Burlap Hill Country Christmas Wreath Tutorial

We finally are having some cooler weather and it is beginning to feel like Christmas around here.

Today I'm finishing up some wreaths for a local customer.

These have been so much fun to make...  Want to make your own?  Here's how!

You'll need:
1 yd natural colored burlap
1/2 yard fabric for rosettes
floral wire with built in cutter
20" grapevine wreath

From the burlap cut across the full fabric 2 of each width: 7", 51/2", 4"
You will end up with 6 pieces total

Sew together one short end of each width pair....  ie  sew one end of the 7" piece to the other end of the 7" piece, etc

Lay the 7" piece on top of the grapevine wreath.  Begin to pleat fabric and pin in place, mimicking the round shape of the wreath.  Try to keep the pleats even, though you can just eyeball it.  I made the 7" piece with farther spaced and deeper pleats.  Make sure that your pin heads are all facing the inside of the wreath hole so that you can easily pull them out while you sew all the layers together (a few broken needles taught me that lesson!!!)

Once that is complete, continue with the 5 1/2" strip.  Pin on top of 7" piece with closer together pleats of a more shallow depth.  Upon completing, repeat with 4" strip.

Using a leather needle on your sewing machine, stitch the layers together and remove pins.

Using 12 to 15" strips of floral wire, floss the wire through the 2nd and third ruffle every 4 inches or so.  Place on wreath and wrap wire around wreath and then wrap ends together.

Thank you for ignoring the leaves from the grapevine wreath that got everywhere...  This is not the cleanest of projects, but your vacuum cleaner and you need the workout after all the goodies you've been munching on, right?!?!? ;)

To place your rosettes, use the floral wire and floss it through the hand stitching and then fasten through the burlap around the wreath.

I will give you a later tutorial on making the rosettes! ;)  Super easy and absolutely rich and scrumptious in this deep red!!!

I sooooo wish I had double doors like my customer, so that I could make a set of these for myself!  Merry Christmas from Texas and I hope you enjoy making your own Burlap Hill Country Christmas Wreath!

-Wendi

Busy Bee!

Busy. Busy. Busy.

I feel like a busy little bee these days.  How is Thanksgiving next week???

I made these pretty stockings for a custom order.  I made lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of rosettes....  by hand!  Do you know that making rosettes by hand can make you loopy?

They were so pretty, I pretended that they were real flowers and took pics of myself with them in my hair...  Where exactly can a grown woman wear a giant rosette in her hair(Hawaii?)???  If you figure out where I can wear it, let me know...  I am sooooooooooo in love with them!  

I made about a bazillion rosettes to see which color looked best...

So, I tried the different colors out and I think we are going with the white (though I love the tea stained for the customer's boys and the white for her girl). They are just too beautiful and I wish my pics really showed all their depth and beauty!

And these stockings are big...  I think the pics make them look small, but they are 9" wide at the top...  Room for lots of stuff!  If you want some for your family, message me on FB (http://www.facebook.com/LittleBrownCasita)

I am currently working on an advent calendar (a surprise for someone who reads this blog, so if is you, please pretend I am not writing this!!!).

 I have chicken in the crockpot and have only about an hour before the boys are home, so I better get back to it!  I am going to post a how to on the advent calendar, so stay tuned this week...
Buzz!  Buzz!

Have a great one!
-Wendi

Life is too short... to have a clean house! ; )

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth...

  Life has been happening and moving so fast there has been no time to BLOG about it!!! :)

 

I spent the day making these adorable double hand print spooky spider books with my son's kindergarten class...  It was super fun!

Would you like a tutorial of this?

Friday, was scarecrow decorating at the school and a half day for students.

We made this one for the kinder kids and they drew pictures for soldiers to be donated through Soldiers' Angels here in San Antonio (don't forget about our candy drive for soldiers coming up Wed 10/31 through Sat 11/3)

We had baseball on Saturday and the boys rocked it!  

Both guys hit two base hits each...  

This is huge, especially for my kindergartener!  

 

Until this game, he had only one base hit for the whole season...

We were beyond excited for him!!!  We also babysat guinea pigs!

On Sunday, the boys were in a kids triathlon.  

They had a blast in surprisingly great weather!

Can't wait until next year's Tri-to-be-spooky event!

