A blog has always been on my bucket list of things to do, my son who is a computer programmer and my living Google when it comes to tech questions, politely answered all my questions about blogging for a few years, however I’m sure, never believing I’d actually do it.

At the end of last summer I had one of those moments in life, no doubt having our lives turned upside down when our 2 basement floors flooded (we live in a super back split~4 floors). triggered it. Imagine 6 people, mostly adults, 3 cats and 3 dogs crammed into 2 floors of a home that was designed around utilizing all 4 floors. The loss and the rebuilding made me reflect on what’s important in life and how quickly all that can change, and so I set out to finally birth this blog.

First I needed a name, I knew I wanted to share a basket of this and that, life’s simple things, sometimes crafts, sometimes recipes, sometimes a review here and there and sometimes just this gal rambling on. I tossed a few names back and forth to myself but nothing seemed right, I became discouraged, surely if I couldn’t even come up with a name how would I ever come up with content? And like most good things in life, it came to me when I least expected it, no brain storming, no Googling, just right there like a sign from the universe. As I was picking up our youngest from school one September day, I saw a mom, her hands lovingly grasping a handful of dandelions, 2 small children by her side; the name came to me but not right away. The name for my blog isn’t what first popped into my head, no, it was the sadness I felt missing those days from my own 4 children, the simplicity of a dandelion bouquet that brought me many smiles over the past two decades as a mother, and from that thought, this blog had a name!

I’m not generally a flower kind of girl, I hate roses, in the garden and as bouquets, I don’t like their look or scent, and do you know how many craft supplies I could buy with the cost of a bouquet of roses? I do however love orchids, they are exotic, even a little funky and weird you might say, a lot like me. I cannot grow orchids for the life of me, we have 1 big window in our living room but I don’t think enough sun comes in, so half a dozen dead orchids later I am now the happy recipient of many faux orchids from hubby, in thrifted vases of course. Sunflowers are also my favourite, another thing on my one day list, to grow them; I know seems silly doesn’t it? But I was so intimidated, would they grow, how do I grow them? Then a few years ago I grabbed some seeds and decided to go for it, they were dwarf sunflowers to be put in a raised garden box, and I’m happy to say they grew and grew and have grown every year since(new seeds every year). My summer crafts/decor often have sunflowers on them, these 2 upcycled wreaths are no exception. Today ive combined one of my favorite flowers with one of my favorite things, upcycled projects.

The first is an old metal bike wheel I found sitting at a thrift store for a few dollars, I had seen these wreath ideas done before and was hoping to find a wheel (for cheap) I never imagined one sitting at a thrift store, but you just never know what you can find there. I hot glued the sunflowers and fern leaves down, learning that I needed ALOT of hot glue for them to stay put on the metal. The top sunflowers are actually made of metal, I found them at a garage sale a few years back, I zip tied them on and the butterflies are from Dollar Tree and wired onto the spokes.

The second use to be an antique table/lamp, one of my favorite thrift finds from years ago, much to my sadness it broke and we couldn’t seem to fix it so I took it apart and saved the table top, which is solid wood (the best part of vintage is the use of real wood) I had painted the original lamp/table in what I thought was a distressed look, how much I’ve learned since lol, I sanded down the “distressed paint job” then spray painted it with a flat grey paint, then sanding some more, for an actual distressed look. I had some scraps of plywood (I always do) and made a birdhouse, it was hot glued over the hole in the table top, then I used a screw to act as a perch as well as reinforcing the house to the table top. I finished it off by hot gluing on some fern leaves and the large sunflower, it’s ready to hang on a faux barn door in the front garden.

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