Snow Inspiration

Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing something that inspires us...a picture, a recipe, an idea, a quote...anything we find that gets us excited to create, cook, play, experiment, live!  And of course, this bit of inspiration will be in keeping with the week's theme.

In case you haven't been following along, the theme of the week is Snow.  However, this post came dangerously close to being called "No Inspiration."  I just spent two hours scouring pinterest for snowy inspiration...activities, recipes, decorations.  And nothing sparked my interest.  Total lack of inspiration.  Maybe it's because I hate being cold.  (I think I mentioned that once or twice in Monday's post).  And so many snow related activities and decorations that can be created in the comfort of one's home include flour, glitter, shaving cream.  Although messes don't make my list of abhorrences, they certainly don't make my list of favorites either, especially when I am in the midst of multiple chaos-inducing home-makeover projects.

But then, after hours of being throughly uninspired, all of a sudden like a flash of lightning, inspiration struck!  It came--ironically enough--from a pinterest board that I made a year ago entitled, "Things to Make in January for Next Christmas."  Last Christmas, I was particularly ambitious in the handmade gift department.  My needle-felted projects alone included two ornaments (a lion and a ladybug), two minions (Despicable Me style), a very detailed horse, and 2 nativity sets.  Then there was the crocheted baby blanket, baby duvet cover, 2 stenciled pot holders, 3 crocheted trivets, 5 crazy quilt purse kits, a crazy quilted stocking, and a truly epic cathedral window lap quilt.  (You can read about them all here if you have a particularly slow day job.)

As you can imagine, I was much too busy making gifts to make the many decorations I wanted to adorn my home for Christmas.  So I made the board "Things to Make in January for Next Christmas."  It was a brilliant plan, really...very well-intentioned.  I would spend January clinging to the Christmas spirit and have a slew of new goodies to pack up with the rest of my decorations.  But then my former boss summoned me to cover for my replacement's maternity leave, so I spent my days working instead of creating.  Booo....

Anyway, back to the snow.  I found this little beauty on my pin board:

It's a wreath via West Elm made of wool-felted snow balls.  How adorable is that?!?  And especially with a big red bow or a little snow bird?!?  And you could keep it up all winter long!  You could even change it with the calendar: a little holly in December, glittery snowflakes in January, a few pink and red hearts in February.  So cute!!

Also on my pin board was this:

Also from West Elm and composed of simple wool-felted balls is this garland.  Call it snowballs if you wish to stick to our weekly theme.  But it reminds me of the popcorn and cranberries we used to string on our Christmas tree growing up.  Except we had wooden cranberries and...yes, plastic popcorn.  It's a long story.  This version is so classic and homey in its warm, wooly simplicity.  You could use it to adorn a tree, mantle, bannister, doorway...anything, really!

I've started making a few needle-felted wool snowballs for these projects.  All you need to do is wrap up some wool roving and give it a few pokes with a felting needle until it is ball-shaped.  You can also use a wet-felting method.  The nice thing about wet-felting is that you use warm water and gentle soap--Ivory Snow laundry detergent works best.  You wrap the roving into a ball and roll it in your hands with the warm soapy water until it sticks to itself.

If you find yourself inspired and needing wool for these projects, you can find it in our shop!  You could also do similar projects with styrofoam covered in glitter or epsom salts or little balls of yarn or clay...anything white and spherical will do.  Happy snowball making!