on the back of him and on the wreath he went!

Hot glue was then applied to the the top of the ball and the hanger part was placed into the wreath. There is no particular method, just vary different size or color of ornament and glue them in a cluster.  I have always heard to use odd numbers when doing something of this nature, so some clusters had 3, 7, or 9 ornaments. 

Hot glue, the Santa in a moon and gold ornaments...LOVE IT!!

Grab an old wreath, some dollar store ornaments, a hot glue gun and rehab your old wreath!!

RED, WHITE AND BLUE!!

I enjoy having a red, white and blue themed porch from Memorial Day through Labor Day. A lot of my decor had become faded due to the west sun my front porch receives, so what a good excuse to do some shopping!!

• I had picked up the wicker chair and table a few months ago at the local thrift store for a whopping $25! 
• The wagon was given to me by my in-laws due to a move they had to make...hate they had to move but I am enjoying the wagon.
• The flag banners and the small flags were purchased at Home Depot and Wal Mart.
• The metal flower was purchased at Hobby Lobby...and on sale of course.
• Now I needed a pillow for the chair. After searching Pinterest for ideas, I spotted a bandana pillow in one of the posts. Already having a pillow form in the closet and bandanas in my hutch ( normally used for napkins when we have BBQ), I set to work on this pillow.

             Items you will need:

                 Pillow form (mine was a 14"x14")
           2 bandanas

           thread
           scissors or pinking shears

The bandanas were ironed and placed wrong sides together, matching up edges as much as possible.  Folding the bandanas in half and then half again to find the center and mark with chalk. I was able to follow the crease marks from the folds to create a "cross" to then measure out in each direction for where I wanted the seam.

Measuring out 7" from each line I created the outer lines to be a guide for the seam. Pinning three of the sides together to keep fabric from shifting...not pinning the fourth side to remind me not to sew it up!

After the seam in sewn on three sides, insert the pillow form, pin bandana together and SLOWLY sew a seam on the fourth side to close the opening. You can leave the pillow as is OR choose to cut with pinking shears/scissors to create 1" tabs around the border for knotting. Preferring the more ragged look, I cut slits about every inch (I just "eyed" it) and then made knots.

The pillow completed the porch! Now time to have a cookout so I can show off this RED, WHITE AND BLUE front porch!!