DIY Crafts: Branch Wreath (1st attempt)

Signs of the early years of Tranquil Dreams is coming back into shape this December as I get through some housekeeping for the blog going on in the background, I’m having this sudden urge to get back into doing some DIY crafts and also some cooking and baking planned as well. Its going to be (hopefully) a fun little December that will get back on track on all the positive things that I’ve always liked doing as a crafty and creative outlet that is a very wonderful release for me when I manage to put together something nice.

First project to tackle is a branch wreath. I’ve put together all the wreaths at our current home and while it might not be as economical as a store-bought one, all of mine are unique to what I want on there and how I want it to look like. Feeling like a bit of a change, I went for a branch wreath at Michael’s during the Black Friday Sale and picked up a bunch of wreath decorations to see what I could do.

Here are all the supplies that I had bought:

• Branch Wreath
• Wreath Decorations

There’s something very different from doing a branch wreath than doing a pine wreath. It has to do with the whole messy elements of trying to put all the elements in. Putting in the decorations is trying to find that spot to hold them in place while hiding the sticks holding them up also. I didn’t use any wire which you could get or go with using hot glue to keep them all in place. With that said, designing branch wreaths are more minimalist in some ways where less is more.

Here’s my first trial which didn’t quite look like how I wanted so it was quickly pulled apart to rethink and redo…

Back to zero, I did some research on Pinterest on how branch wreaths usually are structured and then thought about a new structure where I would go find some supplies that I had bought before but never used. There some gold hollies and berries that I had picked up a year or two ago at Michael’s at a previous sale but never found a way to implement in anything else.

The final branch wreath turned out like this:

The final one looks like this.

It is a very simple first attempt and I can see some places where I can improve at filling in the gaps and making it feel more full and giving it some more volume as well. Overall, I am fairly happy with it as it does have the fun little elements of Christmas that I like and its along the lines of what I wanted to do.

Branch wreaths are this very interesting element to discover because of the whole fitting the pieces into a more classy style and it also has this less is more element to it while giving it space for the branches to have its compliment to whats put on it. I’m definitely having some more ideas on what themed wreaths to do. But there’s still time to maybe spruce this one up as nothing there is set because I also like my wreaths to have the chance to change it up when I get tired of looking at it. This version doesn’t have any glued elements and just held from strategically placing them to hold in place by the branches under and some of the wired holders on the wreath decorations.

*As a side note, I am working on a second one as a gift so expect a post on the new one (along with an update if I do change something on this one). That one is looking a lot more refined than this first one in my opinion so far but the theme isn’t fitting in as well as I’d like it to so its still in the making. *

Fall Decor!

Its a gloomy and windy Sunday! We have a few plans but Fall is among us and we’ve been preparing for winter’s arrival which is supposed to be incredibly harsh this year. Wood is stocked up and windows are cleaned (mostly).

Today’s post is simple! I’m slowly figuring out how to breathe some life into the house with just more colors. When I do make it all lively, it also keeps me motivated to keep it clean all the time! Plus, some of this isn’t exactly fall decor but more just closing the garden outside and bringing stuff back in.

A nice trip to Michael’s came up with some fall fake flowers (on sale!) and first bouquet we put together in the den is this cooler tone one. The pumpkin is actually a real decorative pumpkin that I bought at the Atwater market. A few more in the decor in the dining room.

A little shadowy but here, we got a new plant stand from IKEA. Very much needed since my cat is a plant eating monster and we need to prop plants up as much as possible. Below is a little experiment I’m trying with oregano to grow it in water since I read a few posts on it on Pinterest. So far, its doing pretty good. As of yesterday, it grew out roots already. Maybe I’ll try to do that with basil and have better luck. Its just with this, changing water regularly is going to be the hurdle to remember.

Next decor, is this fall bouquet that we put together from that Michael’s trip mentioned above. Also with decoration squashes from Atwater Market trip. My mom gave me some lovely apples and we’re working on eating those and making pies (recipe coming up).

In the yard,I took the picture a little late yesterday after some vicious rain that ended this morning so the flowers are not looking as good but very nice chrysanthemums! I bought this just a few weeks ago so they should be around for next season as well.