2012 Tri-To-Be-Spooky

 

In the middle of all of this, I decided to start on a huge project!

I am turning our den into the kids playroom 

Den in original state

(it was mostly filled with their toys spilling over from the playroom anyway),

their playroom into my sewing room, 

and the sewing room/guest bedroom/"home for stuff that has no home" room

 into just a guest bedroom...

After clear out

Before - as toy room

Lots of trash bags have been involved.  And a big trip to Goodwill...  There may be a few more of those before this project is all said and done.

So, today I spent my morning working with 1st graders and vowel sounds and now I am back home blogging and figuring out what else I can squeeze in before I head back to school for parent-teacher conferences...  Hopefully a little sewing and maybe some (much dreaded) cleaning!

 Life is to short to have a clean house!!! ; )

Too Old

 

  I thought the ombre hair style could work for me...

So many celebrities pull it off!

I could be blondish, but not have to go so freaking often and shell out so much $$$...

I have always like to be trendy in hair fashion as well...

It could work.  

Right????

But.It.Didn't.

Damn it when you discover you are too OLD to be trendy anymore!!!

Like when my sister and I went into Charlotte Russe and like a time machine, we were transported back to the 1980's and that florescent, spandexy-knit stuff....  

 I almost ran screaming from the store and laughed the whole time at the ridiculous thought that someone thought all those awful trends it might look cool... again!

So, I've have been internally anguishing over my hair since going with this trend...  

I also have been searching for a hair person since we moved last year. 

And guess what, the stars aligned and my dear friend's hair girl opened her salon TODAY!!!

She is MY hair girl now!!!

This is the hair I was going for...

 

And this is what I got!

Very happy!!!

So what if I am too old to be trendy, right?!?!? ;)

You should absolutely go to see Dominique at her new salon, Glam and Tan,

next to Willies out I-10.  Call her to get an appt--> (210)698-7700.

Glitter

I have been working on Christmas Decor for the Stonewall Ranch Holiday Bazaar.

Stonewall Ranch Holiday Bazaar

Nov. 3rd

9AM to Noon

Stonewall Ranch Clubhouse

 34 Stonewall Bend, SA TX, 78256

Outdoor Christmas Stocking - $95

  Last night, I put together this beautiful stocking.  Today, I went to Michael's and found many beautiful pieces to place inside of the stocking...  I also found glitter or should I say it found me!

I am covered head to toe...

No, I am not sweating... that is glitter, my friends!

  

Can you see it way down there?  Glitter everywhere!

Makes me think about something my sister sent to me via Pinterest the other day...

Let's hope not! I'll let you know... ;)

I finished assembling the stocking and now I have some residual glitter all over my house...  The funny thing is, is the glitter is mostly from the items I tried out, but didn't purchase.  The Michael's guy told me I'd have glitter until Valentine's Day...  Is is Feb yet? ;)

Would you like to see a tutorial on how to make an outdoor stocking?

Let me know and I can put one together!

 Note to self: Also must get myself to a hair colorist... :)

Halloween Candy to Our Troops

Last week, our door bell rang which doesn't happen all that often in our house.  The boys excitedly ran to the door and we all opened it together to discover a big bucket of Halloween goodies and one of the boy's best friend's family dashing into their car.

  We'd been "Boo-ed!"

(Boo your neighborhood too!  - Get your free 'Boo-ed" printable from Grey Square Designs!)

 

Of course, the boys inhaled the candy and played with all of the goodies and then we planned who we were going to "Boo" to keep the fun going!  We made baskets and secretly passed them out to 4 houses and only got caught by one neighbor...  It was terribly fun!

And then this weekend, we got "Boo-ed" again!!!

And then Mom actually got a few mini-Snickers out of the bucket...

  

And thus the quest to find a home for the Halloween candy began!!!

Here are the boys decorating the house last night with spider webs that were in our "Boo-ed" package!

This year I am planning ahead so that Mom & Dad don't hide the boys' candy after Halloween (again) and eat it all themselves (again) and never again fit into our already snug clothes (again)!!!

So, I turned to Pinterest(my four addictions are: Halloween candy-well, okay... anything with sugar in it, sewing, burlap, and Pinterest!!!)

I found this... 

