Wreathed in Burlap

This past weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada.

We didn’t have a lot planned other than installing

new garage doors with the neighbour.

Just like the Pilgrims did! J

The weather was absolutely gorgeous,

and with an extra day off work,

I decided to get the front porch decorated for fall.

First step was a wreath.
Since the stores were closed I was determined
to use only what I already had in the house.

I started with a plain grapevine-type wreath from Goodwill.

I was just going to wrap it in burlap,

but at the last minute decided to give it a little more heft

with an additional layer of dropcloth fabric. 

Honestly, what can’t a dropcloth be used for?

I cut the fabric into 2-3” wide strips and used

hot glue to attach the first end to the wreath. 

I then wrapped it fairly tightly and glued the tail end.

 

Because this material wouldn’t be seen

I wasn’t all that careful about keeping it even or hiding the seams.

I then cut the burlap into strips

and attached them to the frame
in the same manner as the dropcloth. 

 

(That first piece was already cut,

so no your eyes aren’t mistaken,

it’s definitely more than 3” wide.)

I pulled out all of my fall décor odds and ends

and started gluing them onto the bottom right “corner”. 

I was going to cover the entire circle with leaves

but decided to just keep it simple. 

I gradually layered on leaves, pinecones, potpourri and tiny pumpkins

until I got the look I wanted.

Lastly I tied a piece of cream & gold ribbon to the top to hang it

and my wreath was done!

Bonus: here’s a sneak peak at what the doorway looks like once it was all finished.

I know you can hardly wait to see the whole thing!

I'm linking to these great link parties this week!



Squirrel!

Look who came to visit us today.

At first this little guy was sitting on our fence enjoying his snack.

I had a perfect view through the patio door. 

But by the time I ran upstairs to get my camera, changed to

the zoom lens, and ran back down, he was gone. 

So I ran back upstairs to take pictures of him in the neighbour’s

backyard from our bedroom window (hence the blurriness).

Cute, hunh?

He just ran around all over the place dragging his treat with him. 

I think it’s fascinating how his fur is grey and brown,

blending in with the dirt and weeds perfectly.

Think he was born that way or he’s just an old squirrel?

(By the way, this isn’t a commentary on my neighbour’s back yard;

they just cut down a huge tree that was blocking all of the sunlight

and keeping grass from growing).

But then he climbed back up on our fence! 

So I ran downstairs again.  I was afraid to get too close

so I just took the pictures through the window from across the room.  

I think he might have been waiting for me. 

Look at the little show-off. 

Have you ever seen a squirrel lie like that?

And he looks a little evil in this one.  

Check out that smirk.

That's a squirrel who's plotting something.

Suddenly he had an itch that had to be scratched.  Right. Now.

Now a little to the left. Ahhhh, that's it.

Some more posing.

And then he was off to new adventures in other backyards.

Fall Decor - Mason Jar Foliage Candles

I've never really decorated for fall before. Yes, I usually do the whole Halloween thing (and quite well thankyouverymuch), but never just for fall.

I saw some mason jar leaf candles here and I knew not only that I could do it, but that I had everything I needed already. Free craft! I gathered all of my materials to see what I had to work with. Artificial leaves. Check. Flameless tealights. Check. An abundance of jars. Checkity-check.

First I tried applying the leaves to the inside of the glass with mod podge, thinking it would dry clear. Not so much.

Fail. Big Fail.

But luckily they came off easily and the glue washed right out. For the second try I used my glue gun. I’m not going to tell you how many glue burns I suffered by shoving a hot-glue-covered leaf into a narrow-mouthed jar. Let’s just say it was more than one.

This time the result looked more like a candle and less like “your spaghetti sauce is growing mold, you might want to throw that out”.

I dug out my beloved twine and some old potpourri (from a long ago Thanksgiving centerpiece) and fancied up the rims. It was a little annoying getting the tealights in and out, but easier (and safer) than using real candles.

Ready to go. But then I thought, what about smaller candles? There is a candle that I absolutely adore – cinnamon pecan swirl by Candle-Lite. 

Oh my gosh, it smells so good. There is only one store in my town that carries them so I stock up when I can. I have a shelf in the linen closet full of them. But in my defense the closet smells really good. Like crawl-inside-and-take-a-nap good.

I always keep the jars after the candle is done. You never know when they might come in handy. (Like right now!) And they were the perfect height for this project.

Just a few leaves, some twine and "fluff", and I had a lamp that was far easier to get the candle into and out of. I'm kind of crushing on the proportions of the little guy.

I could stare at them all night.

What do you think? Suitably fall-ish? Something you’d want to try yourself? How would you tweak it?

I'm linking to these great link parties!