Welcome to Small Town Love

Hi there!  I'm Bailey and I live with my amazing husband John in a small town in Wisconsin.  We were both raised in small towns, and after 4 years in Madison, we are so happy to have had the opportunity to move to rural Wisconsin and buy a home.  We are enjoying becoming a part of our little community, and taking part in all the festivals and nuances of small town life.  We love our home, but also have many projects planned for it.  It will be fun to see how our home evolves over the years.  We do not have children, yet :-), but this blog will hopefully be a way to stay connected with our widespread family, and to share our lives as we change and grow. 

Now that I'm finally out of school, I've developed a lot more interest in cooking healthy, interesting meals.  I hope to post recipes and pictures of my cooking. 

I've also started to get into more crafting and decorating, now that we have a big beautiful house to work with. We are enjoying decorating for the holidays, with a lot of firsts for us, since this is our first home.  First Christmas tree, first mantle to decorate, first outdoor lights...it's been fun and we are excited to see how our collection of decorations grows over the years. 

I guess the real reason I started writing the blog today is because I want to share my first crafty project. 

Today I made a starburst wreath out of sticks from our yard! 

Here's a list of materials you'll need if you'd like to create a wreath of your own.

Cardboard
Hot glue gun (and glue of course!)
Sticks cut to various lengths (relatively straight sticks will work best, and you will probably want a variety of diameters to fill the wreath out)
Ornaments or other decorations to add to the wreath
Twine-wrapped florist's wire

First I cut out two circles of cardboard, and cut out the centers of the cirlces.  Then I hot glued them together to make a sturdy base for my wreath.  I covered the circles with tiny sticks that were only slightly longer than the width of the cardboard.  The little sticks looked a lot like pretzel sticks!  Next I cut even numbers of different lengths of similarly sized sticks.  I arranged them around the wreath in a way that I found pleasing.  Everything was simply hot glued onto the cardboard circles.  The sticks ended up covering the cardboard almost completely, and the natural color of the cardboard blends in well in those places where it may show.  I added a sparkly 3-D star ornament and some pearly garland from Hobby Lobby and my wreath was finished!  In order to easily hang it, I wrapped a small length of twine-covered florist's wire around the wreath and formed a hanging loop.  I was thinking about hanging it on our front door, but opted for the wall in the eat-in area of the kitchen, so I can enjoy it every day.  I'm planning a peppermint wreath for the door, which I think will stand out better since our door is dark green.  Anyway, here is my completed wreath.

Here is another closer shot of the wreath.

I did not hot glue the ornament or garland onto the wreath, because I'm hoping to be able to change out the "accessories" on the wreath with the changing seasons.  Hope you are able to go out and make your own wreath.  If I can do it, anyone can!