It's been nearly a year since I started my seasonal crown project and I'm still really enjoying making crowns out of bits of found nature. I made a number of flower crowns in the spring and summer, but my favorite crowns are those I made in the autumn and last winter using leaves and seed pops and other less traditional crown materials foraged from the woods and fields near my home. It's fun attempting to capture the seasons in the form of a crown, but it can be frustrating too--sometimes the materials don't want to be woven together in a crown and break and fall apart as I work with them, other times I'm too late to capture a fleeting moment of color. Take these virginia creeprs; I should have made this crown a couple of weeks ago when more of the leaves were fresher on the vine, but autumn is a fickle season and it's hard to get the timing right. Too early and the vines are too green, too late and you come across vines like these--some determined leaves still clinging but nearly as many carpeting the ground. We pass this old building at least once a week and I've been watching the vines each time, wondering when they would go red. For ages they stayed green, then one day everything turned crimson and by the time we stopped by less than a week later half of the vines were bare! Still, it's a gorgeous little stone shed in every season, leaves brilliantly cardinal or otherwise. I was watching an architectural show recently featuring different amazing homes around the world and I just couldn't understand all the excitement from the hosts over the modern houses. Give me an old stone building any day! My dream home doesn't look too different from this rather humble shed; it's quaint and classic and I love the texture of old stone. It lacks a few windows and modern conveniences, but I do hope one day to own a cozy cottage that leans towards traditional and antique.
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