Yarn Wreath

I feel like I've become a little obsessed with my new found love of yarn. It's just so soft and cozy! And as I sit typing I am looking out at our ice and snow covered yard...warmth and coziness is a MUST right now.

Here in the deep South we aren't used to all this frozen stuff so we've all been closed up in our houses...going on 4 days for us. Ah! However, the sun is out today so hopefully we can get some heat to melt away the claustrophobia.

So if you are in need of some coziness too, here is a great yarn wreath to make you feel all warm inside. In my quest to find some wreath ideas using yarn, I found this one over at Take Heart. Danielle has a great tutorial so be sure to check hers out too!

You will need:
Straw wreath - size depends on how large you want your wreath
Yarn of your color choice
Felt for Flowers- I used felt sheets from Hobby Lobby and Michael's. They are about $.29 each. I got two different colors
Scissors
Hot glue

Leave the plastic wrapping over the wreath or you will have a huge mess on your hands. Next, turn on the TV and get comfortable. The next step is the longest part.

Side Note: This is a perfect naptime project. 

Wrap the first part of your yarn and tie it off or hot glue to secure. Then you will tightly wrap the yarn round and round and round...you get the idea. The easiest way to do it is to keep wrapping your whole ball of yarn around and through the middle. It's annoying but I think its better than having a million separate strands of yarn.

Almost through wrapping

Too overseeing my work

Done wrapping. You will not be able to get it perfectly lined up.
I think it has character like this

 After your wreath is completely wrapped, tie it off again or secure with hot glue. I used hot glue. Now it's time to make your felt flowers.  Using your felt and cut different size circles. The bigger the circle, the bigger your flower. I did different sizes for variety. The circles do not have to be perfectly symmetrical. It makes the "petals" of your flower look more realistic if the edges are a little wavy or uneven. Once you have your circles, start at the outer edge and cut it into a spiraled strip by cutting into the circle and cutting around until you get to the middle of the circle and the all the fabric is one big strip of material. How many times did I just say circle? Lol. You will have a little piece of round fabric once you get towards the end of your strip. You will use this to secure your flower together.

Staring to cut my strip

 Begin rolling your strip back up (tightly) to start forming your flower. You can loosen it a little once you get going. It just depends on if you want more open or closed petals. Roll the entire strip and use the big piece at the end to secure underneath your flower with hot glue.

Forming the flower

Finished flower. Sorry, forgot to take a pic of the green one.

 Lastly, arrange your flowers however you like on your wreath and hot glue in place. Easy!

Flower cluster

Finished wreath!

On the door. I don't really like the look
of the wreath hanger so I may switch to ribbon.

Laundry Closet Makeover

Yes...laundry closet, not room. Oh how I long for a laundry room. Hubby and I have lived in two homes since our nuptials and neither have had the oh so desired laundry room. It's definitely on the requirement list for the next house we buy.

Since we are going to put our house up for sale soon, I wanted to give our little LC some love and attempt to show future buyers that it can be attractive and useful despite its close quarters :)

I didn't want to spend any money since we have a lot of other projects to work on around the house so I went hunting for things I had lying around.

The lovely before picture

 First off, I de-cluttered...which was a big part of the messy LC. I took out the majority of the bazillion hangers and removed all of the overstocked food. I used to have this full of canned goods but I cleared out a cabinet in the kitchen for those, thank goodness. A few baskets and some accessories and my sweet lil LC looks tons better!

And After!

I found this washboard at my Mom and Dad's house, gathering dust in their basement. I thought it was perfect for my shelf. I added some clothespins to a mason jar and set the corner off with a little bouquet I had on hand.

I had this canvas tote in my son's closet holding extra lotions/shampoo so I found another home for those and stuffed this one full of Laundry essentials...Tide spray, air freshener, those little water spout things for the iron, etc. I also made a cute label from my brand new Silhouette I got for Christmas - yahoo!!!

