I had such a lovely weekend. I don't use that word often--lovely--but it's lovely to use every once in a while when there's good use for it. Don't you think? It's amazing what a few extra hours of good sleep and a fist full of midol can do for the human spirit.
Saturday night was book club night. I've been a part of my book club for over a year now and I so look forward to it every single month. We're not a huge group, with a total of eight ladies, and there are often stragglers who don't always show up. But out of the eight, there is about a solid five of us who regularly show up and stay pretty dedicated to actually reading the entire book chosen. If you recall, this past month's book was The Last Days of Dogtown, which was set in Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Keeping within the style of the book, our hostess Patti, served a deliciously creamy New England clam chowder along with some other warm goodies like bacon wrapped sweet potatoes. Foodgasm doesn't even begin to cover it...
There is no rule that the food served has to coincide with the book. If the hostess doesn't feel like cooking, she's perfectly welcome to order pizza, if that tickles her fancy. But it can provide a fun sense of whimsy when the menu falls into a theme. I suppose it all comes down to the book chosen. Either way, I had a fantastic time not only discussing the book but yuckin' it up with the gals. The weather in Florida is slowly starting to take a turn for the cooler, so it was a nice change to sit outside on the deck in the evening. The food was glowing and the wine was flowing, and a good time was had by all.
I'm especially curious as to what will be on next month's menu considering, in honor of October, the original Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was chosen. Frankfurter's perhaps?
Sunday I had a load of fun. We headed over to David's parents' house, Nella included. Nella is incredibly easy to please. All we have to do is ask her if she wants to go to Grammy and PawPaw's house and she goes absolutely berserk. I'm not sure if it's going to Grammy's house that's so exciting or if it's just the fact that she gets to ride somewhere in the car with us, but either way, she's a slap-happy dog when we ask her. John and Judy, my in-laws, have NFL ticket on their television, which we don't, so we spend a lot of time at their house on Sundays during football season.
I had other plans in mind besides watching football. I'd mentioned to Judy about a month ago that I really wanted to make an autumn wreath for my front door. I could just as easily buy one, especially since there are so many beautiful wreaths available in stores right now, but the last thing I need to do right now is spend $40 on a wreath when I can just as easily make one for a lot cheaper. Judy is a very crafty woman and has loads of this and that at her disposal. A few weeks back she handed me all sorts of artificial foliage, flowers, and ribbon to keep, which was a huge helper. I've had a pretty clear idea of what I envisioned for the wreath, and what she handed me fit perfectly for what I had in mind.
While the lads watched the Steelers pummel Seattle, Judy and I got to work. This is what I had all together to begin with.
I bought a wreath last weekend at the flea market for a mere $5.00 that was covered in some old hideous ribbon and wooden hearts. We cut all of that junk off of it only to discover that without the ribbon, the wreath wasn't staying together very well. I had decided against using ribbon at all on the wreath--no bows allowed--but it came in handy after all. I suggested wrapping it around the wreath to hold its shape, which most definitely helped. Once covered in leaves, if a little ribbon happened to show through, oh well. I'd live. We nixed certain flowers and pieces from the box. I decided against the sunflowers because they remind me too much of summer, not fall. So it was narrowed down to this...
(No matter what I do I cannot get this picture to upload horizontally!)Some of the strands of leaves had little pumpkins and berries attached to them, which I loved. I wasn't sure how the little squashes would fit in, so we worried about those last. Once we overlapped all the leaves and glued-gunned the wreath to death, it all came together. We only added two of the squashes--the bright green ones--for just a little pop of a different color to mix in with all the orange, red, and yellow. And the result was simply lovely...
I am beyond pleased with how it turned out! This was exactly how I imagined it in my head and was astounded that it actually came out even more beautiful than I imagined it. My mother-in-law is a crafting genius! It's even nicer and more well-put-together than some of the ones I saw in stores, if I do say so myself. It's going to look magnificent hanging on my black front door.
I had so much fun with this project that I want to make a wreath for every season now. I already own a Christmas wreath, but I'm thinking a wreath for spring and one for summer could be in order. For spring, I'm seeing blue and green hydrangeas with touches of crisp white. For summer, maybe sunflowers, daisies, and violets. I love flowers and I adore color, so these could be right up my alley. Viva les crafts!
Do any of you have any crafty ideas up your sleeves?
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