Celebrate with a Wreath

Celebrate with a Wreath

Jess and Thomas aren’t the only couple I know using burlap and a farm theme for their wedding. Two of my three cousins getting married this summer are doing the same thing. My mother hosted separate bridal showers for both ladies, Meagan and Beth, and decided to decorate her home using their colors–burlap and all.

I was aware of the sudden trend in burlap decor, so I told Mama I’d make a wreath for her to use at the showers. I don’t think it had occurred to her to put a wreath on her door for the events, but why not? Wreaths are symbols of celebration. We use them at Christmastime to celebrate Jesus’ birth, the Greeks awarded them to Olympians when they won competitions, and Kirsten taught us to wear them in honor of St. Lucia’s Day. Why not celebrate coming nuptials with a wedding-themed wreath?

My burlap-and-hydrangea wreath

You don’t have to search the internet very long to find instructions on how to make one of these. I ended up following the instructions in this blog. Meagan’s colors are “burlap and coral,” so I thought this was a fitting welcome into Mama’s house. The ladies loved it, and Mama used it as-is for Beth’s shower too. That time she placed it on the inside of the door into her sunroom so we could really enjoy it!

Back at my house, the silk-flower wreath I’d used on the front door for the past 5 years during spring was looking faded and sad, so I knew it was time for a new one. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any money to spend on one. I started searching for inexpensive wreath ideas and found the coffee filter wreath. We had recently changed from our beloved KitchenAid coffee maker to a Keurig machine, so I had tons of white coffee filters in my pantry just getting dusty. Reduce clutter and decorate on the cheap? Yes, please!

No need for coffee filters to go to waste.

The whole project took less than a day and cost me about $3. I started with the instructions at Fox Hollow Cottage, and then I did my own thing. I made one trip to Hobby Lobby where I bought a $2 spool of ribbon (to make the bow and to hang it by) and a $1 embroidery hoop (to glue the filters to). When I got home, I dipped some of my coffee filters in yellow food dye I already had and let them dry. That night while Daddy and David were at a Predators game, I sat in my living room floor, watched a chic flick, and made the wreath. Voila!

This spring creation is just soft enough to work for Emmalee’s baby shower, which I’m hosting here in May. I hope this wreath is as big a hit as the burlap wreath was!

Stones Still Speak

When we first encounter the Bible, we are taught its stories—Adam and Eve, Moses and the Red Sea, David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale, and more. When a story lacks the details we crave, we fill in the blanks–with what we’ve seen in movies, read in books, and been told by our Sunday school teachers. But there’s a better way to encounter the whole story of Scripture: uncovering and understanding the ancient world and the people who experienced biblical events.

In Stones Still Speak, Harvard-trained archaeologist and theologian Amanda Hope Haley scrapes back 2,000 years of misguided cultural interpretations to reveal God’s Word in its historical, archaeological, and literary contexts. Far from a dry academic exercise, this process explains how our misunderstandings developed and revitalizes the Scripture you thought you knew, with the greater purpose of encouraging a more intentional, rigorous study of the Bible in your daily life.

Available for pre-order now. Books will ship from your favorite retailer by September 23, 2025.

Copper Finds a Manger

Copper the basset hound travels the world with his friend, Amanda, while she digs on archaeological sites. On this trip to Bethlehem, the ancient city where Jesus was born, this adventurous dog follows his nose to an ancient stone manger. There he meets a new friend who tells him all about life in first-century Judaea and the night a special baby was born in the house Amanda’s excavating.

This book features

  • a Page for Parents that explains the historical facts behind the story,
  • grades 1-3 reading level,
  • 34 pages of edge-to-edge full-color illustrations, and
  • durable heavyweight pages with a glued binding (no staples!).


Join Copper as he learns the history of the first Christmas!