Has it struck you that Christmas is coming whether we are ready for it or not? If you have been using the Christmas organizational tools I mentioned in this post, you might be more ready for Christmas than ever.
We began decorating our house this weekend. I always wait until December to put up the decorations because November just seems so "Autumn" to me. Something in my brain flips a switch when December hits and it suddenly seems like Christmas time. All the After-Thanksgiving hoopla doesn't seem to effect me like the calendar does. Silly me. One deviation from the December thing is my Christmas Shopping. I try to get most of that done before Thanksgiving, that way I am just finishing up in December and have time for the baking and crafts with the kids.
Anyway, I wanted to do something different with our fireplace mantle this year. Our mantle is pretty much a builder's afterthought. I think he had a small board leftover and said to himself, "Gee, I wonder where I could stick this...Oh, I know. I'll stick it to the rock wall on the fireplace. That way, whoever buys this house will always feel like they have a mantle even though it will never be wide enough to actually put anything on." Yep. That's what he did.
Did I mention our mantle is really narrow? And everything you ever saw on anyone's mantle that was cool is too wide for our mantle? Sigh... So this is what I came up with for our ultra-narrow mantle. I made a stick wreath and some trees. It's simple, but it's festive. And it fits.
If you want to make the wreath, I'll show you how. If you want to make the trees, a tutorial is on its way.
First, gather some sticks. Or send your teenage daughter out to do it. That's what I did. She knows where all the good sticks are. Your sticks need to be around 8 - 12 inches long. You will need a bunch.
Next, grab about 3 sticks and wrap with a little bit of floral wire. Grab another bunch of 3 and wire it on a little bit further up the first branch, and so on. Gently curve as you go. This isn't as hard as I'm making it sound.
Here is a close-up of several bunches wired together:
Keep adding and gently curving your way around:
When you get all the way around, just join the ends. Take a look at your wreath. If there are any areas that need more branches, just wire them in where you need them. If this were still Thanksgiving, you could be done. But it's Christmas. We need paint.
My colors are really innovative. For Christmas I use the shocking color combination of Red & Green. Shocking. Just shocking.
Pick your color. Maybe you are more innovative than I am.
You will need to spray multiple light coats on there in order to get all the nooks and crannies. I did mine outside in the dark. It still turned out.
I hung my wreath from the ceiling by using invisible line (think fishing line).
Here it is:
And it was practically free. I love free.
I'll tell you how I made my almost free trees next time....
