Springtime Flower Power

After several days of doing nothing but painting... and sanding... and painting, I needed a little break.

I decided it would be the perfect time to brighten up my boring front door.  I bought a new "Welcome" mat the other day after Kent ruined my other one with Herculiner... Yep, the mat was just one more casualty of the mess he makes by fixing up "the cruiser."  It was okay though, I wanted a new one anyway.

Since the mat looked nice, I thought I would spiff up the door with a new springtime wreath and attempt another flower in a pot by the door. 

When I said attempt another flower, I really mean attempt.  When I was growing up, I had two grandmothers who were fantastic gardeners-- my dad's mom that I call Grandma and my mom's mom that I call Mimi.  Well, Grandma and Mimi always made growing flowers and all sorts of good things look so easy. 

I remember seeing my Mimi cut little twigs off of her Gardenias and put them in a jar of water to "root" them.  Before I knew it, there would be enough roots in that jar that the new Gardenias could be planted.  I don't know how she did it.  If I had tried it, the stupid sticks would have rotted and molded in the water. 

My Grandma is still a big gardener, and her yard is probably one of the most beautiful in my hometown.  I helped her plant flowers when I was little, and I remember seeing them just take off.  Before I knew it there were what seemed like hundreds of blooms everywhere.  Colorful, beautiful flowers and plants. 

When Kent and I moved into our current place last year, I thought I would try my hand at some flowers to make my backyard pretty.  Nothing too crazy.  I wasn't going to dig up the whole yard.  I just wanted some flowers in pots. 

Ummmm.... Yeah, that didn't work out so well.

I think I killed them.

I was not fortunate to get the "Green Thumb Grandma" gene or the "Miracle Grow Mimi" gene.  Even though I thought I watered them enough, gave them some plant food, and followed the directions for giving them the right amount of sunshine, they still withered up and died. 

I gave up.  But now I want to give it another try.  I found a cute lime green pot at Home Depot and got a New Guinea Impatien to put in it for beside my front door.  The directions say that it would be happy in a lot of shade, so hopefully it's in the right space and won't die on me.  (Maybe I should name it a tough name...)

 

It looks so pretty right now and has so many blooms.  Let's cross our fingers that some of those good flower growing genes come through for me.

Now that I had my new Welcome mat and a pretty flower, it was time to start on a nice springtime wreath. 

I bought a cheap straw wreath instead of a styrofoam one because I just liked the thought of the natural material... It seemed more "springy."

I covered the straw by wrapping the wreath with yarn.

Then I gathered the materials to make a pretty little bow, worked with it until I got it the way I wanted, and hot glued it to the wreath.

Since this was my "Springtime" wreath, I thought it needed some flowers, but I didn't want to use any of the tacky silk flowers you can find around here.  I wanted to stick with the simplistic look of my little wreath and make little ribbon flowers with button centers.

I found using a needle and thread was the most efficient way to do this.  I simply made five little loops as "petals" and put a few stitches in the ribbon to hold it in place.

I made several of these little "flowers" in different sizes and arranged them around the bow.

I think I'm pretty happy with it. :-)

When I was ready to hang it, I had to be creative one more time since I discovered the front of my door is not wood... but the top is.  I made a little loop out of floral wire to hang it from and looped the big paisley ribbon through it.  Then, I nailed the two ends of the ribbon to the wood on the top of my door, and viola!  My "cute as a button" springtime wreath was hung.  

Now my door will greet guests with a little springtime cheer.  

 What do you think?