Happy New Year...and all that

Hello (possibly) faithful readers!

I am aware of how MIA I have been and I am thinking I am ready to get back in the saddle. I took a hiatus as I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my blog...a place for pictures, craft ideas, stories of my life, restaurant reviews, recipes, etc. So...I decided to just write about whatever I felt and go from there. Hopefully, it won't be too disjointed and all over the place!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! Ours was nice, we had visits with family and friends, ate lots of great food, were blessed with generosity from family and friends, and got to enjoy the lovely holiday decorations that our Christmas tree, stockings, and other holiday decor afforded us. There is something about a lit Christmas tree and lights in the window that is so pretty and peaceful.  Here are some pictures to recap our holiday experience:

Holiday Christmas card 2011

 Annual Eve of Christmas Eve Party 2011

Best gift of the morning--"Fart in a Can" purchased by my husband in the Dollar section of Target

 

My Mom, cousin and I all got the same cute brown scarf!

 

Christmas Doggie!

Too much fun!

Anticipating the gifts!

Ahh sisterly love...2 of my nieces.

Annual Christmas Gourmet Group 2011

 My cousin Brooke has been in town for an entire month!! She has recently moved from Los Angeles to New York and her new apartment wasn't going to be ready until mid-January, so as a result we got her from mid-December until tomorrow! Brooke and I our cousins, but are as close as sisters. We have been able to spend a lot of time together since she's been in RVA, and it as been great! My brother and I are planning a trip to visit her in a few weeks to drive the family Tahoe back to RVA. I'm sure I will have great pics and stories to share!

Brooke--smirking at me

 So....what have you all been up to for the last 8 months or so???


~Lexie

Wreath

Hello and Happy New Year, everyone! I apologize for being MIA! As you know our computer died--as in the blue screen of death--so I hadn't been able to do any blogging and it was tough because I had so much great stuff to blog about! Then I thought Santa saved the day by bringing me an iPad (which is AWESOME)! But, it not 100% compatible with blogger, yet, so I was delayed again!  But then, we got our computer back from the dead!!!  The cousin of a friend, who is super handy and knowledgeable about computers, came over and wiped the slate clean and installed the Linux operating system, so hopefully no more nasty viruses and no more blue screens of death.  So...onward with the blog about my fun wreath I made for Christmas!

Anyway, I've been wanting to post a blog about how I made my Christmas wreath--a little late for Christmas, but you could adapt it for Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, or an everyday wreath!

So, here is a picture of the finished project:

 I attached it to a "fake" green wreath to give it some "oomph" and I think it ended up quite nicely.

Here's how I made it:

 I started with Styrofoam balls, yarn, some fun colored balls, a wreath form, and some balls that I had in my Christmas container (I have a plethora of Christmas balls).
I didn't take pictures of wrapping the Styrofoam balls with yarn because I needed both hands, but I just wrapped and wrapped until I was satisfied and then I stopped wrapping :)

 Then I hot glued the bejeezus out of the ornaments and yarn balls--please the note the gobs of hot glue.

 I didn't have any rhyme or reason to placing them on there--except for putting the three yarn balls together--I just added them where I though it looked like it needed one or there was gap.

Then, I noticed you could see the wire and I didn't have the right size (small/tiny) balls to fill in the holes.  So...I decided to wrap yarn around the frame in order to hide the gaps. 

As you can see here, it was haphazard and let me tell you--it was time consuming!  I have learned from this and am passing my wisdom onto you--next time I make one I am going to wrap the frame in a wide ribbon first (or yarn) and then put the yarn balls and other accoutrement on.  I think that will work nicely and be really cute.

Here is it before I put the garland and wreath behind it--cute, but needing a little something...

 Looks pretty cute, huh?  I am thinking about making one for the spring, so will let you know how it turns out!

~Lexie


Some inspiration for my wreath came from:
Tatortots and Jello
Apartment TherapyThere are so many cute DIY wreath ideas out there--I can't wait for next Christmas to try more!