Fall Wreath

As you all know, I typically associate wreaths with Christmas. Being Jewish, I never really considered the idea of having a wreath on my front (or back) door. Growing up, we got creative with "door decorations." There was the "Blank Door," void of all decoration. The year of the Fall-ish leaves as "door decorations." And then there was the year (or was it years) of the always famous "Hanging Ears of Dried Corn" as door decoration. This decoration served several purposes; to feed the squirrels and chipmunks, to alert us to someone coming though the door, and my personal favorite, as a constant source of ammunition for both neighborhood and family mockery.

To get to the root of our whole disdain for wreaths, we have to travel back in time to when we were living in San Mateo. One day Dad K arrived home from one of his many trips with a "gift" for Mom G-K. I say "gift" because we weren't quite sure if he thought this gift was supposed to be received with great surprise and happiness or rather, with shock and horror. Let's just say, it wasn't received with a smile and a great big "THANK YOU, I LOVE IT" reaction. Let me take a moment to describe this "gift" to you. It was a wreath. One of the ugliest things I've ever seen in my whole life. (Sorry Dad K, but it's true.) It was made from dried leaves. Mixed in with the leaves, towards the bottom of the wreath, was a rather oversized stuffed hand. Yes, you read that correctly. No one would allow said "gift" to be hung anywhere in any public space in the house. We (us kids at the time) wanted that "thing" as far away from us as possible. Just think...that hand could potentially attack us in our sleep! HUGE STUFFED HAND! So...the wreath lived in Mom and Dad K's bedroom. It moved from bookshelf, to office chair, until one day, Rajah attacked that wreath. He knew it had no place in our home, so he tore it apart, shredding that hand, ensuring we wouldn't have to live in fear of that wreath for one more day! Victory over "The HAND!" Thank you Rajah Boy! I hope there's an endless supply of rawhide bones and doggies to listen to you bark your head off up there in doggie heaven. You deserve that much!

Anyhow...the point is, what does one do with a blank door? Put a wreath on it of course? What's more welcoming than a wreath? Something seasonal, but not Christmasy. Hmmmm....time to get creative!


I purchased this at AC Moore:


And turned it into this:


All I used was a glue gun and wait for it...coffee filters! 179 coffee filters to be exact. Oh and a recycled ribbon from my gift wrap stash. Add in a front door and here's what you get!





What do you think? Should I add a giant stuffed hand to it? Dad K, what do you think?