Winter Wreath

Christmas Ornament Recycling!

I love recycling. Turning something I don't need into something I love is just so efficient. My husband and I got married just after Thanksgiving. Our first Christmas together, we had no ornaments for our first little Christmas tree... Zip. Zilch. Nada. So we bought a few boxes of plain blue and silver ornaments. Plus I still had some plain ornaments left over from teaching... yeah, I was tired of packing them up and moving them around from place to place!!

Now that we have been married for just over 2 years, we have somehow accumulated A TON of ornaments. Part of that is because we buy a new ornament as a souvenir wherever we travel. They are much more meaningful and sentimental. So I was ecstatic when I saw all of the ornament wreath ideas floating around out there. I used every single one of my pointless ornaments to make this gorgeous wreath.

I started by taking a wire hanger and bending it into a circle and cutting off the hook part of the wire hanger. Get your husband to do that part. He can demonstrate his Herculean strength. At least that's what I did.

You know the metal ring part of the ornament ball? Well, to be sure that they don't break, I hot glued on each and every one. Yes, that meant more hot glue burns. I am so clumsy with that hot glue gun. For the record, I don't support K-Mart brand ornaments. As I was gluing the tops on, many of them were breaking. Very frustrating.

Then the fun part: I just strung the ornaments on the wire hanger, and they arranged themselves quite nicely. I wish I'd had just a few more to fill in a few gaps. I used almost 80 and could have used even more. Anyway, I twisted the hanger together, added a wire loop to hang it, spiced it up with a pretty bow, and that was it!

Now it hangs quite nicely on my orange door. I mean why WOULDN'T you have an orange front door?! The joys of apartment life! At any rate, I thought blue and silver were perfect colors for January, so I left this little beauty up. What do you think--too Christmasey? Nice and winterish? Until we figure it out and I get my Valentine's stuff in gear, we'll just let it hang out for a while...