Spring Has (Finally) Sprung

With above zero temperatures over the last few weeks, I think it's safe to say that spring in E-town has finally arrived.  We've been rocking the "cranberry wreath" from Canadian Tire every Christmas since we moved in (for a grand total of two Christmases):

And that very same wreath had been hanging proudly on our front door up until this past weekend as evidenced in the photo below:

{ Yes, this was up until Friday, May 6, 2011.  Oops, I really need to touch-up paint. }

I just wasn't ready to take it down until I was absolutely sure that we were done with the snow.  But since we were hosting a Mother's Day brunch for my mom yesterday, I thought it was about time to take it down.  But I really wanted to have something on the door for a bit of colour and after a quick Google search, I came up with this wreath as my inspiration.  After a stop at Michael's (with my trusty 25% off coupon) to gather up all of my supplies, I was raring to go:

We opted for a straw wreath form since the foam one was a bit pricey (and by pricey I mean $15).  The wreath we brought home wasn't actually wrapped like you see above.  It was just a big ol' circle of straw.  Craig came up with the idea of wrapping it up in plastic wrap to create a smooth surface since he knew I would be tearing my hair out while trying to keep the straw bits from showing through the yarn.  Just like in the inspiration wreath, we went with white yarn, and grey, pink and fuschia felt squares for the flowers.  In the end, we didn't end up using the embroidery floss or needles since I decided I didn't want it looking exactly like the inspiration wreath, so they'll be going back for a refund (more money saved...always a good thing!).

I won't bore you with the details, but basically I spent a few hours wrapping the wreath form with the white yarn and making felt flowers a la this tutorial.  Here's what I finally ended up with:

It turned out a lot better than I had expected!  I have a feeling I'll be making a few more of these over the next few months...

No. More. Circles.

Tonight I was determined to finish at least one project.  So after exactly three weeks, two boxes of wax paper, seven sheets of parchment paper, two spools of thread and a lot of patience, we finally finished the chandelier!  Here it is:

And now with a bit more detail:

They're not the greatest pictures since I'm taking them in the evening (plus we use a blasted CFL light which makes my white balance all wonky but ensures that our house doesn't burn down), but you get the idea.  We probably made over 3,000 circles (seriously).  And I honestly thought we would only need 300.  We definitely became more efficient in the whole iron-cut-punch-sew-hang process at the end.  I've got some good tips on how to make it less frustrating if you plan on tackling this project yourself!

Done?

(I'll apologize now for the extremely poor lighting in the photos you are about to see.  I can't seem to get the hang of the white balance settings.)

I know, I know.  We should quit while we're ahead, right?  But ironing these little bits of wax paper, punching the circles, stringing them all together and layering them on the wire rings (a la this tutorial) has become a bit of an obsession for the two of us now.  So are we done with it yet?  You be the judge:

From the door, it actually looks like capiz.  Mom was fooled when she first saw it.  I knew we had done a good job from the way she talked about it.  Craig and I gave each other a mental high five when we saw the look on her face.  Here it is with the light on:

We're really happy with the way it turned out!  We figure we have about 1,500 wax paper circles in total.  (We had initially thought we'd only need 300...talk about a major underestimation!)  After hanging up the last strand, Craig uttered the words that made me fall in love with him all over again:

"I think we need more."

Does this guy know me or what?!  The look was exactly what we wanted, but we were thinking the same thing.  More would definitely be better in this case.  In case you're wondering why we think we need more circles, here's a closer view:

 

You can see a couple of gaps between the strands in these pictures.  And depending on where you are sitting/standing, you can see the light bulbs and/or the old gold fixture peeking through.

So the answer to the title of this post is (fortunately or unfortunately) no.  Maybe we're nuts, but we're prepared to spend another few hours finishing this thing up.  In any case, we both love the look of our new light and Craig loves the price tag even more!  Here's what we ended up spending on our chandelier makeover:

• wax paper: $3 a roll (we used two rolls)
• parchment paper: free (it was a sample from a tradeshow)
• circle cutter: $16 (this didn't work as well as we hoped, so we ended up getting the next item)
• circle punch: $16 (sale price)
• wire wreath form: $5
• extra thread: $5
• CFL bulbs: $9 each (we bought three new bulbs)

Grand Total = $54

It seems like a lot, but if you think about it, the most expensive parts were the cutter (which we'll probably end up selling in our garage sale this summer because the punch was a lot easier to use) and the CFL bulbs (which we felt were necessary because of their close proximity to the paper circles).  A modest investment for a light fixture we can finally both agree on!  (Trust me, we've looked at a lot.)

And it was definitely worth the money to not have it look like this ever again:

Thanks to my sweetie pie sister for convincing us to try this DIY project out instead of replacing the whole thing!

Guess What We Started?

I'll give you a couple of hints:

 

We hope to be able to show you our finished product by the end of the week!