Burlap Wreath

 Here goes another fall wreath...I mean, I do have two doors!  This one took a little more time than the simple wreath with flowers, but was still pretty easy to make.

I started with a wreath form from the dollar store.  Looking back, I probably wouldn't use this again, it was really big and thin!  But it worked considering it was only a dollar.

I took my dear friend Annie out with me to gather some more grasses/weeds in the backyard, then used wire to secure them to the wreath.  I put these on first because I wasn't planning on using burlap at the time.  I'm sure it would have turned out a lot better if I would have waited though!

I cut my burlap into strips and used a needle to thread through the strips of burlap.  I went from side to side so that my burlap folds would not be straight and I really liked how it ended up looking.

After threading the string, I pushed the burlap together until it formed this nice scrunchy thing.  

 I made four of these to fit around my wreath and then used hot glue to glue it onto my wreath form.

I also used an extra piece of burlap to tie a bow in the around my grasses.

Wanna hear a secret?  The whole time I was making this FALL wreath, I was listening to Christmas music. Super embarrassing when the water softener guy stopped by....

Have a blessed day!

Personalized TV Stand

I am all about buying inexpensive furniture from places like Target and Ikea, except for the fact that it all looks the same.  I also love seeing other people's Ikea hacks and other forms of personalizing furniture.  For this next project, I started with a TV stand that we purchased from Target when we got married.  

The hubby said we NEEDED this one because it was the only one that had plenty of space for all our stuff.  The one thing I liked least about it was the see-through glass doors.  Sometimes I just want to hide our junk!   I wanted to make this mass produced piece of furniture uniquely ours, so I attacked it with my frosted glass spray paint.

I also added some bookshelves (also from Target) to each side to turn it into an entertainment center.  Isn't it amazing what a little bit of spray paint can do?  

Have a blessed day!

A Coffee Table Turned Bench

Doesn't it always seem that when you are looking for it you can NEVER find it, but if you aren't looking you seem to find it right away?  That is exactly what happened with this next project.  I have seriously been looking for a hutch for almost a year now, and have yet to find one.  It is on the top of my to-do list since I am really lacking in kitchen storage right now.  Somewhere on the bottom of my list was to find an old bench to reupholster for our master bedroom.  And wouldn't ya know it, the day after I put this on my list I found exactly what I was looking for.  It actually started out as a $4 coffee table from Goodwill.  

I realized the coffee table would be the perfect height, especially since I was planning on added a thick layer of padding.  After picked up the end table, I headed to JoAnn Fabric to get some more foam and batting like I did for my headboard.  I found this fabric....

online.  It is a lot lighter in person than on the website, but I like how it looks in the bedroom.  I followed the same steps as I did for my headboard where I cut...

Glued...

And stapled....

Until I ended up with this (excuse the messy bedroom!)

Then it sat like that for a couple weeks while I decided on a fabric and waited for it to come in the mail....

And then finally, one day, it came! 

I stapled the fabric on and ended up with....

This!  And I am a little annoyed that I had to make my bed, but anything for a good picture :).  Here is a better picture of the fabric I used...

Have a blessed day!

Fall Bucket List

Today I woke up to a dreary, rainy fall day.  Perfect day for homework, right?  Apparently not, because it is almost noon and I have barely started.  Creating a fall bucket list sounded much more appealing!  So here it is...

Notice how homework didn't quite make the cut?  Anyway, I created this little subway art in about five minutes at Wordle.  You can completely customize it, choosing your own font, colors, and a few different layouts.  I wanted all my words to be horizontal so I could easily cross them off, but it also does vertical.  Here is a couple little tips I learned from reading the FAQs:

• The more times a word appears, the bigger it will be.  I repeated "Fall Bucket List" three times so it would be the biggest phrase.
• If you want words to stay together as a phrase, replace the space with a ~.  It sounds confusing, but I created this list in Microsoft Word and was able to use the replace option and it replaced all spaces in two seconds instead of having to manually type in the ~ symbol.
• If you do not like the layout it automatically generates, click the randomize button on the button and you can scroll through different layouts until you find one you like.

It is a fun little activity to do next time you have a lot of homework to do and zero motivation are bored!

A Fall Adventure

I went on an adventure with Boston today.  Was it a good idea to walk through the grove to get to the wildlife preserve on the other side?

In case you can't tell, this is Boston's tale

No.

The cockleburs were THICK.  I think I ended up with more stuck to me than Boston and I was trying to avoid them!  After about 10 steps we gave up and went back.  Was it a better idea to walk AROUND the grove and through the field?

YES!  Minus the whole tripping over corn stalks, it was much more pleasant.

And very rewarding.  I found some lovely weeds to use somewhere for fall decorations.  I cut, Boston explored.  It made for a nice sleepy puppy the rest of the evening, which is a success in itself.

I picked off all the leaves to just leave the stem and flower and then tied the bunch together.  I wanted to do this project for free, so I searched the house for a pot I could use.  I really wanted something rustic, and the only thing I could find had a pumpkin face on it.  On the bright side, my harvest decor now doubles as Halloween decor.

I went ahead and removed the fake green branches that once occupied this space and replaced it with my free, fall themed decoration.

Have a blessed day!

Fall Wreath

Even though it is still incredibly hot outside, the signs of fall are all around.  However, there were absolutely no signs of fall inside my house.  I decided I needed to start with a wreath for my door.  It has been sitting empty all summer and was looking a little boring.  

I found this wreath at Goodwill a couple months ago.  I was planning on making a wreath all summer, but never got around to it.  For once, I was happy with my procrastination because it was perfect for my fall wreath.  I bought a $5 bunch of flowers and cut them off.  I then took the wire and wrapped it around the wreath.  It took less than 15 minutes and cost less than $10.

I'm feeling the fall spirit already!