Allison: Patriotic Wreath Tutorial and Giveaway

  **Giveaway is now closed**
Wreath is available in our Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/fivecraftysisters

Hello, again!  I hope everyone had a relaxing Mother's Day!

I'm so excited for this week's theme!  I LOVE Memorial Day!  I consider myself a very patriotic person, and relish any opportunity to be reminded how blessed I am to live in this free country and to celebrate all those who protect/have protected that freedom.

For this week's post, I did some "research" on Pinterest and found this cute wreath made of tulle.  There was only one thing wrong with this wreath:  I am WAY too lazy to tie that much tulle!!  But it did remind me of a scrappy fabric wreath I attempted for Halloween last year.  I knew I had most of the fabric I would need, and knew where to get the rest of the supplies for CHEAP.  Here's what you need:

* I found this 9" wreath at the dollar store.  Perfect!  A little small, but that means less work.  :)

* Ribbon for hanging, if you choose (dollar store, again).  I have a wreath hook, so I didn't use mine.

* The stars I found at Joann's for $.29/each!  I only ended up using one.

* Fabric.  This is a great project to use your extra scraps of fabric.  I had all but the blue, which I found at Joann's in the Fat Quarters section.

This project is great, because there's no right or wrong way to do it.  I chose 3 different fabrics of each color.  I cut the pieces 1 1/4" wide and 9-10" long.  Some were thinner or shorter, depending on what scraps I had.  Anything shorter than 9" was a little harder to work with, but still doable.

Next, start tying!  I double tied one piece of each fabric, alternating between red and white.  If you look at the wreath as a clock, tie red and white from 12 o'clock to 9 o'clock (or 3/4 of the wreath).  Then tie your blue pieces the rest of the way.

You can nest the knots together if you don't want as much of the wreath showing through.  Or you can spray paint the wreath white before you start tying fabric.  (I did this with my Halloween wreath and it worked great!)

That decision might be the toughest part of this project.  :)  I liked it both ways, but decided to paint my little star and hot glue it on.  Multiple smaller stars could be cute too.

**THE GIVEAWAY**

Okay... now the fun part!  Leave a comment below answering one (or both) of the following questions:

* What do you like most about our blog?
* What would you like to see more of on our blog?

 If you aren't one of our Facebook friends, I'll also need your email address included in your comment (or you can email it to us at fivecraftysisters@gmail.com).  You have until Sunday night to enter.  Good luck, and Happy Memorial Day!!

Allison

Lisa: Memorial Day

I hope everyone had a fabulous Mother's Day!  We had a very nice time here.  The weather was perfect and the company was great!  I received some wonderful presents from my children but my favorite is what I force them to give me every year: pictures!  I make them get ready for church early and let me take pictures of them.  I remind them that it is Mother's Day any time that they feel like not smiling or like not having their sister's hand on their shoulder!  Awesome.

As you can see, my plan always works extremely well.  Ugh!

Well, three out of the four smiling and with their eyes open?  I'll take it!

For this week, we've decided on the theme of "Memorial Day" for our posts.  Memorial Day is traditionally meant to honor our veterans who have fallen.  Our little city does a service at our local cemetery that is great for honoring the sacrifice of our veterans and for us to talk with our children about war and armed forces and patriots.   For me, though, Memorial Day has come to mean even more.  It is a time to gather with family and friends and neighbors and celebrate what it means to live in this great country!  It also marks the beginning of the summer season.  In our family, Dad would prep and plant his huge backyard garden.  It meant, too, that school would get out soon!  With my family now growing older, we love to mark this holiday with camp outs, BBQs, hikes and generally just being outside!  So I thought a post on some of our favorite BBQ dishes would be a good idea!

First up: Broccoli and Ramen Noodle Salad

This may be my favorite salad!  It is so tasty!  And yes, it is very similar to a salad made with cabbage but the dressing is very light and the broccoli tends to stay a lot crispier than the cabbage does.  I first had this at a good friend's birthday party but the bringer of the salad wouldn't give up the recipe.  I turned to my favorite allrecipes and typed in the ingredients and there you go.  Found it!!  My only changes to that recipe are that I use about six green onions not the whole bunch and I use two 12 oz. bag of the broccoli slaw instead of the one. 

Next: Fruit Salad

  This is also very light and it is very simple, as well.  I just use the fruit I have on hand.  Chop up the fruit and add a little squeeze of lemon to keep those bananas from going bad, then mix in a small carton of your favorite yogurt (flavor doesn't matter) and enjoy!  Easy and healthy!

And finally, the main course:  Grilled Tri Tip

 

Many years back, my husband brought some sliced tri tips home from a trip to Costco.  I had never worked with tri tips before and was unsure how to treat them.  He found a recipe and grilled them up.  It became our new favorite!  We love these!  The flavor of the marinade and the tender cut of beef is fantastic!

So here is our BBQ.  We also like to grill up baby potatoes.  All very delicious!  Everyone loves these recipes!  Even the goat!

Sorry, Jimmer. None for you!

Lisa