Chinese New Year Wreath

Chinese New Year is almost upon us.  New Year's Eve will be on Sunday the 22nd so I thought it was time to start work on the 84 cent wreath.  The Lunar New Year heralds the coming of spring and in Asia is the most important holiday - similar to our Christmas.

There are a lot of traditions associated with the new year such as the colour red, firecrackers, money and fish.  Also, the new year would be the Year of the Dragon, so my plan was to incorporate all these things into the wreath.   Unfortunately, the stores are full of Valentine's Day items now - nothing to be had on the Lunar New Year front.

So, I decided to build on the "spring" theme, but include a few items which would make it Chinese.  I found some stemmed flowers at IKEA which were previously used in a display.

Can't Beat 10 Cents!

They also quite by chance also had Dragon finger puppets.  So I got a few.

Grrrrr !

Then it was just a matter of sticking the flowers onto the wreath.  The first few flowers I cut, not realizing that you could bend them into shape.  Newbie mistake. 

Working Away

I put all the flowers on first. Here is the wreath 1/2 done:

It took about 2 hours to do, I was also skyping with my mom at the same time.  She thought I should include something red. After the flowers, I added the dragons, but it still did not seem very New Years-y. 

Big J suggested that I put a big Chinese word in the middle.  I didn't have one so instead I made a little centre bit with a lucky money packet and a red Christmas bow.

Here's how it turned out:

There are actually 3 dragons, but one is hidden in the shadows.  Hmm, not bad, I quite like it.

Wreath Deal

Weekend, so a savings post.

On the savings front, we were able to keep our regular grocery bill to under $100 today by buying mostly sale items and using a few coupons.  But then we went to Costco ... BIG. Mistake. Why is it that you can never go to Costco without spending tons of money?  Perhaps because everything is so cheap, and usually of good quality it encourages you to spend?

Anyway, at the supermarket, I was on the lookout for another wreath, and got a twiggy one for 84 cents, marked down from $9.  I have this idea to make a Chinese New Year wreath out of it for January 23rd.  It has a cute penquin on it though which is about as un-Chinese New Year as you can get.

Cute Lil Penguin, you've gotta go!

Big J thinks it will look weird because no-one puts up wreaths for Chinese New Year.  It's true, we've always had a traditional scroll-poster thing in previous years, but change is good.

It'll be quite the challenge looking for suitable adornments in red and gold colours.  Might have to make 'em!

Happy New Year!

A short post today as everyone is likely busy preparing for or already celebrating New Year's Eve.

One of the other parents brought over a Panettone, it's a sweet Italian loaf which is part of the Christmas / New Year's festivities there.  Big J says it's similar to Spain's Rosca de Reyes.  It came with a nice ribbon bow, so of course, I nabbed it for the wreath - there's an update pic at the end of the Wreath post.

Here is Abba with their Happy New Year song:

It's funny, this video is from the 80's? and if you look closely at Anni-Frid's  clothing, she is wearing a lace blouse.  So it's true what they say about fashion happening in cycles.

Happy New Year Everyone!  Feliz Año Nuevo!

Wreath Refab

It's Thrifty Thursday again.  One of the thrifty money saving things I do every year is shop at the Boxing Day sales.  I used to get a new ornament for the tree every year, but now I wait until Boxing Day to get several ornaments.  Since the tree is still up, I hang them up and we enjoy them for a few days until next year.

A few years ago, I wanted to put a wreath on our front door.  All the ones I looked at pre-Christmas were super-expensive and I considered making my own, I checked out the "ingredients" at Lewiscraft and Michaels, but it seemed quite pricey.  Then, on Boxing Day, I found a rather bedraggled looking one for about $7.  Still not cheap, but to get the supplies and make one myself would've cost way more.

The first year, it was a sorry sight.  Many of the ornaments had fallen or been ripped off - you could see the headless stems.  I added a few gift ornaments to it and left it at that.  Now, I'm always on the lookout for things that can spruce it up, and add to it every year.

Here is this year's pre-Boxing Day wreath:

Still a sorry sight

Originally, only the 2 beige-y things, and the three (you can barely see them) thin gold ornaments with tartan ribbon (2 trumpets and a violin) came with the wreath.  The red apples and pine cones were from tops of Christmas gifts which I snagged over the years for the wreath.  The 2 little ball-like things on the bow are actually hair ornaments!

This year, I got 2 candle holders, some tinsel and some bells. I wanted to add some sparkle and thought the bells might jingle.  The candle holders were cheap (50 cents) and red, so I got them too.

I attached the candle-holders using the tinsel and used some green twist ties to attach the bells.

I started with just one bell per twist tie, but you could barely see the bell in all that green-ness so I ended up attaching two or even all three for greater impact.  The bells don't actually jingle at all but do add a bit of colour.  And I like the sparkly tinsel, so might add more next year.

Here it is post-Boxing Day, ready for next year:

See a difference?

It's actually starting to look like a Christmas wreath!

Update:  Here is the wreath with the new bow from the Panettone:

Lovely Bow from Panettone!

I think it balances out those 2 other beige-y things don't you?  Hmm, I'm noticing the wreath looks lopsided.  It looks fuller on the left.  Will have to do something about that next year.

What do you think of this refab?  I've just added a "Rate This" checkbox to all the posts, so you can use that without having to comment.