Holiday Wreath, MacGyver Style

Before I get to my wreath, I have to tell you what a fab time I had yesterday at Nester's Garland Shebang. It was so awesome to see how different people decorate. Also, it thrilled me beyond reason to watch my hit counter go up, up, up. I feel so popular! ;) Also, thanks to all who left comments. I tried to leave comments on most of the blogs I visited, but I have to say I HATE that verification thing, so I did refrain from commenting on many of those. Sorry.

Okay, onto the wreath. As you may (or may not) know our stuff has still not made it to our house. The last time I saw it was Oct. 14 as it was loaded into crates and sealed up for a voyage across the Atlantic. Here's a question: what would you do without your "stuff" for 2 months? I'm getting a bit stir crazy. I know it's just stuff, but it's my stuff and I want it. Not having it is severely cramping my crafting. Oh, and here's something interesting. Yesterday, I called the inbound shipping office to see if they had any news on when it would arrive. Guess what? It's been in country for almost a month! A month! They just forgot to contact us. I was so mad I nearly jumped through the phone to smack the lady I was talking to, who thought it was all somehow amusing. Whatever. It's here and it's being delivered next Thursday. I cannot wait!

So, since I did not have my stuff (grrrrrrr!) I did have to buy some things to decorate for the holidays. I bought garland, ribbon, berries and my super cool (and on sale!) IKEA ornaments. When I was done I thought the door was pretty, but somehow missing something. It needed a wreath! I was not about to buy another one, so I decided to make one. But what to use? Also, there's no Hobby Lobby or Michael's or anything like that over here (I fear Nester would not survive), so I couldn't just dash over to my local craft shop for supplies. They do of course craft over here, but their selection is rather limited. How do German people decorate? Curious.

I looked around at the scraps I had scattered on the floor in the house and a plan began to form. I think I might have looked something like the Grinch when he was planning his first trip to Whoville, but I'm not sure. I had a coat hanger from getting M's jacket cleaned so I decided to start there. After seeing that movie about Joan Crawford, I generally try to avoid wire hangers, but the dry cleaners don't care, which in this case was a good thing. I was going to twist it into a circle, but thought "Mom in High Heels (that's totally what I call myself in my head), why just a circle? That's so last year. Why not something awesome? But what?"After pondering this for a few minutes it finally came to me! I would make our monogram! How though? HOW? HOW Mom in High Heels? HOW???? As I looked at the various scraps, I suddenly thought, WWMD? That's What Would MacGyver Do, in case you didn't know. As I pondered this, RDA's (that Richard Dean Anderson who played MacGyver for those of you not on an initials only basis with him like I am) face flashed in front of me . I picked up various doodads and scraps and then, boom, just like MacGyver trying to get out of a locked room on the verge of being crushed by a crane I knew what to do! I think I may have even hummed the theme song, but I'm not sure.

First I opened the wire hanger and used two of the wire stems I had stripped the berries off of and used them to create my base. Not bad, huh? RDA would be proud.



It was good, but not sturdy enough so I rooted around for something, anything to make it stronger. I found.....a roll of painters tape, a stick Indy had dragged inside for whatever reason, and some cardboard that had been in the box of Christmas lights. Oh yeah! I broke the stick to a length of the long side of the 'B' and the center of it as well. I taped them in place and then cut strips of cardboard to go around the curves (taping them down too) and then began to wrap, wrap, wrap the entire thing with tape.



Here's a close up of the cardboard covered curve. Ohhhh, onomatopoeia!


And completely covered with tape. Seriously, I used almost the entire roll.


I took some left over garland (maybe 4 feet long) and began wrapping it around the base. I had a roll of floral wire and used it to hold the garland in place.


Some leftover ornaments, berries a few pine cones and voila! One monogram wreath. I'm sure I can hear RDA applauding somewhere!


Oh, I also had about a foot and a half of garland left so I put it around our hideous dining light fixture and hung a few ornaments and crystals from it. HUGE improvement.