Project Post: A Springtime Peacetime Wreath

Happy Spring! I guess it's officially spring but we've had such remarkably nice weather (even for here) all winter that I'm already feeling summery. Except that I still have pretty pasty legs.

So I had been wanting to make a peace sign wreath. I wanted it to be rustic and flowery and... peaceful.

There are a million ways you could make one, I'm sure. But here's what I did (and this is, I promise you, something any crafter or non-crafter could do):

Start with a cardboard base. I used the shoe box my husband's work boots came in (a pizza box would probably work well). Traced a circle, cut it out, wrapped tape around it to help stabilize it, painted it a few shades of green. Pretty elementary school-level crafting so far.

Then I added moss, which is probably the messiest part. Be prepared for that. For this project I used moss that comes on a roll held together with really thin wire (something like this); it comes pretty packed together so I had to stretch and arrange it a bit to "fluff" it. It was my biggest expense for this project and I think it was under $4, regular price. You could use a pack of loose moss as well but you'll probably need a lot more glue and time since basically every piece will need to be glued to your base as opposed to this moss ribbon which can be held on with a chunk of glue spaced around the wreath, does that make sense?

Next add layers of tree bark, I just broke mine off in small pieces. I also flipped the wreath over and added bark from the back of my base so that from the front it had a more three-dimensional look.

Not very pretty from the back, but who's looking?

I started layering on a ton of small and medium sticks I'd collected. Start with the big ones around the perimeter and to make the "structure" if you will, and then keep filling in with smaller ones. My trusty mini-glue gun was more than adequate for this. So far, still easy-peasy.

Almost done ---  I wrapped some jute twine around the whole thing to help keep everything in order, though really it's all that glue-gunning doing the work. I added the twine to the back to hang it from a hook or nail, too. Ok, and literally I almost forgot to tell you to add branches to the center to make it a peace sign. duh. This is pretty straightforward, the most difficult part was finding three sticks that created the shape I wanted and fit together, so just keep trying until it looks right. You might want to reserve a few of your longer, thicker, branch-ier sticks for this part so that you have more to work with, and you can always break them up to be shorter. Even though they're primarily held together by glue, I added more twine where they meet to keep that handmade look.  

You can see better here that the whole thing has a really layered, rustic look. It's imperfect.
I wanted it to have the feeling of something Maid Marian would have just
thrown together on a springtime afternoon in Sherwood Forest, #HowsThatForAVisual? 

Finally, add the finer details. I pulled individual buds and sprigs off of a few large stems from Dollar Tree and JoAnn's, just filling them in by working my way around the wreath. This may be the hardest step and it is still easy.

And that's it!

I have had this on our front door for about two months now and it has held up perfectly well. Granted we've had just one spring storm during that time, but you know, it experienced wind and rain. :) This was also a really inexpensive project; when you consider I used recycled cardboard, found sticks and bark, and already had the twine, glue gun and glue sticks on hand. If you needed to purchase supplies, I'd suggest searching for a Michael's or JoAnn's coupon to save a bit on the glue gun (the mini-size is usually under $5, I think), and I usually find glue sticks at the 99-cent or dollar store. I happened to find my flowers there as well although again, Michael's usually has a huge selection that go on sale, and you don't need many. I'm confident that you could make this wreath for under $15 or so.

So there's my Springtime Peacetime Wreath! What are you crafting to welcome Spring and/or get ready for Summer? Anyone working on some kind of wreath, or maybe fun Easter crafts? I feel like this is something you could use through the Easter season without it having eggs and bunnies on it --- I mean wasn't Jesus' mission to bring salvation and peace? :) Is everyone ready for Spring weather? I'm loving the 80-degrees days we've had off-and-on, can't lie :)

Happy Spring and Peace Be With You,

Easy Riders.

So E and I had been talking a lot about how nice it would be to take up bike riding. Not in a Lance Armstrong-way, just something that would be great to do on all the beautiful-weather days we have around here.

