A Halloween Quickie

I know I said I'd be light on projects but I can't help myself. I'd rather be painting and making a mess in the garage than packing. I can't stand packing! Especially since now I have to pack for not only myself but for the 2 boys, our dog and cat (and occasionally the Hubs but don't tell him I told you that.)

Anyway- Happy Halloween!! I thought I could take down my Fall Wreath for one night to celebrate the evening. I saw this idea on Curbly and knew I had everything on hand to make it. 

Fall Wreath My Way

It's Fall!! Here in Oklahoma we actually had temperatures below 100 degrees!! The highs have been in the 80's. I feel like I'm freezing and I'm loving it. 

Also, as mentioned before I love Fall because Fall means Football. And just because we live in Oklahoma now doesn't mean I can't show my Louisiana Pride. 

And to show that pride to all my neighbors (mostly OU fans) I made an LSU and Saints Wreath! 

I started with foam letters from the craft store. They were less expensive than the wooden ones and cuter I thought.

All they needed was a little paint.

I added some ribbon like my Christmas and Mardi Gras Wreaths, glued the letters on and was ready to hang.

So when our friends came over to watch the LSU Game we were ready. My Tigers won but sadly my Saints lost. But overall I had a good football weekend because I won my Fantasy Game as well! Woo!

Linking to The CSI Project!

It's Mardi Gras Season Ya'll!!!!

Ok, so we've all seen the posts and pinning for Valentines Decor, even some Easter popping up; but did you know that right now at this very second there is something we could all be celebrating right now? That if we lived in Louisiana there would be a parade every weekend, way to much King Cake to go around, beads everywhere and my personal favorite- Cups!

Mardi Gras Season officially starts with the Feast of the Epiphany and ends the day before Ash Wednesday. If we were still living in Louisiana there would be Mardi Gras Balls, parades, and parties to go to. But since we live in the big OK now, no one even knows what Mardi Gras is! We're hoping to go back to New Orleans for Mardi Gras 2013, but until then I thought I'd have my own little celebration and let people in my 'hood know what's happening with my homemade Mardi Gras Wreath.

Using items I already hand on hand (old wreath I took apart, I bought the ribbon a few years ago from Hobby Lobby Dollar bin, along with the gold glitter spray which is actually a Christmas item)

I started by running the three ribbons together around the wreath, bunching them and crisscrossing them across the wreath as I went. Then securing it along the way with green floral wire.

Once I made it all the way around I broke the gold glitter spray thing up into several pieces. Then laid it out to be secured around the back in a circular shape, again using the floral wire to secure it.

Then I added a few obligatory Mardi Gras beads~

Then done! It didn't take long, maybe an hour- maybe. 

So I have my own little piece of Mardi Gras here at home. And luckily when we went to New Orleans for that poor excuse for a Football Game I'd rather not discuss; I did snag a piece of King Cake to hold me over for a while!

Oh ya, and I got some Beignets!! So the trip wasn't a total waste. ;)

Do you celebrate any non- traditional holidays?

My Heart's On Fire

No, I don't have prego heart burn or anything; I was just trying to think of another title for this post besides: Heart Shaped Valentine's Wreath. Not sure how successful it is, you be the judge. ;0)


Anywho~ bad blog titles aside, do you remember my post Christmas Shopping Spree where I found these cute berry branches?

I thought it would be cute to bend them into a wreath for Valentines Day. I usually don't do a lot of decorating for Valentines but these branches were calling my name.

I started by bending the top of the branches into a curve shape.

Then using whatever I had available (in this case a staple gun) to weight the branches down, I used wire to tie the branches together into the shape I wanted.

And then hung it above our fireplace (hence the heart on fire reference above...)

I like that the heart is imperfect, it adds to it's rustic quality. Not a bad way to reuse Christmas clearance!

Do you decorate for Valentine's Day? And I want to apologize in advance if I have another wreath post this week- to many holiday's coming up that I want to celebrate!

Linking to The CSI Project!!

Dowel Star Wreath

I hope everyone had a fan-tabulous weekend! I know I did- Christmas Tree shopping, football game watching, Altus Christmas Parade, good times. Don't forget that tomorrow is the last day to enter my Dremel Trio giveaway!


Have you ever seen the Lowe's Creative Idea Magazine and website? I like to look at it for ideas and inspiration. We've been getting into the Christmas spirit more and more over at our house so I was in the mood for another Christmas-y project and the Lowes magazine had lots of good ones this month.


I saw this project in particular for a Dowel Star Wreath. 

It just so happened that my mom was cleaning out their garage over Thanksgiving and was going to throw a bunch of dowels away. But I snatched them up instead! If you want to try this project out yourself you'll need:

The dowels were 4' long so I needed to cut them down to 18" each. I used my scroll saw for this.

Once my dowels were cut I used Gorilla Wood Glue to attach the dowels together. I started with 2 triangles, opposite ends facing each other and glued them together. 

I set the star under a heavy book and let it dry for a few hours.

After the first set was dry I put another triangle on and glued that, then continued the process until I had used all my dowels.

After everything had dried over night I gave my star wreath a few coats Krylon Metallic Caramel Spray paint. I liked this color because it is two dimensional- from one angle it looks golden and from another it looks silver.

Then it was time to hang! I used some red ribbon and hung it over the mirror we have on the mantle in the living room.

This was a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to decorate for Christmas! 

What sort of Christmas crafts have you been up to?

Viva Fiesta!

It's Fiesta Season here in San Antonio. So that means Fiesta decorations! They are popping up all around our neighborhood.

One of the main symbols of Fiesta is the Fiesta Wreath hung usually hung on the front door. Stores around here sell wreaths from $60- 80. I thought I would make my own wreath to get into the Fiesta spirit and try to save some money along the way. I bought a bunch the least expensive flowers, a wreath and some extra glue- about $30 worth of supplies and got to work.

All my supplies

1/2 way there

C.C. trying to help me out.



Finished product! Yay- now we're ready for Fiesta!