Wreathed in Gold

In my never-ending quest to keep a festive and inviting doorway, I decided we needed a little Olympic spirit at the front door. For the 6 of us, miscellanous friends, the pizza guy, our letter carrier, the porters and the lovely Italian lady who cleans our building hallways. She asked me this week (apparently after weeks of staring at the ring of silver beans heaped on my door) just what all this door decor was about.

It is all about saying, "Hello! How 'do? Glad you're here!"

If you want a little Olympic spirit at your door, here's a step by step guide. It will likely take you longer to read this than it did for Baby Sister and me to pull it together.

STEP ONE.
Bemoan that the official 2012 Olympic products are so unsightly. Don't even get me started on the mascots. Of all countries that could have gone with traditional pagentry and symbols, it is the United Kingdom. But I found this gym bag and tea towel hoping they could become an attractive Olympic wreath. I almost went with the tea towel hung from a dowel but feared it would look...as if I'd hung a tea towel on my front door. So £8 nylon gym bag it was.

STEP TWO:
Repurpose an embroidery hoop. These have become my substitute for wreath forms and worked perfectly for this make-it-up-as-you-go project. Center the design and trim the excess gym bag away.

STEP THREE:
Assume, quite wrongly, that Baby Sister is so interested in your having cut something you JUST bought with scissors that she is neither playing in your makeup (note the brows!) nor holding scissors very dangerously. Did you also note her dress was on inside out? Very busy crafting here. Cannot attend to all the details!

STEP FOUR:

Get tickled all over again that you have this giant pile of white grosgrain (a real steal from the White Company's New Year's Eve sale) to embellish the wreath. Affix with electrical tape to the top of the door.

STEP FIVE:

Stand back and wait for Big Brother (our biggest Olympic fan so far!) to come home and voice his wide-eyed genuine approval!  "COOOL!" is how that is expressed by an almost-8 year old.