Finally, I cut in some fall flowers from the yard and put them next to the computer (aka my workstation). Its been my companion along with those cranes sitting on my light which was my first wedding anniversary gift from my husband. He made ten and that means a lot because he isn’t very good at origami so he added a cute note giving them a really creative name that I want to use for something. I’m working on figuring out how to put that either as a segment here or a change in the Youtube channel name is it has a lot of unboxing and gaming material mostly. I’ll see if it can come into use.

A simple post for today. It was supposed to go up yesterday but I took a day to just relax and catch up some movie watching and all that wonderful stuff as I face the reality that NaNoWriMo starts in a little over a week and I need to start not only getting ahead with posts for Halloween but start preparing for posts in November to not get in the way of trying to be on track or ahead with my word count.

Happy Sunday, my lovelies!
Hope you enjoyed this extremely random post! 🙂

My Weekly (now Monthly) Adventures!

Its been over a month that I haven’t posted a My Weekly Adventures instalment.  Why? Just because between not overwhelming you (and myself) with posts popping up all day, because I truly dislike it when I get bombarded by like 15 posts by one person (unless its comments), I decided to just group it together to eventually have its reappearance here and with actual things.  Life isn’t always busy and when its actually busy, I just don’t write about it, so I just lump it together with the highlights of the past month. I’ll try to keep it brief because I have posted individual posts on some of them also 🙂

Lets see whats happened in my life over the last month!

1) TV! TV! TV!

The thing I’m most proud of is catching up with TV.  My choice to keep up with three: Arrow, The Flash and The Vampire Diaries have been fantastically on track.  Mostly because I only have a week of streaming before they expire because I don’t have the fancy satellite subscription.  What happened to free TV, eh? Anyways, success also comes that I’ve delegated time to watch Dancing with the Stars (first season that I’ve seen) and am totally in love with it. The finals just happened and I need to stream that and not read any news to keep the surprise factor there.  Then, two weeks ago, I resumed watching Season 3 of Once Upon a Time, very much thanks to Netflix and and wrapped that up and read to catch up with Season 4 to be right on track. The way Season 3 ended, I’m looking forward to it. 🙂

Plus, apparently once a show is cancelled, I like to start watching it. Weird, eh? Because I just started watching the first episode of Witches of East End. I can’t say from the first ep but the set is very nice and umm…the dude, Daniel diTomasso playing Killian is really dark and brooding hot.

I think thats about the extreme of how much TV I can get in right now.

What are you watching these days?

2) MTL a Table!

Apparently October and November are the big events month for autumn.  I didn’t know that so the first new experience was participating a little in MTL a Table/TASTE MTL with friends.  I posted about those already.

The 3 restaurants I went to were:

• Le Montrealais (Queen Elizabeth Hotel)
• 1000 Grammes Bistro Glouton et Traiteur
• Brasserie Le Pois Penché

Do you  have any food festivals where you are?

3) La Grande Degustation de Montreal!

A wine tasting festival through and through! It was a last minute decision to go.  Over the years, I’ve been really interested in wines more than cocktails.  Learning to appreciate wines is something I’m slowly learning.  This year’s highlight was South Africa wines and those are a growing trend here.  After trying 6 booths or so, including these ones that left an impression while the others I can’t remember anymore:

• Nederburg Ingenuity White Blend
• Le Bonheur (Chenin Blanc/Chardonnay)
• Reyneke (Chenin Blanc)
• Porcupine Ridge (Sauvignon Blanc)

Other than that, I ended up loving this vodka from Las Vegas called Vegas Vodka and ordered myself 2 bottles of it. And then ended up at a checking out this white wine from Quebec from a winery called Domaine de Petit Roubie that had this lovely fruity wines with a very distinct taste (2 more of those).

Definitely a new experience and I’m waiting for those bottles to arrive so that my boyfriend can taste it as well. (By the time this goes up today, I just received the order yesterday.)

4) Home update!

My house is completely painted now.  My kitchen was the last room and the most pain in the behind to do.  That room has covered with a light yellow and it brightens up the room when any light hits the walls.  My description is that my kitchen is like a dessert. The cupboards look like gingerbread and the walls look like custard and the trimmings is whipped cream.  Trust me, when natural hits it, its even more so.