I pulled out this shallow brown bowl I had and added rolled up hand towels.

I also put my dryer sheets in this little planter I got from Southern Living several years ago. 

I have two beautiful hand-made pillowcases that someone made us when we got married and I have never used them. I hung one of them up in the LC to hide some of the ugly wiring, my plastic bag holder and my hand held Shark.

The little laundry plaques were a gift from my Mom when we got married. They were already in the LC but you couldn't see them due to the stinkin hangers. They were a set of 3 but one needs repairing so two will just have to work for now.

And the last basket holds all of my detergents and softeners.

Overall, I think our LC looks soooooo much better and for ZERO dollars, it's okay in my book!

And one more time for your viewing pleasure :)

Christmas Wreath & Happy New Year!

So I said it was New Year's Eve but since it's 1:00 a.m., we have officially begun 2011! My brand new blog starting off at the beginning of the brand spankin new year :)


So let's get back to Christmas, lol.


I absolutely fell in love with these yarn ball wreaths over at All Things Heart and Home. I chose to use green and mocha yarn balls with red ornaments. Sorry, no pics of the process (at this point I wasn't certain I would be starting my blog).   Robin at ATH&H has a great photo tutorial so be sure to check it out.


Instead of styrofoam balls, I used more ornaments to cover over with yarn. It's a little tricky at first, especially if you are using a smooth ornament, but it works just fine. You will need to remove the top hanger thing-a-ma-jig on the ornament and cut off the extra piece below that so your ball will be perfectly round. Make as many balls as you like. I made about 25 total using large and small ornaments. A variety of sizes work best.


Using a medium size wire wreath, hot glue the largest yarn balls onto the wreath spaced apart about an inch or so. I used about 9 large yarn balls for this. Then I simply hot glued the remaining smaller yarn balls and my ornaments into the empty spaces. I love how it turned out. I'm hoping to make another one that can hang year round.


And here she is!

And so we begin...

I'm starting my blog off with two posts about Christmas crafts. I know, I know...it's New Year's Eve. But I just loved how these turned out so I wanted to share anyway :)


The first one is a NOEL sign that is a knock-off of a beautiful Pottery Barn piece. I got the inspiration over at Frugal with a Flourish and it was an easy peasy project. The toughest part for me was cutting small enough pieces of wood to secure the letters together. I'm not too savvy with a saw...Hubby had to assist.


This first picture is my initial combination of the letters. I purchased these at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 each. You will need to peel off the stickers and remove any staples that may be left behind too (duh).

Everything fit perfectly except when aligned, the N stuck out annoyingly slightly to the left. It was either cut the extra off or have the L longer than the E at the bottom. I chose the first option because I didn't want the bottom of the sign to be uneven. So I marked the line and sawed it off. Well worth the extra time.


I didn't have any scrap wood so I used wooden paint mixing sticks instead. I wanted something flat but sturdy and it seemed to do the trick.

I used a brown smooth satin finish spray paint. I can't remember what brand I used and I'm too comfortable inside my warm house to make my way out to the dark and cold garage to find out. I will keep track next time. My apologies. Anywhoo, here is the final product on my mantle. 

Now how's about a funny story involving this particular sign. I bought the materials to make two of these, one for me and one for my Bunko group's Dirty Santa game. I only had time to work on one of them at the time so I made the one for Bunko first. I was very proud of my NOEL sign and excited for it to be a participant in the game. It was opened towards the very beginning and shortly after, we decided to pause Dirty Santa to make a group photo. Well...my sweet friend who chose my sign sat it behind her on the sofa where she was sitting while she stood for the picture. Not two seconds after we took the photo, she sat right down on the couch and all we heard was a huge CRUNCH! Oh, it was awful! I think I had a heart palpitation. Thankfully, our Bunko host's husband was home and is a wood-working genius. He took it down to his workshop and fixed it up for her a few days later. Oh well, it makes me laugh just thinking about it although it was sad to see it in pieces :(