This is the first post in my new blog "Live, Love, Lake" that I started to house all my DIY projects. I've always been artistic. I studied English Literature in college and grad school (specifically Shakespeare and Medieval Lit) with a minor in art history. I've always been a writer and to boot, I have beautiful handwriting which was enhanced by calligraphy classes in high school--so even my writing is a work of art! I find painting, crafting, writing very therapeutic but have had little time for creativity as I was raising my kids and focusing on my career. Knowing my nest would be empty when I was 38, I use to tell with my daughter that when she went off to college I was going to sell our home, live on a beach and never look back. Didn't quite work out that way but I'm as close as I can get right now. I did sell our home and purchased a home on the shores of Lake Erie in a suburb of Cleveland OH. It might not be tropical but I have a view of the water from every room in my home, hear the waves crash, and I see this every morning from the window seat in my living room. 
Not only is the home on the water, but it is far too big for an empty-nester--4 bedrooms, 3 baths and a kitchen that is over 400 square feet! In Cleveland, you don't have to be mega wealthy to buy a home on the Lake Erie--you just have to keep looking. It took me 4 years to find this place. And, you do get what you pay for so needless to say my place needed a lot of TLC.
So now with kids in college, I have the time but not the funds to make this place GREAT! And, I've enjoyed every minute of handcrafting many of the items in my home and redecorating every room. Plus, I make a lot of cool gifts for friends and family along the way.
I thought I'd start out my blog with "welcome wreath" I just made for my front door.
I got the initial idea for these wreaths from two pins I saw on Pinterest. The first being a wreath made out of drink umbrellas and the second being one made out of flip flops. I decided to combine the two. Easy Peasy and cost approx. $10.00 dollars!
Supplies:
- 1 Grapevine Wreath: cost $4.50
- 40 Paper Umbrellas (approx.) I bought a box of 144 at a restaurant supply store for $2.50 so i have for other projects.
- Flip Flops: dollar spot at target $1.00
- Faux flowers: in the dollar spot at my local craft store $1.00
- "Welcome" wood script: $1.00 at my local craft store (they also have "Relax, Family, Love and Dream that I've used for other projects)
- The paint and butterflies I had from another project. I use acrylic paint--dries easy and i found this bottle for $.59
- Paint the lettering
- Attached flowers to the flip flops
- Hot Glue the "Welcome" lettering and flip flops to wreath
- Fill in wreath with paper umbrellas (and accent with flower and butterflies if desired but not necessary!). The great part of the umbrellas is they just stick in the grapevine wreath--no gluing necessary.
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