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So here is the first on my list of this year’s wanted to, did, project. A pine-cone wreath. #1/50
Saw a beautiful pine-cone wreath on Pinterest, because where else would one stumble across such a thing? It was simple and beautiful, a ring of pine-cones, all the same shape and size. I added it to my list of to do someday. And there it sat. Until this week.
Seemed the perfect way to start my list, it being the fall, almost Thanksgiving, and all.
So I collected the only pine cones we had in our back yard. Sticky, long, white-ish ones. Kind of unattractive. Not perfect, but they might look okay I thought. As I was collecting them, an earwig ended up in my collection tub, oh, he must have been living in one of the cones, I thought to myself. Then there was another, and another, and I started tapping the cones on a bench outside to release the hounds, or critters as they were. When I’d set at least a hundred earwigs and beetles and creepy crawly-s of all sizes free, I brought the pine cones indoors to start my wreath. After telling him of my kind of creepy plight, my husband said, ‘there better not be any bugs crawling around the kitchen table’, ‘no dear,’ I replied, quickly scooping up a random bug and bringing him back outside. Eventually the stickiness, and the vast quantity of bugs that just kept appearing, and the fact that the wreath was doing absolutely nothing for me visually, made me give up on those cones.
When I was walking the dog later, I found quite the stash of non-sticky, bug free pine-cones, which were of a much nicer shape, but not nearly enough to make my wreath with.
Now I love to make things, but I’m kind of a ‘I want to make this right this very moment in time’ kind of girl, or I kind of am over it and on to the next thing. Silly I know, but my free time is so limited, and I want to use it as best I can… So I tried to figure out a way to get more pine-cones quickly. A few in my pocket every time I walked the dog, and it would be spring before I had enough.
I remembered a basket I used to put out at the studio for the holidays, filled with pine-cones. I know I found some of them, not really sure where they all came from, honestly, I might have bought the basket with the rest of the contents of the studio from the previous owner. Those’ll do, I thought to myself. And brought them home.
Following the instructions I’d found on Pinterest, use an old metal coat hanger, (that’s kind of hard to find it turns out) and shape it into a circle, making the hang-y part into a hook to hang the wreath. Of course, I’d found the instructions ages ago, and didn’t bother to find the site again to make sure I was on the right track now that I’d finally gathered the supplies. All I remembered was, attach the pine cones with wire on to the circle form and voila.
Well, voila might not be exactly how it went. I used wire and attached the pine-cones, and every time I’d pick it up to check my progress those suckers spun and twisted, and refused to stay where I’d put them, showing their messy wire backsides and being really a pain in my neck. I’ll just hang that puppy on my door, and it won’t be able to move, it’ll be fine, I’ll fix it next year when I take it out to hang it I thought to myself. But when I hung it, and arranged all of the pine-cones just so, it seemed the heavier ones fell to the bottom, and I kept having all of these holes near the top that were bare. No, no, I thought, that just won’t do. I know, I’ll grab the glue gun.
Sadly, I could only find one glue stick. And anyone who has ever used a glue gun knows that means I think I got one pine-cone stuck down, and a couple more that popped off before I could get it back on the door. And the gun ran dry.
Another day or two passed, off I went to the craft store, bought me the jumbo-pack, and came home to make that sucker behave.
It’s a hodgepodge of pine-cones. I couldn’t find any ribbon that complemented it. It’s mostly pine cones held on by wire, but also has a bunch hot glue gunned to fill in holes, and to stop the entire thing from shifting about. It was not the quick and simple project I’d originally planned on. Who knows if it will be more than just a one hit wonder, or if it will actually hold together to make it up another year? But it’s hanging on my door. And it brings me joy. So I count that in the win column.
And later, in searching for the original post to link, I found a tutorial on how to get your pine-cones bug free. I didn’t look at it, but it sure made me laugh. And I know where to find it should I ever decide to work with those buggy ones again.
In looking at that beautiful, simple wreath that originally caught my eye, I remember now why I loved it so much. Gosh it’s so lovely. Not what I made at all. Perhaps I’ll start collecting better pine-cones for next year. No wonder the instructions didn’t work for me, I went rogue, when I should have stayed in class.
If you want to follow me, you can find my eclectic Pinterest collection here.
#50thingsatodolist