We figured the pros were:

1. It's healthy.
2. Once you get past the initial cost, it's relatively cheap (we have tons of bike paths near the beach and a really nice one at the lake literally  next door to our house).
3. It would be nice to start something as a couple that we can continue to enjoy later on as a family (I'm already picturing how cute he would be with a baby seat on the back or towing one of those kids' trailers).

There's probably others.

Anyways, since I had a few-years old beach cruiser still at my mom and dad's house (they upgraded my basket as a surprise and my brother so nicely gave it a tune-up-----THANK YOU!!!), I had decided I wanted to get him one for his birthday. After making sure we could afford it, I dropped a million hints when we saw cool bikes like "Hey, look at that cool one with the blue wheels." Honestly for as smart as he is he just does not pick up on little things like that, otherwise I'd have been worried he knew what was coming. :)

So I had a pretty good idea of what he'd want -- sleek and sporty -- and what we could manage, cost and maintenance-wise. As much as I try not to shop at WalMart because, stick it to the man, I ended up there looking at exactly what I had in mind. It was slightly on sale at the time so it was right in the range of what I wanted to spend and it had overall great reviews dating back a couple years (I read them all). From what I read from previous customers, it wasn't going to win you the Tour de France or do a good job of going up and down mountains, but was good for rides around the neighborhood or boardwalk -- perfect. They also said it was easy to assemble and to customize with various parts, if you so desired. And so with E still working during the week in LA for another couple weeks so I knew I could make it a surprise, I hit "order" and eagerly awaited the free warehouse-to-store pickup delivery.

When I went to pick it up, oh man. The box barely fit in the shopping cart. And because I was driving the old Corolla, I wasn't sure I'd get it home, either. But love conquers all and I wedged it into the backseat. :)

Also, I carried it down the block into our living room. It wasn't that it was excessively heavy, just that I couldn't get my arms all the way around it (for reference, see below). Should've planned better but that's how I live.

It came partially assembled, thank goodness, and I'm proud to say that I put the rest of it together myself. #IDidIt  Most of my assembly experience comes from Ikea furniture so this was a lesson in following directions written in actual words and not with little stick figure suggestions. Oh yeah, I dropped it on myself at one point and my entire leg was bruised but since I have a tendency to walk into furniture, doorways, etc. he didn't think this was weird, either.

before...

after!!!

Then I had to hide it. Even though E was gone during the week he was still home Friday night - Sunday afternoon and it was two weeks before his birthday. Amazingly, I got it into our closet. We have one of those shallow closets with sliding doors that runs the length of the wall and it is STUFFED because it's basically the only closet we have (#FirstWorldProblems), so I had to move the rolls of wrapping paper and our suitcase... and again, my darling thought nothing of the extra clutter in our room (and never opened that side of the closet since it mostly contains lesser-used things like winter coats, dressy clothes, and the aforementioned wrapping paper and suitcase.

The morning of his birthday he ran to the store for milk (thanks, babe!) and I quickly wrangled the bike back out so that it was right in front of the door when he walked back in. And he was surprised! It was so fun. I got a "WTF" out of him. He had nooooo idea that a bike had been hiding behind his khakis and a shoe rack.

How cute is he?
Also is that a shadow or giant stain on the side of the couch? :|

And so we ride! We've been to Mission Bay a few times now (the aforementioned miles of nice bike paths) and I've been riding around the lake quite a bit. And with summer coming I look forward to really taking advantage of being able to explore the beaches, neighborhoods, and other trails. The thing we're still trying to figure out is where to store them---I'd like to keep them covered on our patio but I've also looked at those cool wall-mounted racks. Any suggestions for keeping two bikes in a small-ish apartment?

What about you? Any avid cyclists or just weekend warriors? Anyone making a bike purchase any time soon? I can say that E really likes his, we did change out the seat to a wider, cruiser-style one because the original was waaay to narrow to be comfortable for anyone who has a butt, of any kind.

Happy Trails!