Not quite a wreath reveal

I love going to Menards’ Christmas village. Well, I loved going by myself when I was younger and it reminded me of first seeing their commercials in college. It still has its moments now going with kids, but a lot of those moments involve trying to stop them from running around like crazy people, and convincing them to put very fragile things back very carefully. Our most recent trip was no different but it was still fun. 

I came home with five pieces of garland, among many, many other things. One 18” for $4 and four 9” for $4.50 each. Not bad. I was on the fence about getting that fifth piece, but the wife convinced me that extra would be better than having to make another trip. And still, even with a bow and a heavy duty outdoor 3M hook to put everything up we were still under 30 bucks for wreath materials. Not bad.

The cheap stuff was good for a bottom layer, stapled directly to the drywall. With two of the fuller garlands on this started to look pretty good, and I needed to switch to longer staples. I put the third on to round everything out, and although I could have crammed the fourth one on I think we can make better use of it somewhere else. But I was pretty pleased with how things filled out. 

Full enough, if a little asymmetrical.

The "red white and blue" theme was accidental.

With the bow on top and the extra ornaments I had around, this is actually pretty close to what I had in my head. A natural wreath of this size would be fuller but I don’t really want have to buy one each year, I’d rather make something artificial that can come back year after year. Part of the issue with a wreath of this size is keeping it wide enough to not look like a hula hoop, but thin enough that it’s still light enough to hang and keep its shape. I think I walked that line just about as closely as I could here. Now I just have to see if the 3M hook is up holding this, and I have a feeling I might have to put a longer wire on to hang it from. But for $30 I’ll take that.

A year later, a DIY wreath

Moving so close to last Christmas made for pretty hectic holidays. I kept staring at the listing photos of our soon-to-be house and wishing it would just hurry up and be ours already. At one point, going a little crazy, I started doodling on one of the outside photos, putting some Christmas decorations up. My favorite part was the idea of putting a huge wreath on the third garage door. But I hadn’t realized exactly how expensive something like that can run, and didn’t really have a plan for how to put one together myself. We moved in 6 days before Christmas and did what we could with decorating, but didn’t go all out. But I have spent a year wondering how I could put together a 4-foot wreath for this Christmas… 

So let’s put together a wreath, and do it without spending the money it looks like it would take to get a good 4-footer capable of matching up to the idea that’s in my head. That means at least starting with materials already on hand, and seeing how things work.

I'm good, but I'm not "free hand a perfect circle" good.

But my improvised compass worked beautifully.

I still have a pile of drywall around, and even better it’s already kind of green, so that seemed like as good a starting material as any. Taping a screw and a marker on a two-foot piece of scrap made for a halfway decent circle, which I managed to cut out pretty cleanly. It’s 4” wide, I hope that looks thick enough when everything is done. I attached some scrap 2x4 at points to either support places that looked like they were about to fold, or give it a backing to stick off the wall a bit. Ran some picture wire across two of those pieces and just like that, we have a starting point for our wreath. Plus, it continues my scrap materials streak since I’m still using stuff I had around.   

Cut out and supported.

That might help, a little.

It strikes me that drywall probably isn’t up to holding up to the elements over a Chicago winter, so we’ll see how things go. I taped the edges shut, at least, and I’m hoping the overhang above the garage door will give it some protection. A wire frame is probably better suited to a project like this, but only if you can find one in the size you want to work in. I could not, so I went with what I had.  

A test-hang overnight on the garage shelves worked fine, so I think we’re good to move on. If we can find the time, a quick trip to check out the Christmas village at Menards will hopefully yield some cheap options to cover this thing. Then I just have to figure out how to actually hang it over the door. Figuring things out as I go, just the way I like it.

Scrap picture frame easel

I seem to be in a groove when it comes to scrap projects. It’s good; the more I use the less I have to clean up on my days off. Today’s project was a small one, but it feels like one that could be useful in a couple of places.

Another casualty in our dropped moving box was a collage frame full of wedding pictures. None of the glass actually broke, but the 8-picture frame broke into a 6-picture frame and a smaller 2-picture frame. A little glue was enough to get it back together, but I haven’t put it back on the wall yet. Partly b/c I wasn’t sure it would hold, and partly b/c the cherry wood didn’t match anything else already up. So I thought some of the scrap I have sitting around would make a good easel to put this on a shelf somewhere.

All glue, all good.

That looks like a just about perfect fit.

Yup, that'll do.

This was another one of those things I kind of threw together haphazardly and things worked out. No nails, just glue, with only one cut to scrap I already had on-hand. That was for the piece on the top, I trimmed it to fit into the frame so it wouldn’t move. It seems more than sturdy enough to hold the frame up and keep it in place, which is great b/c these pictures have been looking for a home for almost a year now and this will help get them get one (once I stain this too, in case it’s visible wherever I end up putting them).