welcome fall {and a harvest wreath}

  I've been away half the summer and now it's fall.  Where has the time gone?!  Welcome Fall!  I love this time of the year...crisp cool air, leaves changing, but most of all being snug warmly inside our home.  And for some reason I enjoy our clocks being set back an hour.  I'm not to keen on it getting dark at 5:00 and I'm sure my children would rather be riding a bike or throwing a ball outside.  But I like our nights of doing homework and sharing a good children's book all snuggled up on the couch.  We have a little while until that happens.  I guess the weather changing always reminds me of that time of year.

Welcome Fall!

I have been in changing mood around our house; putting away summer clothing, getting out jeans and long sleeved shirts and displaying all my fall decor.  To start off the fall season, I will show you my front door wreath. 

If you have read about me in the past you know that I love making front door wreaths!  You can find some here, here, and here.  But for some strange reason I contemplated on buying an-already-made-fall-wreath.  Until I came across this picture on Martha Stewart.

I fell in love! 

Even the mirror that it's displayed on!  For my birthday, my handy husband is in the works of making one like it.  I kept bothering him and bothering him one weekend about making it for me.  By the chance it was around my birthday and he has agreed to make it for me.  Yippee!  I love the edge detail on top to display items over and in front of the mirror. 

If he were to read that last sentence he would probably say, "What's the point of having the mirror if you can't see yourself in it."  Well yes that's true but it sure looks nice and he can go ask Martha about that one.

Whenever it gets finished and it will, handy husband is good like that, I'll be sure to post pictures.

On to the wreath....

Here's the link from Martha Stewart for the detailed instructions.  I pretty much followed it... but here's my take on it.

I started with a straw 14" wreath, purchased dried corn stalks and U-pins.  I followed the instructions and soaked the corn stalks and folded and pinned.  After I had several rows like in the photo, I noticed the rows going crooked.  So I took them off and started with a single row in the inside of the wreath all the way around (so sorry I didn't take a picture).  That gave me a guideline in which to follow with the other outer rows. 

Here's the finished product and surprisingly it didn't take all that long.  But OMG my fingers hurt!  After soaking the corn stalks and then pushing the pins in with wet fingers, it hurt after the 100th time!

I added an orange 3" satin ribbon which adds a shot of color.

After the wreath was dried I hot glued some of the stalks down that were sticking up a little too much.

I love the texture it gives!  With this wreath against my black door, it really pops!

I was a little worried that the wreath would be squished between my front door and storm door and it would become brittle and crack.  But it hasn't not even a little.  These stalks are tough! 

I bought all my stalks at once at Amazon.  I really didn't know where to begin to look for them in town, plus nor did I have the time to explore.  I bought enough stalks with a little extra.   Acording to the directions it took 4-5 8oz bags.  Yes, the Martha Stewart wreath was bigger, but I didn't even finish one bag.  So needless-to-say I have quite a bit of stalks left over.  So I need to find another project out there using corn stalks.  I might go in a fill some of the empty spots...we'll see.

I already saw a different wreath that I possible might make for the month of October...a little more Halloween spooky.  Then I'll hang this back up in November. 

I have some many projects to write about or finish writing about (several in draft mode) and share.  I love this time of the year so plan on hearing from me a lot!

Thanks for stopping.

Bye for now!

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