#25: Christmas Wreath

This 40x40 experience is a little diferent than the others I’ve written about. I’m sure many of my friends are wondering what the big deal is about making a Christmas wreath, but for me it is absolutely a new experience. While I love seeing cute holiday craft ideas on Pinterest and I’ve always enjoyed festive decorations at people’s homes, I would not typically try to recreate something myself. Honestly, in the past I would either spend more money than I should to buy something similar or would simply be ok admiring from afar.

I decided this year would be different, so on a recent rainy Saturday I headed to Hobby Lobby with my two daughters with the idea that by the end of the day we would have a festive wreath on our front door. We started at the pre-made wreaths and almost snatched up a super cute whimsical one for only $95 (which seemed like a steal since it was originally $189.99 before the 50% discount), but we remembered our DIY intentions and headed to the holiday craft aisles.

It took about 30 minutes of dodging carts from some very serious crafters and trying to find just the right elements that all three of us cound agree on (well, Maya and I, really, as Luca was just patiently waiting to head to the Frozen-licensed section) to fill our cart with the makings for a perfect wreath. And all together, the total was just under $60. That’s $35 less than the pre-made one we considered purchasing!

We’re not crafters, so we struggled a bit when we got home to make everything fit just right. In full transperancy, we couldn’t find our hot glue gun (I think we have one), so all decorations were affixed with bobby pins, but it seemed to work and we were proud to hang our creation on the door. And, if the bobby pins hold up, we will hang this wreath on our door for years to come.

Experience #25 was an adventure in creativity. Only 15 more to go!