I'm a homeowner now - I guess I need a wreath.

Wreaths. Ugh. I am so not a wreath person. I like simple, modern, nothing country, nothing flowery.

But I am trying to make our house not be that scary house that kids avoid, or the one that the respectable neighborhood people with nice lawns look down on, so I figure I'll make an effort to make our new home seem inviting from the outside.

So, of course I went to Dollar Tree. Sometimes I worry that my husband judges me for liking Dollar Tree crap so much. But I don't care, Dollar Tree is awesome. Anyway, $36 later, I had...not enough stuff to make a wreath. But that's OK, cause Joann's lives in the same parking lot and I had a coupon!

So I rushed home and fashioned...this.

Hmmm. So this is going to be harder than I thought. That doesn't so much scream "come in, we're nice here," but rather "this is a pathetic attempt to lure unsuspecting people into my basement." That was when I realized that maybe glue-gunning flowers onto some sticks (albeit with vigor!) doesn't automatically make a pretty decoration. Also, I had to fix this, because we don't actually have a basement.

I pondered for a few days with the ugly first draft wreath hanging on the door. Then...well, another trip to the Dollar Store. And Michaels. And then I came home and turned it into this!

 I tried like heck to age this little wooden 'A' from Michaels. It went ok.

I got a bundle of this white dried flower-looking stuff at Michaels, and just stuffed it in between the flowers and along the outsides. I'd like to think it made my wreath a little fancier without making it fancy. Also I got hot glue everywhere and now have several blisters on my fingers.

The flowers were actually from Dollar Tree, and were made of burlap and actually kind of pretty!

Not pictured: the hour I spent making various bows and discarding them for looking too cutesy and floofy.

So, that's an improvement, I think. I'm not kidding myself that I made a good wreath, but I made something that I'm not embarrassed to hang on my door!

As a super bonus addition to this post, I also bought this monstrosity at Goodwill today. I figured that for $2, I could rip all the crap off of it and reuse the carcass for something else. Those things are expensive, yo.

So stay tuned for a Christmas-themed wreath soon!