When I was shopping with Jeff in NYC we went the The Paper Source (twice). The first time they put a catalog in my bag and the second time I went back to buy what I found in the catalog. Which is why they put those catalogs in the bag!

I bought the supplies to make a wreath from paper straws. Remember these striped straws? Where have they been?

They had the flat cardboard rings but I didn't buy them. Silly me. Luckily, I am able to cut my own. I've looked on their website and can't find the wreath ring or instructions to make this wreath so let me tell you what I did. 

I drew a 5 1/2" circle inside an 8 1/2" circle on white illustration board and cut out a wreath form. Cut 40 straws (144 in the box) to 6 1/2". I have 40 little pieces left over that are 1 1/4" long that I get to figure out what to do with. 

Hot glue a short straw to the wreath form, with one end even with the inside of the ring. Next hot glue a long straw to the form. Alternate glueing short, then long. Change the angle with each straw. Cardboard shows between the straws.

My wreath ended up with two short straws together but I sort of hid that with the bow (below).

I hot glued the bow in place and hung it up in the bathroom. You wouldn't know how exciting this is because you can't see the ugly control box for the vent/heater that used to live above this towel rack. It was about even with the light switch, maybe a bit higher. It was scratched chrome with an ugly dial in the center. I hated that thing for 19 years!

Two weeks ago I hired an electrician and he rewired it so that now the vent and heater are each controlled with a switch (the switch plate now has 3 switches which you see above). It took about an hour and was not that expensive. He fixed the same thing in the other bathroom too. Steve patched the holes in the wall from the old control boxes and I painted. Hooray! Now that you know that story, doesn't this wreath look even better?!

I also, today, had a little fun sewing… I made the Peppermint Fairy Spoolkeep that I've got on the website. It makes me smile and I think it will be a nice Christmas decoration for the home tour this weekend. At least that's my excuse :-).