While going through our boxes of Christmas decorations, I came across the wreath box. I opened it and went, "ughhhhhh." I'm not a DIY blogger, obviously, so I forgot to take a before picture, but I haphazardly put the wreath back together so you'd get the idea. Sorry the picture is not so great.
It's not the ugliest wreath on the block (you should see my neighbor's!), but let's be honest, it looks like something circa 1994. My mom is one of the best bargain shoppers I've ever met, and she knows a find when she sees one. A year or two ago, she knew I didn't have a wreath and found this one for me probably thinking it was better than nothing, as I used to be into collecting bears when I was little (that's a story for another day). So, I paid nothing for this wreath, but I wasn't really feeling it this year. But, since there's no money in the budget for a new wreath, I ended up hanging it up anyway thinking I might find a way to modify it to my liking later. I'm a little ashamed to admit that. As an aside, after hanging it, I discovered the bears covered the little peephole in the front door, which I felt like was kind of a safety-hazard.
I did do some shopping around the next day to see if I could find something I liked better, or at least inspiration to make mine better. Have you seen prices on wreaths? Unless you get the yucky, fake looking ones, they cost anywhere from $20-50 dollars!!!!! Even if I did have money for it, I am wayyyy too cheap to pay that much for a wreath. Well, I might pay $20, but after this project, no way. What I did notice is that grapevine wreaths are still in style (or are again?). I knew there was something I liked about this wreath!!! I also saw that Hobby Lobby was selling plain grapevine wreath bases exactly like mine for $10. Score!
So when I was out shopping yesterday, I picked up two branches/bunches of the cranberry-looking floral embellishments. I'm sorry I don't know what they are called. I have never done this before! They were $1.27 each, but I got them for half price. Score again!
Last night, I sat down with my pliers and ripped the bears and little sign off the wreath. I noticed the twine on it was old, weathered, and had broken and been tied back together in places. Thankfully I already had the heavy duty jute twine to replace it, so I took off the old twine, added the berries and new twine, and ta-da! The result:
A brand new, contemporary, natural, gorgeous-looking wreath that only cost me about $1. :o) And while I am pretty excited about the low cost, what I am even more proud of is that I did it myself. Pinterest actually had nothing to do with this project! I've never done anything like this before, and I had no help. This is so not like me: I didn't even look at any pictures for inspiration or how-tos. *gasp* I just kind of sat down and did it. And bonus, it doesn't cover the peephole anymore! So yay for craftiness. The end.
Perfectly, plainly beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI thought you would be proud, Mom! :o)
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