Why I Oughta...

In December, I p ut together my first (ever) evergreen wreath for our front door using a mix of evergreen boughs, magnolia leaves, boxwood and eucalyptus from Trader Joe's. I used an existing grapevine wreath and followed some videos I found that talked about creating 'piles' of material and then wrapping them around the frame with floral wire.  I liked the project and plan on doing it again later this year.   But, I also wanted to document how the wreath held-up during the season.  Below is a photo showing it still on our front door - three months after being installed.  I'd say it looks pretty good.   Next year, I'll be sure to collect/forage for some varied evergreens specifically for the wreath.  

Yesterday, I posted a photo and backstory on my first Christmas Pomander in over thirty years as I revisited a Christmas-season craft project that I did with my mom when I was younger.  Today, as promised, I'm showing the handiwork of my kids as they made five more orange-and-clove Pomanders.  Below are the latest designs including a star and other patterns:  What is a Pomander?  Here is a Google Search widget that *should* get you where you are looking to go: As I mentioned yesterday, I am doing an A/B test with seeing if drying one of these out in a brown paper bag is going to produce any different result than these that are clustered together in a bowl.  

A Christmas-craft memory from my childhood is making pomanders with oranges and whole cloves.  Almost every Christmas, my Mom would sit us down in front of the tv with a couple of toothpicks, a bowl of large oranges and a tin of whole cloves.  Then, there were no rules...other than just jam in the cloves in a pattern of your choice. After coming across Pomander-Tok recently, I looked in our spice rack and discovered that he had a tin of whole cloves.  And, we also had an orange in the fridge.  So, off I went...making my first orange and clove pomander in at least 30 years.   Here's a link to a Google SERP for Pomanders that includes this description: I started simple design-wise - with a plain criss-cross of cloves at both equators up-and-down and side-to-side.  Here's my first pomander with this simple design: When I was a kid, my Mom just took all of our oranges that had been studded with cloves and put them in a bowl on the coffee table (or...as sh...