In Pursuit of Domestic Goddessness: Nesting?

Lately I've just been feeling crafty. When my roommate asked me about it I told her it was because I was preparing to have children. Obviously not my own, but I've accepted a nanny position starting the week after graduation. So in a little more than a month, I'll have responsibility for an 8 year old and an 11 year old. Clearly, this preparation has caused me to begin nesting.

nesting [ˈnɛstɪŋ]

n. (Psychology) the tendency to arrange one's immediate surroundings, such as a work station, to create a place where one feels secure, comfortable, or in control

Another explanation is that crafting and creating is that I've been stressed lately. I've had at least one exam each week for the past 6 weeks, and it has been exhausting! Today I finished up my last midterm as an undergraduate, and in celebration I took a trip to the DI and the dollar store to gather supplies for a couple of upcoming projects.

In 2008, Deiter F Uchtdorf gave a talk on creativity. I believe that what he said is true!

The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.
Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty.
Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty.

After getting home from an eventful evening with the girls, we sat down to watch Morning Glory, which is a cute movie, and I worked on this first craft.

Old Book Wreath!

Now, apparently wreaths are all the rage, and after ~~stalking~~ err, viewing quite a few blogs I decided on wreath made out of an old book. I love books! Also, after helping my artistic sister Rachel with a few art projects, I learned that I love pulling apart books.

Here's what you'll need:

An old book (I chose one at the thrift store that 1-I would never want to read, 2- had an old look to it with weathered pages and 3- had red edging, because I thought it would like the look.)
A wreath form (the ONLY one I could find at the dollar store was a floral foam one... not quite the best material, styrofoam or a wooden wreath would likely work better (next time...)
Some form of attachment. All the blogs I read recommended hot glue, but I am not yet in possession of a hot glue gun (Don't worry, it's on my birthday list!) I purchased a package of 300 gold thumbtacks from the dollar store which worked with some help.
Some ribbon or fabric to hang the wreath with.

Yeah... I started ripping before I started picture taking. I couldn't wait.

And, while we're looking at what you need, can I point out that I spent .75 on the book, 1.00 on the wreath, and 1.00 on the thumb tacks. I also used scraps from another project for the hanging fabric and something to wrap the wreath form in so the push pins would stay. All in all-- $2.75!

The first step is ripping up the book! Try to keep the pages whole, until you rip them in half. (My book was about 5X8 inches) so it made 2 1/2 X 4 inch rectangles. I'd say it was 250 pages, and I had about half leftover.

Look at those red edges! I LOVE THEM!

Ok, so because of my lack of wreath options, and also lack of glue gun I had to be creative with getting my book pages to stick. I had some fabric laying around and wrapped it around the wreath- this gave it enough holding power for the push pins to stick. I would likely use push pins AND hot glue, I love the look of the gold push pins poking through and would like the security. Anyway...

Put a push pin in the center of your half-page. Like so:

Then wrap the paper around a finger, after taking this picture (which isn't very good), I decided that using my middle finger worked better.

At this point I started pushing the pins into the wreath. I also enjoyed it so much that I failed to take any pictures of the process. I tried to put the papers as close together as I could. I did the top of the wreath and the outside. I didn't bother with the center because the top was so poofy that it covered it.

Before I got all the way around, I tied a ribbon around the wreath so I could put the papers over it.

As soon as I was done I was SO excited to hang it on my wall! (Unfortunately this probably won't pack or store well, so it will be my gift to my roommates who are hanging around here in Provo). I'll have to make a new one when I get to my final destination (with a glue gun).

Ready to see the final product?