Transition To Fall Wreath

Greetings friends!  Hope your weekend was enjoyable.  The weather was absolutely stunning this weekend.  I am ever so ready for some cooler days and fallish nights.  You can tell by the position of the sun that summer is waning.  It gets dark just a little earlier and the evening is just a bit cooler which tells us autumn is on the way.  For that, I can say hooray!  School is already in session even though a bit of summer remains.  Things are so different now, since we didn't go back to school until after Labor Day and that was the official end of summer.  It must be hard to know there are still warm summer days remaining when you could be swimming and biking and skating and playing to your hearts content instead of sitting in a classroom.  Yep, I'm showing my age.

The moment the last sky rocket faded in the closing ceremonies of the summer Olympics, I was ready to be done with my summer Americana theme.  I truly enjoyed having the red, white and blue decorations in and on the house, but it was time for a transition to fall.  For me, it's not quite time for pumpkins, gourds and colored leaves, but I wanted late summer colors that could transition to all the glorious colors of fall.  I happened upon some dark red silk hydrangeas at Old Time Pottery and I decided that would be my transition "base".  I didn't want to spend a lot of money for this wreath, so I found some sun flower bushes in yellows and oranges and some dark red poppy bushes at the Dollar Tree that would blend very nicely with the dark red hydrangeas.

There was a piece of natural colored burlap in my fabric stash left from another project that I used to wrap a 14 inch straw wreath.  I cut 2 inch wide strips and pinned the burlap to the wreath with greening pins, wrapping it around until the wreath was completely covered.

There were a bunch of fuzzy green carpals (the pods that fall off magnolia trees) under the magnolia tree that added a nice natural look to the arrangement.  All that "weedy" looking grass you see in the picture is actually from a piece of bamboo that had been growing in our daughter's yard.  They had cut some of the bamboo because it grows very rapidly and can become very invasive.  It was laying in a pile and I was very attracted to the weediness of the leaves, so I brought some home.  Those dried leaves were the perfect addition to my late summer wreath.  Don't overlook anything in your yard this time of year.  Most of it dries nicely and can be used for many projects and the cost is perfect - free!

I cut all the flower stems and arranged them as I wanted them on the wreath and proceeded to glue them down with hot glue.  The bow was made with remaining burlap strips.  Easy peasy.

As soon as it was finished, I hung it on the front porch.  Ahhhh, so refreshing to see something different.  Bye bye USA and Americana Star.  I enjoyed you for the summer, but it's time to move on.  Now, I am in the process of changing everything in the house a little at a time as I complete each project.  Wait until you see the next project.  I have to tell you, I am in love with it!  Hope you'll check back tomorrow.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Summer days driftin’ away-  
song Summer Nights, Grease