Ornament Wreath

This year I was determined to make an ornament wreath but wanted a reason to do it (just wanting one for our house wasn't a good enough reason!).  So when my Secret Santa listed that they wanted something "pretty to hang on a door for the holidays" I jumped at the chance to make one.  I scoured Pinterest for tutorials and armed with my hot glue gun set out to make something pretty. 

Here is what I learned - you need way more ornaments that you think you need, you will spend way too long in the craft store ornament aisle trying to come up with a color scheme, you will get hot glue everywhere, and it will turn out great! 

Step 1 - Select Your Colors
For my color scheme I finally settled on dark jewel tones - purple, blue, green, red and gold.  I ended up finding a box of mixed ornaments in that pallet that I loved and used it as inspiration to find the bulbs that matched. 

Step 2 - Purchase Ornaments, Filler, and the Wreath Ring
Buy more than you think you will need, vary the textures and vary the sizes.  Also a good idea to pick up some wreath filler like sprigs of holly, glittered beads, etc. to help fill in the gaps. When selecting the wreath ring, remember that the bigger the ring the more ornaments you will need to fill it up.  I chose a styrofoam ring, but I saw other tutorials that used wooden rings and even wicker rings.

Step 3 - Remove the Tops & Start Gluing 
Remove all the tops of the ornaments and start with the middle of the wreath.  Glue the ornaments in place and then do the same for the outside of the ring.  Once that's done, flip over your wreath and start gluing in the bulbs to fill in the space. 

 

Here's how mine turned out! 

Victorian Christmas

Jeff and I have this routine where after a day of doing something for the kids that one or both of us didn’t really enjoy one of us says, “Did you have fun?” and the other responds with, “the kids had fun.”  And that is our very diplomatic way of saying that while we wouldn’t really list that as a top ten day, the kids had fun therefore it was worth it.  This routine played out on Sunday after a day spent at Victorian Christmas in Nevada City. 

I didn’t really know what to expect, but visions of casually strolling through adorably decorated Victorian era streets were quickly dashed when I saw the crushing crowds, the porta potties, and the icy streets.  It was not exactly what I had expected and it was one of those activities that you think could’ve been fun if you and hubby went alone, but not so much when you are constantly freaking out that you are going to lose a kid in the sea of people.  Throw in my inability to enjoy things like hot buttered rum and warm mulled wine since I am six months pregnant, add in a dash of baby on the bladder and no decent bathrooms in sight, and you don’t exactly have a top ten day. 

However, the kids had a blast.  Not because of the giant pretzel they got to eat, or the chocolates we got them, or the toy flare copters they got – nope, they had a blast because there was snow on the ground.  We weren’t dressed for snow, didn’t really expect that much snow, but they are kids and to them snow is magical and amazing! They were so excited about the snow they could barely contain themselves.  Joey said he, “gets energy just from looking at snow” and Emmie didn’t care that her sparkly red flats weren’t built for trudging through snow banks one bit! They probably played in the snow a total of 10 minutes throughout the whole day and yet they had, “the best day ever!” 

So at the end of the day, the kids had fun, and that really is all that matters. 

 

 And, this over the top cuteness happened while we were there and these pics will always be something we treasure - so again, all worth it!