I was inspired to create this feathered wreath by one I fell in love with at Hobby Lobby. It looked a lot like this one I made but it was more three-dimensional.  This one is bigger than the one in the store but it only cost me $2, instead of the $12 Hobby Lobby wanted.  Usually I don’t worry about spending $12 for something I really love but I thought it would be fun and easy to do it myself (and it was on both points).

The first thing I did was draw a heart on some foam I had lying around.  My husband cut the wreath out for me with one of his straight-edge razors.  The second thing I did was to spray paint it red with some extra paint I had.  The last thing was to hot glue the feathers I purchased at Hobby Lobby onto the wreath (that is where I spent the $2).  To hang, I hot glued a loop of red yarn to the back of my wreath and hung it on the door with a Command Strip.

The whole wreath took me about 30 minutes start to finish.  Easy, peasy, quick and easy.  The only draw back was the little bits of feathers that were hot glued all over my fingers.  I felt like a mad Big Bird .

     I wanted fun and festive and I wanted a serene winter scene so I did both.  I’m not entirely happy with the results but hey, I REALLY need to stop decorating and get shopping.  I guess the reason I’m not as pleased with the porch as I usually am is because it was an afterthought.  Everything that didn’t fit in the house got stuck out on the porch.  Everything that is except the wreaths.  Both are homemade, one was made by my Mom about 35 years ago and the other was made by me this week. 

     This colorful one above the presents is Mom’s.  She let me borrow it this year but I am hoping that she will give it to me one of these years ’cause I love it and because it brings back soooo many wonderful memories.

     This is the one I made.  This is the one I hinted at earlier in the week.  This project went as well as I had hoped.  It was an easy and fairly quick wreath to make.  It was cheap too.  I used stuff I had around the house.

I used cardboard as the form. 

 I wrapped the cardboard with batting.

     I wrapped the whole thing with yarn.  I went around the square twice to get all the bare spots.  Going around twice also helped give the wreath some strength.  I just held the first and last bits of yarn in place with a dab of hot glue.  I bought some white, silk Poinsettias at Hobby Lobby.  They were half price so I only paid $6 for the whole wreath.  This is the project that did work.  My other project did not work, not by a long shot, but I am going to keep trying until I can make it work, (yeah, I’m stubborn like that).  Anyway, below is the serene winter scene a.k.a. all the stuff leftover from our Jack Frost Christmas last year.

 Happy Holidays!

     It took me most of October to decorate the outside of my home for Halloween (even with the kids helping).  I kept having to stop decorating because of bad weather or to work on ceiling repairs and painting in my family room.  But it’s done and it came in on budget ($15).

     I have had the haunted house for years.  The spiders and webs were leftover from last year, I was given the pumpkin and we made the ghost.  I used cheesecloth and starch to make the ghost.  There are tons of tutorials out there on how to make these ghosts so I am not going to do one here but I do want to say I’ve tried a lot of the different methods of stiffening the cheesecloth and have found that the starch works best. 

     Making this web was a much bigger project than I first thought.  I decided to do it on a whim and started putting it up and it didn’t look right.  I had to take everything down and turn to the internet for help.  I checked out several sites and then tried again.  I’m still not wild about the way it turned out but it’ll do. 

     I made this wreath.  I bought the wreath at Hobby Lobby for my Fall porch but didn’t like it much and didn’t end up using it.  I thought it might have to go into my donation pile but one day I was in Target and saw a wreath that inspired me to make this.  All I had to do is spray paint the wreath black and hot glue these little bats on.  Easy peasy and half the price as the one in Target.

     I reused the hay bale from my Fall porchscape.  Most of the money in this Halloween porchscape was to buy these pumpkins.  We had more black spray painted pumpkins but there were rotting and got tossed in the trash.  I think that the kids dropped them when we were spray painting them. 

 Bones here is an old friend who likes to hang out with us this time of year.

     This wreath was one of the first decorations I bought after I married Handy Hubby so it has a lot of sentimental value.

     One last picture at twilight to show the lights.  That’s about it.  We will carve our pumpkins Sunday and light them and add them to the front porch on Halloween.   Happy Halloween!

     I did it.  I didn’t want to do it, but it had to be done.  I took down all my summer decor and put up Autumn decor. More so than any other year, I did not want this summer to end.  Maybe because summer started late but Autumn is right on time.  Maybe because my oldest is turning thirteen next month and I really am not ready for my babies to be one step away from adulthood. 

     I didn’t plan this porch out too much.  I am working on stuff for Halloween and this porchscape will only be up for a few weeks anyway.  I wanted a rusticy, Autumn feel.  As usual I had a $20 budget to work with.  I  admit I went over budget this time.   The fake apples were $12. 

     The bale of hay was $10 and the stuffed pumpkin for $12.  I justify the overage because I will get a lot of mileage out of the hay bale and the pumpkin.  The fake apples will come i handy to display in my kitchen or in tablescapes or this and that.  Everything else I had stashed in my prop closet.  How’s your Autumn decorating coming?  Are you glad for the change of season or are you like me and trying to hang onto Summer?

     I had planned to decorate my front porch for summer (maybe a Surfin’ Safari vibe) and then decorate for the Fourth of July.  But, then came the long awaited news that Osama Bin Laden was dead.  I don’t really want to bore you with my opinions on the matter.  I’ll just suffice it to say that I am relieved and hopeful that my kids will never know the fear that terrorists inflict.  I pray that never again will anyone be killed just because they went to work, boarded an airplane, or were simply an American.

     I have been feeling very patriotic so I decided to decorate the front porch as such and leave it all summer long.  I made most everything.  I only bought a few things.  The wreath above is one of the things I made.  I braided strips of material and then wrapped them around a bent metal hanger.  I tied the bow at the top to hide the hanger part.

      I made the sign.  I bought the little blue “Freedom” sign at Hobby Lobby.  The vase and the other stars were borrowed from inside of the house.

      I made these stars by covering cardboard cutouts with wallpaper on both sides.  I hot glued twine around the edges and hung them from the ceiling with tacks. 

      I brought this wall hanging out from storage.  I bought the plant and thrifted the basket it is in.  I made the pillow covers.

Here’s a shot so you can see how the above close-ups go together.

      And lastly, here is the view looking out from the front porch. I did manage to stick to my $20.00 Porch Decorating Budget.  Here’s a run down; thrifted basket $5.00, little blue “Freedom” star $5.00, and plant $10.00.  The rest was either borrowed from inside or made by me .    Hope everyone is having a great summer so far.  Thanks for stopping by.