Valentine's Wreath in 10 Eeeeasy Steps!

Step 1: Accept fact that are slovenly mess of interior decorator. Accept also that it is now mid-February. Accept finally that it is time to take the Christmas wreath down. Though Brian Andreas would probz agree that the season of joy is unending.

Step 2: Take down Christmas wreath. Stare at blank canvas that is entire mantle.

Step 3: Find cardboard box full of brown paper packing material.

Step 4: Get scathingly brilliant idea.

Step 5: Look like are having most fun ever with 27 feet of brown paper packaging such that small children all think are playing game of tug o' war.

Step 6: Inform young rascals you are actually making something really awesome, just trust me, no seriously, you will love it.

Step 7: Paint cute wooden hearts.

Step 8: Cut up cereal box. Let daughter think she is painting important wreath accessories, too.

Step 9: Hang.

Step 10: Consider have just invented world's first shabby chic wreath from packing material, or just hung someone's leftover lunch bag above fireplace.

Pinterested

Pinterest, to a college student:I promised myself I wouldn't procrastinerest away my day. Oh well.

Pinterest, to a dog: All that pinning of homemade dog bones and not a single one yet baked? Pinterest, to my grandma: Somehow I managed to survive the Great Depression and a World War without Pinterest. Pinterest, to the mother in Somalia: Is there a board where you have pinned solutions to civil unrest, lack of running water, babies dying from starvation? Pinterest, to our children: I didn't really want a Pinterest-inspired birthday party. I really just wanted you to be happy and relaxed rather than stressed about a Fancy Nancy candy buffet.

Pinterest, to clothespins: I don't always need to be painted and dipped in glitter.

Pinterest, to men: Women have finally found their spectator sports equivalent, and every day is the Super Bowl.

Pinterest, to everyone who never wore a scarf before: Pinterest made me do it. Pinterest, to social scientists: Quick, someone come up with a name for what this cultural phenomenon so we can sell a book about what people already know about themselves and their insatiable appetite for all the things. Pinterest, to Crayola: Crayon genocide by hair dryers is making us very rich indeed.

Pinterest, to HGTV, TLC, Nate, Martha: This is either the best or the worst thing to ever happen to us. Pinteresters Anonymous: Hello, my name is Pinny, and I've been sober from pinning for 6 weeks.

- Kendra Stanton Lee 2012

Holiday Mantle

The Catholic in me is trouncing my very post-Reformation sense of interior decoration every year around this time. And by that I mean that my Episcopalian home goes all WASSAHHH CATHEDRAL OF TINSEL UP IN HERRR!

Oooh I loves the holiday hanging of greens and garland and general festooning of hearth and home. The real peppermint icing on all of that this year is that I have a REAL mantle. The kind that grown-ups have. Not the kind that newlyweds make out of IKEA bookshelves...

Appendix A:

or that yuppies make out of electric fireplaces...

Appendix B:

This year I've been going whole hog with the festivus of halldecking. Baby Girl got to help me in a big way.

We made angels for the mantle last weekend. I know you're waiting for the step-by-step tutorial that lists all of these scrapbooking tools by their proper name in an esoteric kind of way {oooh! lookit me! A scrapbook buff! no.} . But trust, you know I have no room in my creative space for precision. I hack it all.

For these angels, I credit the amazing art teach Mrs. B of St. Raph's School in Bay Village, OH who inspired the original cherubic model. These angels that Baby Girl and I hacked are made from scrapbook paper that was on sale 6 for $1 at Michael's which we (I) then rolled around various empty ink cartridge boxes, painted styrofoam balls and gold pipe cleaners. We used a glue pad + stamp + glitter for the special adornments on the angel gowns.

After the angels dried and found a place on the mantle like they were Norm finding his bar stool at Cheers, I couldn't wait for Baby Girl to wake up to see them. So, first thing last Monday, I woke her up and said all cryptically, Baby Girl, you're not going to believe what's in the living room!!

The FIRST THING out of that little pumpkin's pie hole? "Oh, Mom! We forgot to put wings on the angels!"

Are you kidding me? Can you imagine waking up with that much clarity of mind? What is that like, to not wake up with your mouth all chewed up inside from vexing dreams where you are forced to snort pixie sticks or you won't be able to catch the last bus for Albuquerque where your Girl Scout Troop AND your Irish step dancing teacher are waiting for you to bring them the feta cheese wraps!!

Anyway. I have yet to repair the wingless angels. They are managing with their obvious handicap in the meantime.

What I have done is make this fetching wreath, though! And yes that IS chalk paint on cardboard, thank you for noticing. This wreath took me no time, which is to say that it took only a few minutes to complete the concept after I messed with the ribbon for four hours.

Y'all, have a JOYful, crafty holiday season.

xoxo K