Hoppin' down the bunny trail

Ahh, autumn. The days are cooler, greyer, and this morning there was even snow on the hills behind the house! The leaves on the trees are turning color from vibrant greens to a stunning array of golds and reds, making the hills glow as if they're on fire. And on those increasingly rare nights when we get a stunning sunset (since for the last week or so it's been hiding behind cloud cover), the effect is truly magical. Away go the shorts and tank tops, and out come fuzzy socks and cozy sweaters. Fall is also the time to decorate with pastels, baby lambs, and bunnies hiding eggs all over the countryside.

The holidays are quite confusing on this side of the equator.

I don't like autumn because it means the approach of winter. I really don't like winter. I do, however, love the autumn colors. Always have. Even living in San Diego where fall is like a slightly cooler version of summer...sometimes not even cooler at all! But I also have this innate need to decorate the house for the holidays. A need that was effectively instilled in me by my Mom (hi Mom!). So the problem is, to decorate for Easter while still celebrating the beautiful colors of autumn. 

 Today, I'm making a wreath for the door. I love wreaths! They can be so many different things, and always beautiful. Plus, they're pretty quick to put together. Since I'm having some people over tonight, I have to have time to do some cleaning. And since I only really clean when company's coming, it takes me a little while to find somewhere to hide all the junk organize.

The first task was getting a wreath form. I love the grapevine wreaths, but they seem to be in very short supply around here. I've tried making my own, and that wasn't too bad, but needs some serious practicing. I found a craft supply shop in Wellington that advertises the sort of wreath form I want, but sometimes getting into Wellington is a bit difficult for me.

Then I remembered an old wreath in the Christmas decorations. It really didn't go with any of our other decorations, and so had been squashed at the bottom of the box for a few years. Semi-intentionally, since I didn't want someone to find it and suggest putting it up.

The decorations were glued on with several pounds of hot glue. I pulled what I could off, then got out the hair dryer so that my hair would be sure to look it's best. Kidding, it always looks it's best. The hair dryer is actually a handy way to heat the old hot glue enough to soften it to aid in removal. A good trick if you ever glue something accidentally. Like a sheet of cardboard to the wooden floor. Oops.

So this is the wreath after I scraped it. You can tell there's still some glue on it. I didn't really care if all the glue came off since the intention is to re-decorate it. I just wanted to get most of it off .

 I have a weird fascination with fake flowers. I think it's because I kill every plant I try to take care of. You can't kill silk. Well, you probably could, but you'd have to try really hard.

Just for the record, I don't try to kill plants, I just forget about them. I have other things on my mind and if you don't cluck, bark, meow, or scream for attention, or food, I'm probably going to forget about you from time to time. I'm amazed the fish do as well as they do!

Anyway, the point is that I have a box of silk flowers that I've collected over the years. Some I bought at random places, some are left over from previous projects, and some were sent to me by my mom when I made my bridal bouquet... and actually fit into the second category since technically they're left over from a previous project. Whatever, I raided the box of flowers for this project and came up with a handful!

I then roughly positioned everything on the wreath until I was happy with how it was looking.

I found that little bunny in the pharmacy when I got Steve his antihistamine cream for his wasp sting this weekend. It was love at first sight. I didn't really need a stuffed bunny, but I needed him. I didn't even know what I was going to do with him. Turns out he's a great little addition to an autumn Easter wreath.

 The wires from the flowers are a bit long, so they need to be trimmed with wire cutters.

Think of it like hedge clippers for the crafter.

Then it's hot glue time! I always laugh at craft instructions that say to use extreme caution around hot glue guns. There was even one I saw that suggested having a bowl of cold water handy in case you get some of the glue on your skin. You're supposed to dunk the area in the water to stop the burn. Now, if you've got kids running around or using the gun, or incredibly sensitive skin, then precautions should be taken. Otherwise, it's not that big of a deal. As long as you're not actively trying to hot glue your body parts together, you should be fine. And, you almost always get glue on you. I've never met anyone who uses hot glue who doesn't, from time to time, get some glue on themselves. When you first start, it can sting a bit, but over time it's like you form an immunity to it. Although, I will say that getting the glue underneath a nail always stings a bit.




Not sure why a turtle. But it would totally work!

 Gluing stuffed animals onto wreaths is always challenging. They tend to flop around a lot which makes it easy for them to fall off. Not as big of an issue if the wreath is for yourself and you don't mind making repairs every time you put it up, but if you're planning to sell anything, quality goes a long way to repeat customers.

This is one of the thicker wires from the flowers that I trimmed. Basically, I wrapped it around the upper part of the bunny's leg, around the wreath, did a twisty tie maneuver, and hot glued the end down. Even though there is no glue on the bunny itself, he's on there quite solidly.

 And here's the wreath hanging on the front door ready to welcome visitors.

You can add all kinds of things to your wreath if you want to. Ribbons are a popular choice, and one that I really like. I didn't use ribbons on this wreath for 2 reasons: 1. I'm not great at ribbons, and 2. I didn't have any ribbon around the house that was in the color scheme, and the whole point of this was to use stuff I already had.

Happy Fallish Easter everyone!

Plus, sometimes less is more.




















Edited because apparently posts like to eat chocolate eggs and paragraphs.