Anyway, when I last wrote, my husband was gone and I was missing him something fierce. Well since then, he has returned and, ironically, left again. Ha! Only for a couple of days this time, but I still miss him. I never sleep well when he's away and I find myself staying up waaaay too late. Does this happen to you?
Well, things in our house have been eventful over the past four months. We've had quite a summer here in So. Cal. We were blessed with a ton of visitors over the summer and even extending into the fall. My sweet MIL just left last week and we're expecting another family member next month.
Probably the biggest change to our lives, however, has been our sweet Trinilynn starting school. As most of you know, we homeschooled for Kindergarten. While that was an amazing experience and one that I'm glad we did, in the end it wasn't a great fit for my social butterfly. She longed to be in a "real" classroom and interact with other kids and as she put it, "...see things in real life." She began First grade at our local public elementary school and let me just say...she is thriving!! She LOVES school and it is never hard to get her up in the morning. She has made great friends and I have {mostly} been impressed with her teacher (is a protective mama ever 100% satisfied?!)
Wow...she's growing up right before my eyes. I've been so aware these past few months just how grown up she's becoming. She's learning and experiencing so much... it makes me sad and so proud and just so unbelievably humbled all at once. My first born, my baby girl... becoming such a beautiful young lady.
So, I promised a new wreath didn't I? Well, lets get to it before I melt into a puddle of tears over my daughter's impending womanhood. :)
This wreath was ridiculously simple. I took inspiration from two sources. The first was an idea from Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous. I simply wrapped a straw wreath form with strips of burlap to create a "base" that can be used over and over again whenever a new wreath idea hits. Perfect!
The second place I copied exactly drew inspiration from was this wreath by Kellie at Nest of Posies. The moment I saw this wreath, I knew I would be making one for my front door this year!
Unlike Kellie, I didn't have a die to cut my leaves from, so I just did it the old fashioned way by printing a leaf template, tracing onto my felt and cutting them out by hand. I did, however, follow her lead and I too, hand-stiched the leaf veins for extra dimension. I truly believe that simple, albeit time consuming, step is what makes this wreath! After that I simply laid out my leaves onto my wreath form until I liked it and pinned them into place with straight pins, ensuring to hide the pins as I went. By the way, using pins is what makes your burlap wreath base reusable. Perfect, so you're not storing a bajillion wreaths and you're saving money to boot!
I have to admit that I do like Kellie's version better, but I'm pretty darn happy with mine too. She wrapped her wreath with yarn, which I adore, but I opted not to since my prior wreath was yarn-wrapped and I was wanting something a little different.
You know what this wreath reminds me of? The indian "head dresses" we all made in elementary school. You know the ones...the strip of brown paper bag with three or four construction paper feathers.
Fitting, I'd say. :)
Blessing,
Courtney
I can't believe how she is growing up so fast. Seems like yesterday her and Kaylee were just babies. :(
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