It’s been so rainy and gloomy here lately — has it been that way for you? We haven’t been able to start any of our outdoor projects, except that I planted some annuals on Mother’s Day. The first trip to the plant store in the spring is the best!

To bring a little more spring to our house, I decided to replace the sad eucalyptus wreath that had been hanging in the elements for several seasons. Our front door is not shielded from rain or sun, so decorations tend to fade or degrade rather quickly.

I wanted to use faux daisies — do you remember that scene in You’ve Got Mail when Meg Ryan says that daisies are the friendliest flowers? — so I looked online for some inspiration. On Sutton Place has two great tutorials here and here. Armed with these photos, I went to Michaels and bought an 18″ grapevine wreath and some bunches of faux ferns and daisies.

The first step was to separate the bunches of faux ferns into individual strands. I didn’t want to use a wire cutter (and plus I couldn’t find mine), so instead I pulled the individual strands out of the bundles. Each strand in a bundle has its own wire, and all the wires are gathered at the base of the bunch and bound together, usually with a brown covering. If you pull hard enough on each individual strand, you can yank the strand and its wire out of the base of the bundle. It’s even easier if you use something like garden shears or scissors for leverage. As you can see in the photo below, I closed the shears on the bottom of the green part of each strand and then pulled the strand out of the bundle. I did not cut through the wire. This method is great, if you can get the hang of it, because you avoid creating sharp edges of cut wire and each strand has a long wire that you can use to attach it to the wreath.

Once the individual strands were separated, I wove the wires into the grapevine wreath. Remember that nature looks chaotic sometimes, so it’s good to leave some pieces sticking out a bit and avoid creating a pattern with the leaves.

Next, daisies! The daisy bunches I bought didn’t have wires, so I could easily cut off the individual daisies. I didn’t like the greenery in the daisy bunches — it was too dark alongside the ferns — so I used the daisies only and disposed of the rest. I used a hot glue gun to attach the stems of the individual daisies to the wreath.

And that’s it! Our front door looks happier and friendlier. And this new wreath makes me smile every time I open the door.

Happy weekend!