Now is just organizing everything.  First place all organized after 2 evenings as of last night was organizing all the movies that my boyfriend and I own.  After organizing alphabetically over 3 shelves, emptying a ton of boxes, its finally done.  I dug out the movies that I owe reviews to and I’m stacking them up to get those watched.  I’ve never really had a chance to see EVERYTHING my boyfriend owned and although we had a few doubles, there was a whole lot that I haven’t seen yet so it’ll be fun 🙂

Also, beginning of November, we also bought our huge Christmas Tree.  What comes with Xmas trees are how to decorate it, which means I need to get my crafty self back into action. While getting those DIY ornaments together, I put together my garland with little decorations around it and spiced it up with some fir scented sticks and decorated it on my little staircase. Last year’s wreath also got a little redecoration so once I find that door hanger, I’ll put that up as well 🙂 (By the time this goes up, I already found it but no picture yet).

The holidays are around the corner, the house is pretty much in the final stretch and I’ll be moving soon.  Thats a crazy but extremely happy thought 🙂

Are you geared up for Christmas?

5) New clothes (for a good cause)

I love Arrow and I love Stephen Amell.  Why? Because the man does good things. He tries to live up to his character and he seems rather genuine.  So, I love buying clothes and if I happen to buy clothes that are for a good cause, well, even better. I usually don’t wear people’s face on myself, its a little creepy and I don’t swear (much) either so this F&ck Cancer shirt really breaks a few rules but for a good cause, I’m willing to do it.

6) Ornament making

I just bought a 7.5 feet Christmas tree so that means I need to decorate it. I managed to get some hand me down ornaments but its definitely not enough to cover a gigantic tree. So other than buying a few little things at Target and Walmart (yay for sales), I am making it. Here’s two of the types 🙂

7) Sunrise photo session!

Two weeks or something before the weather went all cold and crazy, I went out with my friend for a photo session for sunrise.  First time for me.  Here’s a few shots.  I promise a full post but I’m just a bit backlogged 😉

8) Snowy Girls Night Out 🙂

This past weekend, my girl friends and I went out for dinner. One of us is going back to Vancouver after a few months back home in Montreal to deal with a few things.  That day, she fell in love with the snow all over again.  With her excitement, we went to take pictures.

Quartier Dix30 has that lovely decorations all set up.  The restaurant we wanted to go to was packed but we did get to stand in the snow with the lovely Christmas “tree” and warmed our hands near the fire.

On top of that, last night we all went to go see Big Hero 6! I had a blast with it and the review will go up tomorrow afternoon 🙂 I’m even going to pair it with a lovely Out of The World Travels post on my other blog.  That one is really getting neglected a lot when my brain really can’t squeeze out any more writing.

Have you seen Big Hero 6?

9) Blogging Changes and Updates!

End of the year is right around the corner and the days are moving fast fast fast.

This weekly adventure is coming a tad late.  So if you haven’t realized, the pace of things are relatively stable much to my surprise but the content is more concise.  For one, I’m doing the Photography 101 for two reasons.  One is for the annual NaNoWriMo month, which I was very much on track in the first week and then the second week just went in the dumps.  I’m about 15000 words behind now and I really don’t know how I’ll catch up but I’ve been in worst shape in previous years and manage to finish.  I’ll figure it out one way or another. Second is that with Nanowrimo, it gives me a permanent post going up everyday.  This new routine actually has given me the push to keep the content going up here rather constant.

With this one, I’ve actually been able to revive some more fun segments like my Pinterest Therapy, Music Obsessions and back regularly is my Weekly Workout Recaps as I work hard to get back to how fit I was at the beginning of the year. I’m even getting really dedicated to having updates (probably for myself) to how I look physically.

December is next week! My mind is going crazy with new stuff.  So I’ll be doing some organizing around here.  The sidebar has been in desperate of updates.  C’mon, my images are from 2013! I’m thinking up a rating system (still) and two long-term projects.  More baking also for Christmas!  On a lovely note, I did add on the menu tabs for My Weekly Adventures and  Music Obsessions.  I should really add in Pinterest Theapy 🙂

 FINALLY…THATS IT! A round of applause for you for making it to the end 🙂

No more of this long breaks between adventures! You can see how I procrastinated.

Wish me luck on pushing to finish for NaNoWriMo! Word count is around 30,000 right now. 20,000 more in the next few days! I need a lot of tea….