Fall Wreath 2013 and Wall Bunting

With the onset of Fall, I always seem to want to craft more.  Maybe because I love the season so much.  I don't know.

Either way, today - my day off - has been FULL of crafting.  And I feel so rejuvenated!

The first project to share, and the main inspiration for getting into the crafting mood is the wreath I made for our door.  I am LOVING it!

I loosely used this tutorial from Jones Design Company to make it, but I used a bigger wreath form and, consequently, more burlap.  I also had some floral pins on hand from my diy wedding bouquet that I used to class it up about around the ruffle on the front.

As for the little accoutrements, I made the burlap bow a while ago as a fun add-on to a purse.  I basically sewed black ribbon onto the burlap and then tied it into a bow.  And the "Happy Fall Y'all!" I made from a little piece of wood that I bought at Joanns.  I painted it red and then used orange and black paint pens for the letters.  The little bow/flower/thing on the edge is just a bunch of twine wrapped up and tied around the middle that I hot glued on.

The best part is that I made them with safety pins on the back so that I can take them off and re-use the wreath after fall!

So I'm definitely pleased with how it turned out!

And, while I was at it, I decided to make a bunting banner for above our tv.  The wall just bears so much empty space that I felt like it needed something to make it not seem empty.

It's definitely been a productive day, and I feel so accomplished and revitalized!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Fall Bucket List 2012

I was browsing blog land yesterday and ran across The Dainty Squid, who has the cutest nail tutorials by the way.  While browsing her posts, I noticed one she wrote about her goals for the fall.

And I was inspired to write a list of my own.

Fall Bucket List 2012

Convince Chewie to get a dog!

Enjoy a pumpkin latte over a good book

Carve a pumpkin with Chewie

Photograph the changing colors

Make at least one fall decoration

Finish knitting my green cowl

Get lost in a corn maze with Chewie

Bake something fall themed

Make dinner for Chewie some night

Start and finish "The Divine Mentor"

Bake treats for Chewie to share at work

Have a picnic with Chewie in the fall weather

Book our honeymoon cruise trip

Look through our wedding album with Chewie with a glass of our fave wine

Make a goal list for winter 2012!

So that's that.  They're mostly silly things that I just want to make sure I do.  It's more a list to remind me to enjoy the little things in life and savor each moment.

Happy fall-ing!

Fall Wreath Debut

When a crafting idea takes hold, I can't stop until I've seen it come to fruition.

Enter our new fall wreath!

I'm super excited about it and stayed up way too late to finish it.

I'll post a follow-up soon with a bit of a how-to (posting this from my iPhone and not sure how it will work out).

Enjoy!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changin'

The weather here in Western Washington has officially changed from mildly cold to borderline frigid.  Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but for the most part I'm not.  It got to be so cold yesterday that I pulled my winter clothes and accessories out of storage.  I'm pretty sure our highs are in the low 50s.

The best part, though, is that the colors are changing.  Green leaves become red, orange, yellow.  I'm sure I've talked about fall here before (or maybe not - I can't be sure and I'm too lazy to check), but I can't help but talk about it again.  I love fall.  I can't explain why it's my favorite season.  I don't have the words for it.

Maybe it's the weather changing from warm to chilly.  I like cold.  I would much rather be cold than hot.  Hot is definitely not for me.  And, to me, fall is when I get to begin feasting on "cold" activities.  Things like snuggling and reading a book while sipping a mug full of pumpkin spice latte all while sitting in an oversized chair by the fire.  I love things like bonfires and smores.  I love the coziness of fall.  It brings people together.  And I love fall festivities.  Hay rides.  Pumpkin patches.  Costumes.  Turkeys.  Warm chocolate chip cookies.  All of it.  It just enraptures me.

I also love the spiritual connections to fall.  Fall is a time of deadness to me.  Leaves change colors and soon fall off their sources, leaving their trees bare and vulnerable.  It's interesting how fast it happens, too.  Summer is usually so warm and lively, and then it's like we just make a sharp u-turn toward cold and dead.  And I realize this makes me sound crazy, that I actually like...deadness.

But it's not so much that I like it (the deadness) - it's that I can relate to it.

I've been there spiritually.  There have been times in my spiritual life that felt utterly dead, where I'm spiritually stripped to nothing and feel vulnerable with little-to-no activity.  Like the Holy Spirit isn't moving.  Don't get me wrong - I've certainly felt the glory of basking in the sun rays of how he's moving in my life.  But it always seems that the autumn of the heart is more vivid.  I always sense when Jesus is there, but what's hard is sensing he's there but feels like he isn't moving.  Does that make sense?  (Kind of like how the pang of loneliness is much more severe [at the time] than the joy of companionship.  What's worse is that the joy of companionship always makes the following times of loneliness even worse because you know what you're missing.)

It's like that in my spiritual autumn.  I have a harder time coping because I know what my spiritual life could  be like, what it has been.  I can remember just how sweet it was to feel the Spirit move in a way that was unmistakable, which makes the pain of - what seems to be inactivity - even more severe.

The beauty is, though, that it's just a season.  And what do seasons eventually do?  Change.

(Sidenote: A great resource for seasons of the soul is a book called "Spiritual Rhythm" by Mark Buchanan.  I will be reviewing it here soon.)