Burlap Autumn Wreath

It's been awhile since I've crafted anything and with fall quickly coming upon us, I felt the need for a little autumn goodness. 

I'd planned on doing quite a bit of baking yesterday as I was going to have friends over for the Broncos game today.  We had a little incident though that changed our weekend plans....Brooklyn had a stay at the Animal Emergency Hospital and I abandoned her there for a bit (so hard to do) and headed out for a little human medical care.  

My poor puppy.  

Brooklyn and I were out for a walk and I'd intentionally chosen to head back via the route in front of the houses rather than back through the greenbelt we'd started on.  The fences were low and there were a couple of big dogs who came awfully close to coming right over the top of the fence when they saw us.  How can people expect hip height fences to keep dogs in?  You'd think the front of the houses would be safer right? 

Not so much.  

Three large dogs hanging out inside the front door of their house saw one awfully cute Boston Terrier and all hell broke loose.  They opened the door (seriously, these dogs opened their own glass storm door) came flying out and within seconds were on top of Brooklyn.  They say you are not supposed to interrupt a dog fight, but this was really more of a mauling...300 lbs vs 20 lbs is hardly a fight.  I do know that jumping into a pile of riled up lab-pit mix and Bernese Mtn dogs is far from wise but if you see a dog grab your pup by the throat and hear the screams and cries coming from your dog,  you don't really care about what you are or are not supposed to do.  I was right in the middle and by the time the owners  came out and pried their 3 dogs away and had control of them, it was a bit of a bloodbath. 

Luckily there was no damage requiring surgery--Brooklyn's harness was ripped to shreds but she was able to limp around at the hospital.  I walked away with just a sprain.  

As the dogs' owner kept assuring me over and over (while bleeding himself) that his dogs with their blood-soaked fangs did not have a single vicious bone in their bodies (huh?), I was struck by how quickly and easily this attack happened.  These dogs were inside their house and seconds later were on top of Brooklyn...no warning, no heads-up growling, no obvious impetus--just a full force attack.    There were at least 2 mothers on the street walking their babies in strollers--so much for safety in your own neighborhood. Brooklyn's getting a kevlar harness next.  

This is a dog on drugs.  Along with her IV and meds, they gave her a "valium cocktail" at the hospital.  No one offered me one.   

What else can I write after that story?  Not much and as it turns out, I don't have a lot to add to the below photos anyway because I can't actually explain how I made this wreath.  I bought the below wire and and pipe cleaner wreath form at Hobby Lobby for about $3 (40% off their holiday items almost every week). I bought burlap ribbon because I am not ambitious enough to cut strips of burlap.  Ribbon is also a lot less messy.   I ended up using about 12 yards of burlap ribbon (on sale for 50% off or about $6 total) and just started pulling loops through the wire form and wrapping them with the pipe cleaner.  

I searched Google and Pinterest for instructions on making this and couldn't find any that made sense to me even with photos.  It was mostly trial and error but it really is just about pulling loops through and fastening them.  

I've seen much fuller versions and if I had more ribbon, I might have used more but it turned out full enough for my liking. 

I used one roll of ribbon all the way around and then went back with the second roll and filled in the gaps.

I attached a couple of fall berry picks and made accent flowers from orange burlap ribbon.  This is just twisting the ribbon and rolling into a flower----with a lot of hot glue along the way.  I attached the flowers by pulling one of the pipe cleaners through the back of the flower and then securing with hot glue as well. 

 I'm not much of a seasonal decorator outside of Christmas, but have to say that a little rustic burlap on the door does make it all seem quite autumnal. This wreath would also look great on a securely locked, dog-proof door.