Nothing rings in the holiday season like breaking out the hot glue gun! I usually make a wreath every year. I’ve mostly lived in areas where there were plenty of pine boughs to pilfer off the ground after a wind storm. With the ginormous Douglas Fir in our front yard it would be crazy to not use the tremendous amounts of debris it drops everywhere. This year it dropped a ton of pine cones and, after a big windstorm, plenty of pine boughs. Mike was kind enough to collect them for me as he was working to keep the front of our house looking tidy (kind of a constant job – thanks, honey!).

This year I have been trying to be aware of how much crap I seem to be accumulating. I love to wrap presents creatively so I often go a little overboard buying new paper and ribbon each year, but this year I decided to not buy anything and use what we have on hand which, turns out, is plenty. I decided the same rule should apply for the wreath making.

Last year I used some wire I had on hand to form the boughs into a circle form, but it was a little sloppy, frustrating, and way more time consuming than it needed to be. So I bent my rule a little bit and sprung for a grapevine form that cost all of six bucks. The ornaments were left over from a few years ago when I knew Mike and I would be traveling so it wasn’t practical to get a big tree, but I couldn’t bear not having a tree at all so I got a mini-table-top one. I think I paid $4.00 for them at a drugstore back then. The battery operated lights I use each year on my wreaths. So much easier than dealing with a chord! The steps aren’t rocket science. Clip the boughs to a length that seems right don’t skimp on the hot glue when attaching them to the grape-vine form, ditto on the pine cones you arrange on the wreath. Add the lights, attach the ornaments with the wire hooks, and make a bow out of some ribbon you have on hand (for me that was this cute red with green glitter polka-dots that has wire in it so it holds its form nicely that I had on hand). Pictures of the steps below. I have to say this might be my best homemade holiday wreath to date. I know I could have made a swag wreath and that wouldn’t have cost a thing, but I love the round shape a lot. Maybe next year I will do the swag instead. I’m really enjoying not buying things and using my creativity; much more satisfying!

We plan to have a Boxing Day this holiday too – like Canada – and try to really clean things out that we don’t need/aren’t using and giving it away for someone else to get some use out of it. Too much stuff! Sounds like the beginning of a new year’s resolution might be forming…

———-