"Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes"

One of the many joys of the military spouse is the extended time off between jobs whenever you move. (My current euphemism for being unemployed.) I'm sure this sounds delicious to all you 9-5ers, but after awhile you've got to find ways to feel productive! Again, I have stumbleupon to thank for my next project: an Acorn Wreath! (Courtesy of Dana-Made-It.com. Click on the link for detailed instructions)

I received a book on Feng Shui for Christmas that I found very entertaining. Some of the suggestions are a bit hocus pocus for me: Covering all drains so chi can't escape down them, mobiles to stir up stagnant chi... My favorite is the remedy for a household that has trouble holding onto money, place a rock on the inside of your backdoor to keep chi from escaping. Maybe this makes it harder to sneak out the back to buy those shoes you've been eyeing. In which case why stop there? Barricade yourself in! Rocks everywhere! But lets not get overexcited.

One of the concepts I do agree with is that an attractive entrance to your home is welcoming to guests and therefore good chi. So what better way to make your front door attractive than a nice looking wreath? Thus Zoe and I set about collecting the required acorns for this venture, surprisingly easy for February. The only suggestion I have for collecting the acorns, should you find yourself attempting this, would be to bring some kids with you. It will make you look far less...bag lady-esque. At one point a concerned citizen approached me to make sure I knew that acorns are not for 'people eating'. After assuring him I did, we hurried on our way so as not to disturb anyone else. The next step was to bake the acorns so that anything living in them didn't end up infesting our wreath! After assuring yet another concerned citizen, my husband, that we were not having acorn for dinner it was time to start gluing. Another suggestion, buy lots of glue sticks! I ran out with this much space left to go.

And then, of course, bought the wrong size glue sticks...

One other problem I ran into, was that the hot glue really didn't hold the acorns to the wreath well. We have some pretty intense winds here so that just wasn't gonna work for me! So I got out my trusty Modge Podge and used that to secure the acorns. Naturally, I went to the book of Feng Shui for color suggestions. I found that red is said to be a lucky color that is believed to bring happiness, good fortune and fame. So we will see if it works. But really, I just like red.

All in all I am pretty pleased with the final result.