Daughter, Wife, Mom, Teacher: Not Martha Stewar

Before I begin, I just want to thank the surprising number of you who left comments, sent me personal emails, and contacted me on facebook over the past week. I'm not going to get into it tonight; suffice it to say, it's been a tough start to the school year.

More on that another day though.

You are all such blessings in my life.

And now on to the Non-Martha Stewart me.
Tonight all you get is fluff.

I'm not fall crazy like so many people. I know why, it's because fall is followed by winter, and I hate to be cold. Winter here seems to go on forever, and I endeavor not to whine about it, but have I told you I hate to be cold?

However, in effort to be more optimistic and embrace the coldish season that leads to the longest and coldest season, I've been considering ways to celebrate fall. Truth? It was easy to actually ignore fall until this week when the temps turned from the 70s on Wednesday to a balmy 30 yesterday morning. Wednesday night we were bringing flowers inside to keep them from perishing when that 30 smacked us.

Just last weekend I had told Brad, "I'm not going to do any fall decorating until October 1." He pointed out that would leave us little time to enjoy the season, so I acquiesced, and during my bloggy break, I started bringing fall in and I made this wreath.

     I had seen some I liked on etsy, but they were priced over $25, and that just seemed ridiculous to me. Looking on-line I found lots of tutorials, even one on my stepdaughter-in-law's blog. Easy stuff for this non-crafty girl. I spent less than ten dollars on this one (thank you dollar store ribbon and Michael's coupons and teacher discount.) It only took a few evenings, a little bit at a time, the perfect project as it required no thinking. I was thought out by the time I made it home each night.
     (No tutorial here, it doesn't really require one, but I did use a skein and a half of cheapo yarn, it just was too thin with only one. And it looks a little uneven because, as it turns out, the wreath itself was far from even. Like fine crystal, it has it flaws. That's how you know it's handmade!)
      Brad likes it, and I think it looks okay. I do love that the felt for the leaves was made from recycled soda pop bottles! Green crafting.
     I may hang it here instead...

What do you think? There's no point in hanging it on our front door. No one, not even us, uses that door. Selfishly, I want to see it!
And if you're impressed by that craftiness, hold on, and take a gander at these: