What was I thinking?

Way back on November 18th, Pam over on Retro Renovation posted a tutorial on how to create a vintage Christmas ornament wreath. I was seized with the sudden desire to get in on the fun and make one, too. Yes, I am impulsive. And crazy.

I actually made two of these years ago and broke both of them, but that didn’t stop me from hitting every thrift store within reasonable driving distance for the past few weekends. Today I decided to face the music and started organizing my haul.

I threw out lots of icky ornament boxes smelling of damp basements. I’m still not finished removing the wire ornament hangers. I have dozens yet to go. At least I’ve managed to get garland attached to two of the 14″ wreath forms I was lucky enough to find in thrift stores. They are currently sold out in every store everywhere. Online included. Tracking them down was harder than finding a swimsuit in August. This probably also means that millions of people are making these. Say goodbye to vintage ornaments, folks, because the supply is going to dry up.

I don’t have very many outstanding ornaments to glam up these wreaths. I’d have a hard time using beautiful old pieces, anyway.

But I was lucky enough to find some creepy elves and their friends.

A pair of sweet little pinecone people with spun cotton heads.

And some cool plastic ornaments that would also look good on our large aluminum tree.

And now I’m stuck with the hard part of design. There are no rules. No color by number. No fill in the blank. No right answers, only the opportunity to make the best from the materials on hand.

In a way it’s just like life. Scary.

Imagining things is so fun. The actual execution ends up taking three times longer than I thought. I still have decorating, baking, shopping, wrapping and more to do. If only I didn’t have to sleep!

I’m almost tempted to stow everything in a few big plastic totes and forget about it until next summer. What was I thinking? Can I pull this off?