Good Wreath, Bad Wreath

Who knew there could be such a thing, right?  I thought all wreaths were happy, pretty decorative love.  Not so.  Not so at all, my friends.

Let's start with the good wreaths because they make me quite happy.  These matching little darlings are going to hang on either side of the steps leading up to my front door.  These were so easy it literally took me 10 minutes. 

Believe it or not, they are just dollar store wreaths.  I hot glued mini ornaments from Target and tied and bow and viola'!  The thing that took the longest was making dollar store wreaths look like wreaths and not like a piece of wire with green spokes sticking out.  I'm really in love with them!

Now, on to bad wreaths.  You know all those gorgeous wreaths you see on Pinterest and Flickr that say things like "this was so easy to do"  and "OMG, this just came together naturally".  Well, they're lying.  Or maybe not lying...maybe it's like childbirth, a few hours after the baby is born and is healthy and swaddled up cooing at you, you forget that you just ejected that living being from your body.  Perhaps these wreaths look so darn cute afterwards that you suddenly forget all the burnt fingers from hot glue, the way the bulbs will not and do not just settle into place and no part of making it was fun.  Not a dang part.

I will never forget.  I will never make another one.  Maybe I'm a little bitter because mine does not look darn cute.  It's more oblong than circular and the stupid coat hanger shows through.  I knew about 1/4 of the way through that I was going to hate it, but I was committed to finishing.  I've been working on it for two weeks now, just so you know.  And I cheated and had J cut the stupid clothes hanger down today so I could stop adding balls and just finish it. 

So fair warning...don't expect cute.  Expect done....and maybe passable from a distance:

I'm almost embarrassed to show it.  Can you see the white coat hanger showing in places.  No one said that would happen.  No one.  I am going to fix that because it's driving me crazy, but I'll be hot gluing a couple of baby ornaments on there, not feeding them onto some stupid dumb coat hanger that would probably be happier still hanging in my closet unused.

So anyway, that was my crafty day, how about yours??

Always,

K

More Pink Christmas

Yes, I'm still obsessed with my styrofoam trees.  This one was actually made last year, but not finished in time for Christmas. 

I simply took the idea of the fabric Christmas ornaments that I had been making for gifts for a few years and adapted it to the cone. 

Here is a few of the ornaments I couldn't seem to part with.  I keep them out year round in a big cookie jar.

Today we're decorating the house and watching a marathon of Harry Potter movies that we DVR'd.  I hope to get some baking and Christmas crafting in also.  Looks like another late night for me!

And better late than never I'm linking to Thrifty Thursday's on Quilted Cupcake!

Always,

K

Christmas Flag

I'm not sure If I ever got around to posting my Christmas Flag last year, so as I just dragged it out from the cave of my basement I decided to post it.  I just used sturdy canvas and machine appliqued the trees on.  The first pic is before it was exposed to the elements:

The next pic is after it had been outside for awhile.  The rain and snow caused the fusible adhesive I used to crinkle the trees and border a bit, but I liken it to a nice crinkly quilt after free motion quilting and washing.  **Note that the flag is situated under a covered porch and only indirectly gets wet**

Hope you like it!

Always,

K

Homespun Holidays

I am a huge fan of Allison over at Cluck Cluck Sew.  She does amazing work and has awesome ideas.  Two years ago she had a tutorial for a Copy Cat Scarf based on one she saw at The Gap.  My sister made me one for Christmas that year and it's still one of my favorites.

I decided to make the scarf for some quick gifts this year and am so glad I did.  The hardest (and by hardest I mean most time intensive) part is the fringing.  I sewed one up yesterday to make sure it turned out right after washing before doing the other 6 I have planned to make.

Here it is fringed but not yet washed:

After a quick wash and tumble in the dryer, here it is all fringy:

And a close up of the fringing:

I'm so happy how it turned out and am off to make the other 6.  I hope to have them all sewn and ready for fringing before the Ravens game today so I can do all that tedious fringing while watching the Ravens stomp the Browns!

Think I can do it, the game is in 3 hours?  (I wouldn't place money on it, I'm horrible at time management!)

Always,
K