A Spring Wreath

About a month ago, before the yard-work madness was a glimmer on the horizon, there was a bush. Mind you, this was no ordinary bush. It stood about 4-5 feet tall and had long delicate branches that all grew from it's base. The branches were a reddish brown color and were rather flexible when the wind whipped through our yard. Alas, there was one very important thing about the bush it that distinguished it from ever other bush in our entire yard.

It was planted right smack dab where we were planning to put the garden boxes. **gasp**

Something had to be done.

I looked through all of the tree/plant/shrubbery tags the previous owner has thoughtfully left for us. I had hopes of identifying if it were of a rare, precious variety of shrub in need of my rescuing. Despite my best efforts, helped none by the fact that winter was still upon us and no leaf would yield any identification, I began to dig it up.

I dug and I dug. My husband watched in amusement from the other side of the yard. I could tell he thought my efforts were in vain, but not to be outdone, I continued in great attempt to save the shrubbery for transplanting. It would have a life elsewhere. I was determined because deep down I felt convinced that it was a beautiful shrub; just waiting for spring to reveal it's splendor. Well folks...much to my chagrin, and my hubby's prediction (how is he most usually/always right?!), the bush was simply too big, and it's taproot too deep to transplant. With a great heave, I ended it's life with a thrust of my sharp-shooter shovel to the taproot and yanked it from the ground. Having an inkling that there might be something still to be done with the bush, I dragged it around to the side of the house to sit and think about it's life for a while.

The spot in the ground now being vacant, the garden boxes were moved in and filled with dirt, awaiting spring planting. With the spring season approaching, I had been wanting to put a spring-ish wreath on our front door to welcome the changing season. After looking up wreath decorations online, an idea crept over me. I was in need of a wreath to decorate, and I had lovely slender branches hanging out on the side of the house...what was stopping me from making a wreath?!

I pulled out my lovely pair for pruning shears (purchased for me by my amazing husband), and went at the branches with a vengeance. We'd had a rainstorm the day before so the branches were soft and came off pretty easily. Before I knew it, I had a hefty pile to fashion into my wreath.



With a spot on the floor in the sunroom, and a record on the player, I jumped in. Taking a hanger I'd molded into a circle, I used twine to secure a few big branches to the hanger then began wrapping the rest of those babies around and around. And around and around. And around and around and around....and well, you get the idea.



Basically, for this project, I had to get in touch with my inner mother-bird. I didn't know I had an inner mother-bird before this moment. It's quite true. It kind of emerged once the base branches were wrapped and then something just clicked. I started weaving branches in and out like the cold winds were on their way and my baby birds needed shelter asap! Once the wreath was to my preferred thickness, I collapsed amidst my pile of twigs. *phew* My wreath was done!



The final step was to figure out how I wanted to decorate it. I knew I wanted something to reflect the season, and to preferably use materials I already had. I finally decided to make some fabric flowers from one of the million flower tutorials online. I used green and yellow vintagey-lattice fabric, threw a couple buttons on there and *voila*! A little bit of spring to brighten our front door! I love it!