D-I-Y Fall Wreath

If you've been following the Pinterest Party posts you'll know that my friends and I got together and made fall and winter wreaths.  I did a fairly long, wordy, loads of pictures post about what we did, but I did not go into how I made my own personal wreath.  And of course, we have to see if it was budget friendly!

My original idea was to do a fall wreath that centered around sunflowers.  I absolutely love sunflowers and I loved all the examples I had found on Pinterest.

I absolutely loved the reds, yellows, and oranges of all the wreaths, but what I really liked was the letter!  I knew I was going to incorporate that into my own wreath somehow...

I decided to go to Michael's and see what I could find that would live up to my expectations.  The first time I went by myself and bought a vase of fake flowers that were on sale and thought that was all I needed.  But when I went back to help another friend find what she wanted for her wreath, I realized that I wasn't completely happy with the supplies I bought.

Originally I had bought a small wreath from Target for $2.50 and thought that would be sufficient.  I soon realized that such a tiny wreath would look ridiculous on my outside door and I needed something a little bit bigger.

As you can see, the wreath I ended up using could be the little one's mother!  I knew I needed to go bigger.  As they say, bigger is always better.  And while I don't always believe that is true, in this case it was!

I also needed a few smaller flowers to balance out the larger ones as well as a letter.  I also decided that I wanted cranberries wrapped around the wreath because that is something I've always loved.

I used wire to hold my flowers, cranberries, and letter in place.  Some people used hot glue for theirs but I felt like the wire held everything better for me.  I'm very happy with how it turned out!
 

Okay...let's see the cost breakdown:
Grapevine Wreath: $3.00 (originally $5 but I used a 40% off coupon)
Cranberries: $3.00 (Originally $5 but it was on sale for 40% off.  I bought two)
Flowers in vase: $2.60 (original price was $12.99 but I got it at 80% off!)
Other flowers: $5.00
Wire: $0.99
Letter: $1.99

TOTAL: $19.58  

I wanted to try to stay under $20 and I definitely accomplished that!  It is so rewarding knowing that I got a great deal on a lot of the items I used and that I am going to be able to use the wreath for (hopefully) years to come!

Next up, a Christmas wreath!  I'm already planning it out in my head and hope that it turns out just as good as my fall wreath.  Maybe even better!

Pinterest Party Success!

After a hectic day yesterday it's nice to sit down with my cup of coffee, catch up with a few friends, and settle in for a nice relaxing day at home.  We're exhausted from all of yesterday's excitement  and quite satisfied with the outcome of our crafting skills.  Let's just say that the Pinterest Party was a huge success, and now that I have the first one under my belt I cannot wait to do more!

{You can find my original party post here if you're a little unsure of what a Pinterest party entails}

For my party everyone brought one dish they wanted to try and all the materials to make a fall or winter wreath.  We spent the first hour and a half tasting all of the food and catching up. {Silly me forgot to take pictures of the food!  I guess I was just too busy chowing down!} After our stomachs were satisfied we grabbed our supplies and sat down to craft to our hearts content!  The crafting part of the party probably took about an hour and a half to two hours total.  It was so much fun to see what everyone else was done, and there were a lot of different projects going on!  I think each one reflected the makers personality perfectly, and we're all extremely proud of the outcome!

My sister J did a Christmas wreath with birds on it.  The original picture that she modeled her wreath after, is from Michaels Arts and Crafts store.  It came out so well and is so unique!  S was in love with the birds and I won't be surprised if she goes back to Michael's to make a wreath similar to the one J made.  My favorite part of the entire project (beside the birds, which are super cute!) was the snow-in-a-can that J used to give the wreath a "wintery" feel.  

I love that K's wreath was completely different than the rest of ours.  She used a styrofoam tube as the base and pinned felt to it to get the look the see in the picture.  It is so unique and fun!  K told us after we were done that using pins to keep the felt in place wore her fingers down during the process though, so if you are thinking of trying this version you may want to get something that will protect your fingers!    

At first, S wanted to do her own version of this wreath, but ended up with a finished product that looked more like a variation of the hydrangea wreath.  There were a few people (myself included) who did different versions of this.  The most unique part about the whole wreath was that S wrapped her letter in ribbon which gave it a completely different effect.  

L and I did different versions of S's wreath (see above).  I love L's wreath because the colors match the theme of her house and not only is it chic, but it is very unique to her taste.  Oh...and the colors are gorgeous of course!

All the ladies with our newly crafted wreaths!
There is one person whose wreath I did not get a picture of in an individual shot, and that is E's (top row, second from the right).  E made hers with coffee filters and the reason I don't have a finished shot is because she is not done with it yet.  Hopefully she will send me a picture with the finished result because I am so anxious to see it!  I absolutely adore the coffee filter idea and love how full her wreath is!  Even if she just put a bow on it I think it would look fantastic!    

Before everyone left I had a small surprise for them.  I wanted to say thank you for coming and to give them all a little momento to remember the day by.

And here are the bags they went in:

Even though I was stressing a bit, the party turned out to be a success and we all had lots of fun!  I am very excited to have left over snacks to eat and new recipes to print out for my recipe binder!

For now, I'll leave you with a few links for some of the food my guests made:
1.  Strawberry Cheesecake Bites: verdict?  A hit!  People gobbled them up.
2.  Moscato Spritzer: verdict?  Okay, not my personal favorite but still pretty good!
3.  Lemonade Punch: verdict?  Delicious!  I will definitely be making this again!
4.  Strawberry-Mint Water: verdict?  Holy cow.  I loved it!  In fact, I'm having a glass right now!
5.  Easy Parmesan Knots: verdict?  The best bread I've ever had.  Seriously!

There were also meatballs, spinach and feta cheese dip, shrimp dip, and blue cheese bread bites!  I'll have to get the recipe for all of those and update this when I do.  Everything was delicious though and my mouth is still watering thinking of all the deliciousness!

I hope you've enjoyed my long picture filled post!  And I also hope that it has inspired you to do some crafting of your own!

Giving Thanks: Part Three

I wasn't really sure what I was going to write about today.  I didn't want to give a generic thankful answer because I really wanted to go outside the box and come up with something new.  Of course I am thankful for my faith, family, and friends, but there had to be something else to write about.  Something that is unique to my life.  And then it came to me.

I am thankful to be a stay-at-home-wife.

From the day Chris and I were married I have been lucky enough to be labeled as such.  Not many people are able to have this opportunity, and not a lot of people want to have it.  I am part of very unique and small group of women who are able to do this.  Who want to do this.

I love staying at home during the day.  I love the freedom it gives me as well as the opportunities.  And I love that when Chris gets home I can be waiting for him at the door, with a home cooked meal on the table.  

Does that make me old fashioned?  Maybe it does to some people, but not to me.  I've always wanted to stay at home ever since I was a little girl.  My goal in life was not to be a powerful business woman, but a loving wife and mother.  And God has blessed me with the opportunity to be just that.  

I honestly believe that being a stay-at-home-wife is preparing me to be a stay-at-home-mom.  Not only am I able to establish a daily routine but I am also free to experiment to see what works best for my family.  And once Chris and I make the decision to start having children, I will be blessed with the time to prepare. 

It is so easy to forget that being able to stay at home is a blessing.  There are some days where I honestly don't feel like doing anything and get bored pretty easily.  But then I remember that I am allowed to have a time out and relax for a day.  My chores and experiments will always be there tomorrow.  

But, I cannot forget the real reason I am able to do what I want: My husband.  Without God blessing Chris with a job that is able to provide everything we need and more, I would not be able to stay at home.  

{And the best part is that Chris has a job that he loves, so the money is only an added bonus}