I was suuuuper excited about Christmas this year, and was fantasizing about decorations weeks ahead of time. This is not a particularly unique thing for me, for those who have read last year's Christmas entry in my oil rig blog.
Over my Thanksgiving visit, I perused a book my stepmother had lying around, Christmas Decorations from Williamsburg's Folk Art Collection. In it was instructions for creating a wreath decorated with seashells, and I knew it was a perfect beginning to start the decorating bonanza!
I made it in honor of my grandmother, Louise Kelley Rochester who passed away this past January. This is our first Christmas without her, and it was especially meaningful to me to be able to use seashells from her collection for the wreath.
She had THOUSANDS of seashells.
I ended up only using the idea from the book, and basically making up the rest as I went along. I bought an overpriced styrofoam wreath base (with a coupon), and wrapped it in ribbon left over from my brother's wedding.
Then I used a hot glue gun and just went to town!
As I was just about finished, I started to panic. Absolutely panic. It looked like a crappy wall hanging you might see at a beachside drugstore for $4.99 or on the wall of a rented condo in Ocean City. All of a sudden I was filled with remorse for not predicting and preventing this.
Dejected, I took my mom's advice and just finished the darn thing and hung it up.
And then something magical happened...
It looked absolutely perfect hanging from our front door with a sprig of holly (natch) and a bow. It didn't look kitchy it all. Instead it looked absolutely at home and utterly lovely.
It didn't quite match the rest of the Duxbury wreaths of green pine branches and red velvet ribbons (I'm not kidding. EVERY house has them) but then our door doesn't face the street so I don't have to worry about offending the neighbors with my uniqueness, haha!
