Made It: Hanging Snowflake Garland

Hello! A couple of posts back, I showed off a Pilgrim hat with streamers I'd hung up on our side porch in honor of Thanksgiving. Of course, with Christmas now on the horizon, I had to take that decoration down and put up something in tune with the current holiday.

But the felted hanging garland I'd hung up the last two years blew down in a snowstorm last December. I was a little bummed because it was cheerful looking. It had originally come from Target, but I'd only paid a dollar for it at a thrift store. So at least only a little money had blown away with that decoration. 

I looked around a bit on our property to see if I could find where the wind gust had taken it, but it was nowhere to be found. Then, while doing yard work last month, I spied half of that felted garland on top of some fallen leaves in the backyard. Where had this garland been in nearly a year? How did it suddenly show up when and where it did? I wondered if some critter - most likely a squirrel - had fancied the garland's cheery colors as much as I had and made off with it after it'd been blown off our side porch. 

(I once lived in a house where squirrels found their way to the attic, and they had a habit of getting into my sewing and craft projects there. They took felt Christmas ornaments I'd made and a sewing project in progress. Both were found outside several months after the thievery).

Anyway, the sight of that now-bedraggled garland reminded me that I wanted another one to take its place. Of course, rather than heading to Target, I combed thrift stores to find something suitable. I didn't find another felted garland, but did find eight snowflake shapes for a dollar. They're glittered-trimmed plastic, so I figured they'd hold up okay outdoors. 

They have holes on top for hanging, which someone had used for threading green florist's wire loops. Rather ugly, I thought, so I replaced the wire with thin blue cording. I could have poked holes in the bottoms of the snowflake shapes for making a garland, but it was easier to just tie the cording on. 

Here's the finished garland:

Alas, the light breeze outside caused some of the snowflakes to move sideways, but you can see the overall effect. The garland is close to five feet in length (each snowflake is about three inches long). 

Here's a close-up:

As you can see from the background, there was no snow on the ground at the time, so hanging a snowflake garland up seemed a little foolish. But I knew that snow was on its way, and sure enough, as of this writing we've gotten close to six inches. And more is on the way for tonight and tomorrow...and Monday...and Tuesday...etc. 

Oh well, at least the snowflake theme of this garland means that I can leave it up all winter. It won't be out of season until spring. That reminds me - a banner I'd hung up several springs in a row also blew away in a storm a few years back (unlike the felted garland, it never returned). So I'll need to work on a replacement for that time of year! 

I added a wire hanger at the top of my snowflake garland and thus was able to attach it tightly to the hook on the side porch ceiling. Hopefully that'll keep the garland in place!