Halloween Bark Recipe from the Curvy Carrot

 Looks perfect! 

I'll make a batch for church or neighbors, but then I will want to sample some...

And I'll eat it all!!!

And then I start remembering reading something about donating Halloween candy to the military sometime ago...  I scoured the web and found Soldiers' Angels and Operation Gratitude.

Then I read this...

We received the following letter from a Marine:

 

“I live with 17 Marines and Sailors in one room. Everyone got a package and everyone loved it especially the cookies and beanie babies. The cookies are excellent and the beanie babies help us out a lot with the local kids. We give them candy and toys and they give us the location for IED’s. Once again, thank you for everything and for all the hard work that you put into the package. LCPL ND”

Your old Beanie Baby, Webkinz and Troll collections can save the lives of our heroes!
Please donate them to our cause–they will be priceless.

Game changer!!!  

Candy and toys saving lives of our heroes and reminding the soldiers we love and care about their well being... What a no brainer!!!

So this year while you are out trick-or-treating, if you live near us, stop by and we'll have several buckets for you to throw your donations into. 

If you don't have any goodies, consider a cash donation to Soldiers' Angels or Operation Gratitude

for them to ship their packages to the troops!!!

We will also have paper and crayons so that kiddos can make cards for troops to help the soldiers feel our love and support! 

You can also donate any day of the year, as the need is great and doesn't end when the holidays are done...

Here is a list of stuff Soldiers' Angels regularly need in care packages to the troops

If you are going to start a collection yourself, please send your items to the organization of your choice:

 

 Soldiers' Angels at one of three locations: 

Soldiers’ Angels, Six Months of Christmas, 5068 US HWY 64 East, Franklinville, NC 27248  

or 

Soldiers’ Angels, Six Months of Christmas,1792 E Washington Blvd,Pasadena, CA 91104

 or

Soldiers' Angels Texas, 4408 N. PanAm Expressway, San Antonio, TX 78218.

For Operation Gratitude, ship candy to 

Operation Gratitude/California Army National Guard, Halloween Candy, 17330 Victory Boulevard,
Van Nuys, CA 91406, Attn: Rich Hernandez
Phone: 262-674-7281 (262-OPGRAT-1)

Check with the organization through which you are sending the candy to be sure you are including all necessary information. Operation Gratitude, for instance, requires a completed donation form in each box of candy(Donation Form), while Soldiers' Angels asks you to include your name, address, phone number, and an itemized list of contents.

Many dentists in your area also participate in the Halloween Candy Buy Back program and they donate their candy to one of the groups.

 Learn more about Texas Soldiers Angelsand you can like Soldiers Angels on Facebook

 Learn more about Operation Gratitude  and you can like Operation Gratitude on Facebook

 

Have a Happy Halloween and God Bless the U.S.A. and don't forget to bring your candy donations by our house through Sat. Nov. 3rd.

 

 

 

Sunday Funday

Sunday fun day was FREE!!!

Milberger Landscaping and Nursery is a full service retail Nursery, and during the month of October, Milberger’s gets in the Halloween mood with their annual

Halloween BOO-TIQUE and Pumpkin Patch.

The grounds host a Pumpkin Patch, Monster Maze, Terror Train, Halloween Boo-tique and moon bounce. Kids of all ages are welcome to come enjoy the fun—for free!!  

We tried it all and had a blast!!!  We bought our pumpkins and mums and even got strawberries to plant in our garden(yes, we should have bought them and planted them in Sept here in South Texas, but such is life...)    

While we were there, I also go to ask a gardening question of Dr. Jerry Parsons, PLANTanswers.com and past Horticulture Extension Agent for Bexar County, Milton Glueck, Milberger's Gardening South Texas Radio Show producr and, Dr. Calvin Finch, Horticulturist and Director of Water Resources for SAWS on the Milberger's Gardening South Texas Radio Show.  Bad news for my squash... they said to let my squash go and not treat those nasty squash bugs this late in the season.  Boo!!!

Get out and have some free fun in the next few weeks...

 

Milberger’s annual Halloween BOO-TIQUE and Pumpkin Patch is open

 Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on 

Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through the month of October.

Milberger's Landscaping and Nursery

3920 N. Loop 1604 East

San Antonio, Texas 78247

(210) 497-3760