My DIY Wine Cork Wreath

Hi friends! Hope that you all had a wonderful December weekend. This was the last weekend I had before traveling to the East coast for the holidays, so my days were productive with Christmas gift, house and trip prep stuff. Here were some other highlights:

My Saturday began with a 90-minute rock-n-roll yoga class. I was ridiculously sore from a kettlebell class I took on Thursday and had been walking around like a 90-year old lady, so I was a little worried that my balance and range of motion would be horrible. My practice was a bit limited, but I left yoga with a happy heart, feeling stretched out and a tad less sore.

I spent some time in my backyard with my hubby finishing up painting in our backyard – oh, the life of a homeowner! Since it rained a few days last week, my rose bushes are now bursting with gorgeous color. I just love when they’re like this!

My hubby’s grandmom sent us a THREE POUND hunk of cheddar cheese, along with maple syrup and pancake mix as a holiday gift. It warmed my heart when she said that she sent it to us because the cheese is organic and from farm-raised animals, and she knows that I’m into all of that. I couldn’t resist opening that baby up for a weekend dinner… 

…and made elbow pasta, broccoli, ricotta, and spaghetti squash mac & cheese. It was one of those dinners when I didn’t measure anything (except the cheese because I was curious as to how much I grated – 14 oz!) and used up leftovers in the fridge, and it turned out really yummy.

My hubby and I exchanged Christmas gifts early, and I now have some new Brooks sneakers! I love the brand and find their shoes to be so damn comfy. I love getting bright & shiny new kicks!

That wine cork wreath project I mentioned to you all last week? I completed it the end of the week, and my hubby and I got it hung up on my front door. I’m usually not all that crafty and am pretty proud of myself because I love it!

If you’re curious as to how to make one, here are the basics steps:

First, make a trip to Michael’s or your favorite craft shop to purchase a few things: a styrofoam ring, a hot glue gun and glue sticks (I didn’t have these already so I had to purchase them) and bows you’d like to use. I’d guess that I used around 150 wine corks for the project, which I already had handy on account of all of the wine drank in my household. 🙂

You want to first glue a first layer of corks onto the front and side of the ring. I tried to lay em flat and sort of just arrange them in rows.

Once a first layer was complete, I started to get a little crazy and randomly arrange and glue corks onto the wreath. I deliberately tried not to follow a pattern, and just kept layering and glue gunning for a few hours. I did this over a few nights – once while watching a football game, once while watching a DVRed episode of The Voice, which kept it from feeling really tedious.

At some point during the layering, I decided to glue my big bow on, so that I could see what areas would be covered and what parts would still show. I glued more corks to the uncovered areas to build them out a bit. Lastly, I also glued little baby bows around the wreath for extra decoration.

I’m usually not all that crafty, so I’m proud of myself for making my wine cork wreath a success! I think that with all of the materials I bought, it cost me about $15 to make it.

Tell me… Do you consider yourself a crafty person? What fitness-related things are on your holiday wish list? What recipes are you planning on making for the holidays?

PS – Want to win chocolate protein powder + a number of fun prizes like pomegranate juice extract and vitamin C? Enter my giveaway here! I’ll be choosing a winner on Friday.