Decking the Door for Fall

Since we moved into this house late last fall, I never got to do anything special outside for the seasons. So this year I was all over the chance as soon as the first cool day hit.

I started by picking up two planters since I definitely wanted some beautiful fall mums. I found these on clearance for $5.00 each and thought they'd work. They were the right size, right price, wrong color.

Nothing that can't be remedied by my old friend, Spray Paint. I selected a nice brown color with a "hammered" look that was intended specifically for plastic.

It took two coats before they were ready to go, spraying both the outside and inside so no plant peekers could find out my dirty little secret. Then I got started on a new wreath.

I've seen a lot of yarn wreaths online and I kind of like them but they aren't really "me." I want them to be me but they just don't want to be me (does that make any sense? Probably not). I even went so far as to purchase the supplies hoping to convince myself I could love them ... but sadly, those supplies had to be returned. Who am I trying to kid?

Instead, I netted out with an inexpensive grapevine wreath ($3.50) as the base. I've seen some felt flowers online that I wanted to replicate but I opted to purchase a 1/4 yard of fleece instead. I thought it'd look a bit softer and cozier, plus at $.78 per 1/4 yard, it was reasonable.

I picked a chocolate brown, pretty wine color, and my new fall favorite, mustard. Love. Love. Love.

To begin, I took the strips of fleece and cut them into squares. The squares were then cut into circles and then the circles were cut into one long ring. Like this.

Then I plugged in my trusty hot glue gun and got to work. You start with the center of your ring and fold it over, gluing it in place to form the center of the flower. Then you basically keep wrapping and gluing it around itself to make your petals. A couple of these in a few different sizes and I had a nice, cozy bouquet.

I laid them out on the wreath, making a few more flowers of various sizes where I needed to fill space and when it looked about right, I gave them a generous blob of piping hot glue and stuck them in place.

Total wreath cost: $6.00

I really like it ... well I REALLY liked it until my husband called it my Harry Potter wreath. I just gave him the evil eye and ignored the comment. Ignored it until I was hanging it the next morning and noticed they were Gryffindor's colors. Drat! It IS a Harry Potter wreath! I love Harry, but ugh.

Too late now. Sooooo, I got my planters in place and filled them with some beautiful wine colored mums to play off the Gryffindor quidditch colors I selected.

And now I'm ready. Welcome fall, c'mon in!

P.S. I've since tried doing a wreath using felt (on sale 6/$1 this week so total cost w/ wreath: $4.50). Here's a photo of that one so you can see how it makes a tighter flower. I also added in some sparkly beads (bottom left). I like both flowers but personally preferred working with the fleece more.