The Apple Street Cottage

Welcome back!  A few weeks ago I promised to share the details for the grapevine wreaths on my kitchen cabinets.   They are easy to make, you just make a circle and start twisting them together.  If you'd like to see how to get them started, click HERE for the post I did last Spring.   The weather was warmer when I started them and, you'll notice that some of the vines are still green.  That makes it much easier to bend and wrap them.  Be aware though, that those vines will shrink a bit as they dry and you may need to add more to them later on.  Since they grow wild around here that's no problem. To hang them on the cabinets, I measured a length of fishing line and looped it through the wreath.  I tied a knot and used a lighter to burn the ends.  That keeps the fishing line from slipping. Once that was done, the fishing line was hung on the inside, top of the door on a pushpin. I like this method, because it's invi...

You may have heard about all the snow in the northeast.  Fortunately, we didn't get as much as some areas, but the white stuff is still EVERYWHERE!  Since Mother Nature seems to be off her meds again, I created a wreath to encourage her to deliver some Springtime weather. Last month I bundled up and trudged through the snow to grab some of the vines that were growing wild.  If you missed it, you can read about it HERE .  In addition to the grapevine heart, I made this wreath.   It was an easy process that involved about 9 lengths of vine that were about 6' each.  I started by making a circle with one and winding the vine around it.  I kept adding, winding, and wrapping vines...  ... until I got to a size I liked. The finished wreath is 18 inches in diameter. I bought 4 bunches of tulips for $2 each and some burlap ribbon for $1.  That's right, the total cost was $9! Since I want to use this wreath for several seas...

If you visited the Cottage on facebook this week, you saw a 'teaser' for this project.  Go on, go take a peek, I'll wait!   I don't know about where you live, but, around here, grapevines grow wild all over and, since most of my 'stuff' is still packed in a storage unit, I decided to use what was available.  I grabbed my clippers, went out back, and started clipping long lengths of grapevines.  It was really cold, so, let me tell you, I clipped pretty quickly! They still had some leaves... And some great curlicues... I grabbed a few from the pile and made this: You can't tell from the picture, but this heart is pretty big - about 26" across and 29" tall.  I twisted together three vines for each side.  I used a piece of jute twine to tie them together in the middle, slowly bent the vines until  the were joined at the bottom, where another piece of jute twine completed the heart.  It probably took about 5 minutes, you know, one ...