scenes from the weekend

 

 

Pictured are things like: 
-Taking advantage of Target's seductive sales in the form of a new kitchen rugs
-Welcoming back sunsets that arrive after 6:00 p.m. when we're both home to see our family room flooded with bright light
-Enjoying our friends playing a fantastic show at the coffee shop around the corner... with other lovely friends who have beautiful smiles & adventure with us down to Granby St. to check out a block party that had already ended
-A perfect sunset on the walk home last night
-Selfies in the car as we spent our day sneaking around a rainy city while everyone else worked & we pretended that the Earth actually WANTED to spend its special day to be windy & very un-April-like
-But also, please take note, very briefly, that I... Kelsey Bethune... NAILED the winged eyeliner look for the first time in ever. Just for Earth Day. Or something.

It's Monday... & Tuesdays are my Monday at work. So, goodnight, weekend. See ya in just another few days.

virginia in the springtime

 

We spent Sunday afternoon in Williamsburg with Amelia & Andrew, our favorite halfway point between Richmond & Norfolk. Amelia & I pretty much floated around all afternoon, soaking in the spring blooms. It was completely breathtaking. Top that off with Aromas coffee, old bookstores for the boys & an impromptu street fair (complete with man-in-kilt-playing-didgeridoo) & it was a pretty splendid spring afternoon.

It's not every year that we get spring here in Southern Virginia... We typically jump straight from sad, rainy winter to HOT. Hot & muggy. So, pardon an entire post of spring blooms & floral joy - I'll just be over here tossing dogwood petals into the air.

diy - rifle paper co. inspired spring wreath

It's Thursday night & I can already tell you that the highlight of my week was Rifle Paper Co. iPhone cases making their big, long awaited debut via Cup of Jo's blog. Anna Rifle Bond & her designs can do no wrong - It's all solid gold!

Amelia & I decided to tackle a Rifle Paper Co. inspired wreath to help welcome spring to our homes. We followed the same idea as my Valentine's Day wreath... Keeping it simple with felt! With Amelia as my hand model & creative director, we documented our process. Step-by-step directions can be found at the bottom!

 

 

 

supplies:

felt

hot glue gun

multi-purpose wire

wire cutters

scissors

pencil (for tracing)

1. Pick out your favorite illustration - We LOVE the Spring Citrus Floral Print!

2. Once you have your inspiration piece picked, you can purchase your felt colors based on the print's elements.

3. Pick out the wreath elements that you want to feature from the Rifle Paper Co. design & label the felt per element. This helped us streamline our efforts & kept us from getting confused about which color was going where!

4. Measure your wire, shape & twist! We used approximately 3 ft. of wire. & picked an oval shape.

5. Start with your base element - Our base element was the large green leaf. Cut out your shape & make sure you have enough to cover the entire wire frame. 

6. To complete our large leaves & fruits, we used two colors to mimic the inspiration print. Consider this as you plan your felt colors & wreath elements!

7. Repeat this process for the other objects on the wreath! We freehanded the floral & fruit designs, cut them out & used the glue gun to assemble each piece.

8. Use your base elements to create any bunches featured in the photo - The wire we used is also pliable enough that you could attach separate pieces to create dimension. 

9. Assemble your wreath from the base up!

10. We used the back of the wreath to attach some of the bunches of buds.

11. Clean up those icky hot glue strings... Then step back & enjoy your Rifle Paper Co. inspired wreath for this beautiful spring!

This was certainly a little bit more involved than cutting out hearts, so we'd recommend breaking up the process over a few nights of Arrested Development on Netflix (because it's time to refresh before the new season/movie debut!). If you make a wreath, please post a picture on instagram or leave a link in the comments - We'd LOVE to see!

Thanks for being our inspiration, Rifle Paper Co.!