Diversion

I don't always focus well, especially when my feet are held to the fire by deadlines, and often get distracted by other "more exciting" things. Yesterday afternoon and this morning, when I should have been cleaning my house and preparing for tomorrow, or sewing pillowcases and photographing them for this weekends sale in the shop, I started something new to go above my mantel...



The inspiration and directions came from this tutorial. The pine cones, from the neighborhood park the kids and I went to for playgroup when they were off school. While they played, I picked 1/2 a brown paper grocery sack full. It wasn't quite enough, so GR picked more for me this morning after purchasing our new dishwasher* and I was able to finish it up after lunch.

The directions say to use a Styrofoam wreath form. Styrofoam wasn't on sale when I went to purchase a wreath, and I wasn't willing to pay $7 for a small wreath form when a larger straw wreath (~14" in diameter) was 1/2 off, costing a grand total of $1.80. I wrapping the straw wreath in brown calico from the gifted-to-me, box of vintage fabric, securing it to the form with lots of straight pins. It worked like a charm, and means I can return the $4 can of brown spray paint.



I love the way it turned out, even though it isn't as nicely staged as hers. Mine really needs some stylizing help ... Sara I so wish you lived next door! Maybe when I get the nativity up and some greens on the mantel it will help anchor and define the space ... who knows.

If you have access to pine cones and like this look, it would make a fantastic handmade gift. Just make sure you have lots of similarly sized small pine cones, a hefty supply of hot glue and block out a good 3 hours to glue all these puppy on - or choose a slightly smaller wreath.

[* We finally gave up on the old dishwasher. I know after all that waiting and heartache, we finally decided to walk away and sever our ties. GR was completely fed up; he's the family dishwasher. Same problem, dishes, especially glasses on the top rack, coming out in worse condition than going in. Sears had some good pre-Black Friday sales and we found a good middle ground dishwasher made by Bosch, that will suite our needs and be one more added "feature" to the house when we go to sell in February.]