The Fickle Hobbyist

Archive for May, 2010

So I had some leftover floral greenery from the BD Topiary Knockoffs that I made and I wanted to use it for something.  I’ve seen a ton of adorable wreaths around and knew that I wanted to make one for our place that featured our monogram on it.  Seeing as I had everything I needed, it seemed like the perfect time to put it all together.  I decided to whip this little cutie up.

I didn’t make a tutorial for it, but I can walk you through what I did.  It’s really simple actually.

I started with another Dollar Tree foam wreath, hot glue, and the boxwood greenery.  I pulled off the leaf sections and hot glued about four at a time all lying down and  facing one direction.  Moving around the wreath, I overlapped rows of leaves continuing to glue four at a time.  When I had made my way around the front of the wreath, I continued this process on the outside and the inside.

I decided I wanted to add a touch of color, so I picked up some of these little pink flowers.  I hot glued them where I wanted them until I liked the outcome.

Also, because it looked a bit fluffy and I wanted it a bit tighter, I used a really small ribbon and wrapped widely around the wreath to tame in the leaves and bring them together more densely and then hot glued it.  To hang it, I didn’t have any black ribbon but I found some black blanket binding and wrapped it around the wreath and hot glued.  Then I tied a knot in it and just shut the cabinet on it to hold it there.

Obviously somewhere in there I painted an H white and hot glued it to the wreath as well.

This was a super easy project and I think it’s adorable.  I might pick up a bigger wreath and do the same thing for the front door like I’ve seen so many times on other blogs.  I love the way it looks!

What do you think?  Do you think this is an easy enough project to take on?  I know we’ve got all different levels of crafters here.  I’d love to hear your input!

-Autumn

After we visited the strawberry patch a while back, it sparked the desire to go back to this little orchard I had visited two years ago.  It’s a small little orchard but has a TON of stuff.  They grow apples, peaches, blackberries, tomatoes, squash, and a bunch of other delicious veggies and fruits.

I found out that they had a Facebook page, so I made sure to add it so I could find out when the blackberries were ready.  The only thing was, the place is about an hour away, and they aren’t big enough to be open every single day.  Typically just Wednesdays after work at 6, and Saturdays.  However, I couldn’t put it off any longer, so we made our way over today.

I knew I wanted to get a bunch of blackberries so I can make my grandma’s cobbler.  Plus, I want to make jam and freeze some berries for desserts later in the year.  (last time I seal-a-mealed a bunch and then Ike came through and we lost them all when the power went out.  boo!)  We ended up leaving with two buckets full which was about 10 pounds.  I can’t wait to get to them tomorrow!

There were plenty of ripe berries, but I was shocked by the amount that were still waiting to ripen!  There were SO many!  They produce a large crop at this little place.

Typically it’s hard to keep the berries out of the kids’ mouths as they pick, but because they had just sprayed (organic) for bugs, we decided not to partake.  Abby was really anxious, though!

We met up with some friends who also picked with us.  I love that the kids like to do this type of thing.

The peaches were still a little hard, so we decided we’d come back for another round in a little while.  I know the hubby will love to hear that I’ve got a bunch of farm fresh peaches to make him HIS favorite, peach cobbler.

What I love about this place is that it is so quaint.  The people who own and run it are really sweet.  (they even had bug spray there for us!  lol  It’s the little things)  They have a pretty sizable herb garden behind their house that they are so kind to share with patrons free of charge.  (but be a dear and tip them.)  Look at this beauty I found blooming in their herb garden.  Have you ever even seen one bloom???  Such restraint.  I’d have eaten that sucker a week ago.

Do you have a local farm or orchard near you?  Don’t you just love the fresh, in season produce you can find during the summer?  It’s one of my favorite things about this time of year.  I can’t wait to make some cobbler tomorrow…

-Autumn

I really wanted to update today, I really did.  I realize my updates have been sparse and I hate that.  It was really my intention to post as frequently as I had been.  Today, however, I just couldn’t must the energy to put together a lively post.

I got news from my MIL today that my husband’s grandfather passed away.  Again, it wasn’t a huge surprise as he had been in hospice care for a week or two, but I know his family didn’t really get the preparation that ours did with a year and a half cancer battle.  I’m feeling really not so positive today.

I promise I’ll be back to my normal self soon.

-Autumn