Fall Wreath {and in your face 9 years ago me}

The very first fall I lived in my very first apartment, I got a little crafty.  I had a handmedown glue gun from a garage sale that my grandma gave me and I went a bit crazy at Michael's.

{Oh, get ready.  Embarrassing first apartment photo circa 2004 follows...}

Argh, HOLY first apartment HELL, Batman.  C'mon, though, how cute is that wreath?  Little college Melissa with her ducky mug someone gave her in high school and her garage sale dining room table and her very, very feeble attempt at decorating on a budget that was spent by the time I'd bought books and paid my rent.

Even though it was my first ever wreath, I thought it turned out pretty well.  And so it traveled with me into our first house, into my marriage, and onto our very first Halloween porch.

And there it remained.  Year after year, diligently and faithfully placed on its hook on the front porch each Labor Day until the day after Thanksgiving, when it was replaced by a Christmas wreath (incidentally, made about a month after this one).

Of course, it came with us to the new house.  We didn't decorate last year since we had a one month old and a new house and seventeen gajillionty projects to even make it livable.  This year when I pulled it out, covered in dust, fake flowers and greenery all a mess, it just seemed... really sad.

I decided it needed a face lift. A more grown up, sophisticated look.  A little burlap (which I'm so into this fall, by the way).  And so, I give you....

After a really really good dusting, I pulled all of my nine-year-old hard work off the wreath to start again (because: waste not want not, and the wreath itself was still in good shape).

I picked up a few things from the craft store, and started by wrapping my wreath loosely in burlap.

Once I had the burlap positioned the way I wanted it, it was a matter of getting the picks in place.  I started with several bunches of flowers, which I promptly took apart using a wire cutter.

I started with the most neutral at the back and worked my way forward, adding only one or two individual stems at a time and securing them with the glue gun.  The berries initially had leaves and full stems, which I liked but didn't love when I added them in the wreath, so I cut them down and used only the berries as a frame in the center.  

I knew, since I'd used the burlap, that I didn't want to add a bow, so instead I bought some overlarge acorns as a cover to hide the imperfections and glue where I added the picks.  The last things in were the feathers, which I absolutely adore.  

Here is the finished product:

I'm kinda loving it.  Especially since the total cost of this transformation was a whopping $24, wahoo!  It's certainly an upgrade - I suppose it was probably long overdue - from that sweet little attempt from my college days.  A grown up wreath for a grown up house.

While we're at it, a quick shot of our front door (even though I'm dying to paint that ugly brown door... Navy blue?  We'll get there!):

So, there you have it!  What do you think?  Better than my first attempt?