Sunday, December 5

Craft Day and Putting Up the Christmas Lights

About a month ago, Nicole got onto our Paint Day/Night Facebook group and asked all of us, through a poll, what kind of crafting we would like to do for December.  She has been making ball wreaths and they have been turning out great.  In fact, she made me a Seahawks one for my birthday and I loved it!  I really like homemade gifts.  I got on and voted for bulb wreath making and really hoped everyone else clicked that option as well.  

A few days passed and she posted that we would be doing bulb wreaths and she gave us some tidbits of what we needed and what we needed to bring.  The weekend before, Mom and I, went and found our bulbs and garland.  It was really hard to find the colors I was looking for because they were already pretty much picked through.  So, I chose silver and a teal color, with white as an accent.  My garland was silver.  Mom chose the traditional red and green with red garland.  I had some colored ribbon already, so I found my container of spools and brought a few different colors just in case someone needed to use them.

I really thought that I had two glue guns, but I guess I didn't after searching through all of my art supplies.  I did find one of the glue guns and hoped that I had enough glue sticks because Nicole said we would need a lot of glue. 

Mom drove to my house, we loaded up all of our stuff into the Escape, I brought my Fritos and cheese dip for a snack, to go along with the other snacks that were being provided and headed into Tumwater.  I always liked getting there somewhat early so we could get set up and chat with Nicole for a bit.  I wasn't sure how many people were going to come.

We picked our spots, got all of our stuff set up and everyone started to arrive.  Nicole, her mom Barb, me, my Mom, Nicole's friend Michele, Lindsay, Celeste, Sarah and Nicole's brother's girlfriend, Tara.  It was a full house...first time in a long time.  Nicole got us all set up and explained what we were going to do first.  She handed out the Styrofoam wreaths and she told us we were going to start with tying the ribbon on the top.  She said we were supposed to bring some ribbon that would match the colored bulbs we brought and most of us did.  

I brought a teal-colored ribbon and tied it to the top.  Nicole said our next step was to flip our bulbs upside down and start gluing them on the inside of the wreath.  My color combo was teal, silver, teal silver, with some spaces in between to leave some room for the garland.  Mom went to glue her first ball and her glue gun was so hot, she melted the bulb and the Styrofoam wreath!  Once we were all done with our middles, she said to take a break to let it dry.  I got up and got some snacks and chatted.



Next, we flipped the wreath over and started to fill in the top in various layers with our different colors.  Nicole said to try and spread them around to give it a layered look, so it looks like a wreath and not a perfect symmetrical wreath or it will look weird.  We all spent the next couple hours gluing our bulbs onto our wreaths.  It was fun to see which colors people chose and how theirs were turning out.  I got up again to get more snacks and I made the rounds to see how everyone else's wreaths were going.  They were looking pretty good!



As our table was making the final placements of bulbs, Nicole said that if we had some accent bulbs, smaller ones and ones that were a different color, to start placing them.  I got out my smaller bulbs and my white bulbs and started strategically placing them around my wreath.  My layers were looking pretty good.  My whole wreath was looking great!  This was a great way to change it up after doing paintings for so long.  

I finished my wreath and let it sit to let the glue rest a little bit.  I walked around some more to see how everyone else was doing.  They were very colorful, unique and festive.  I enjoyed seeing how different everyone's was.  Lindsay was the only one that took the year-round decorative approach.  Her's were Earthy colors and each bulb was a different color and made from a different material.  It looked cool.  

I got the broom and started cleaning up around my area where I was sitting.  There was a lot of glitter, garland and debris from the bulbs since we took the tops off of them.  We hung around and chatted for a little bit while we cleaned up our stuff and got it all together to take out to the Escape.  We each took a photo with our wreath to post to the group Facebook page.  We thanked Nicole for hosting and Mom, and I headed home after stopping by Safeway for Mom to pick up a few things.


I drove us back to my house; help load Mom's stuff into her Expedition, and she went home to finish her chores.  I brought my stuff in and asked Ben if he would help me put the Christmas lights on the house since it finally wasn't raining.  He begrudgingly put clothes on and came out to help.  I ran out of time this year to get new lights, like we had talked about, because the fall got away from me with Doug's stuff.  So, we had to see if these lights still worked since we've had them for six years now.  The Seahawks played while we were outside, and we beat them 30-23.  

I dug the ladder out of our cluttered garage, the box of outdoor Christmas lights and plugged in the extension cord from the only place we could...the ceiling, where there is an outlet that we can lead out to the front.  I unrolled the lights and plugged them in to make sure they worked.  All of them did except for two of them.  One, I replaced with a new strand and the other I actually found the bulb that was making the entire section go out.

Ben got on the roof, and I handed him the strands as he clipped new light holders along the roof.  We got to the section along the walkway and Dad called me, so I answered the phone.  He had a question, so I answered it quickly and headed back outside to help.  By then, Doug was out there helping Ben with the lights.  Ben got off the ladder and stepped right onto the lights, breaking several of them.  We plugged them into see how many of the lights were broken.  A bunch of them were and I knew we couldn't get any more, so we had to be creative.  I wonder if the rhododendrons would hide the broken spot?  We put them up and it did.  Win!


We finished up the roof and I got the extension cord plugged in and rested on top of the hanging kayaks, so it had some support because of where the outlet was in the ceiling.  I helped Ben put the ladder away and all of the other stuff.  He helped me get down the Christmas decoration from the shelves and we brought it all inside.  He helped me put the tree in the stand because it was getting somewhat late, and we didn't want to unpack all of the decorations or ornaments quite yet.  It would have taken a lot to get it all organized.  We couldn't decorate it until Tuesday anyway.

We ate dinner, watched Sunday Night Football, did some chores and got ready for the upcoming work week.  This month just started, and every day was going to be busy.  I can just feel it.    

Next Adventure:  The Inaugural Season:  My First Kraken game vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

No comments: