Wreaths With Friends

Recently, my sister, Carole, and her dearest friend, Kelly, came to Turkey Creek Garden to spend the night. We fed the chickens, sat around the fire pit drinking homemade muscadine wine, and tackled a project. We are just project women - dog hair and potato peelings women. It's in our blood.

You may remember the picture above from the Northwest Louisiana Master Gardener's Seminar. Those cute little "zinnias" are made from pine cones that have been cut in half and painted with simple craft paints. My friend, Kit Hanley, took this idea and made an adorable wreath with it.

 Kit has a great decorating style and I love everything she does. When Carole and Kelly said they were coming to visit, I knew exactly what our craft should be - a Kit Hanley pine cone wreath!

I gathered and cut the pine cones before the girls arrived. Using my big, long handled pruners made cutting the pine cones in half very easy. We painted the pine cones Friday night after supper.  We gave them two coats. Setting them in egg cartons made them much easier to paint.

 Notice that we painted the bottoms of some cones and the open, cut side of others.

They dried over night. The next morning, they got a coat of high gloss, clear shellac. Then we used moss, dried flowers, and bird nests purchased at Hobby Lobby to complete our wreaths.

We worked outside in the garden because this part of the project was MESSY!! In the end ours weren't as cute as Kit's, but we were still proud of our accomplishment!

Love ya'll, 

Shelli

Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend. 

~Plautus

It is a good thing to be rich, and it is a good thing to be strong, but it is a better thing to be loved of many friends. 

~Euripides

A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they’re not so bad. 

~Arnold H. Glasgow