Make a Giant Hula Hoop Wreath

Hello lovelies! You may have seen our Holidaisical Hooplah tour as part of the Holiday Housewalk this week –

And today I wanted to share about how we decked out Rocky for our mantel.

I had it all planed out in my head. This super fun mix of colorful modern with a dash of handmade vintage glam… (I’m never sure how to describe our style, so in my head I use a lot adjectives and it works.) But I had my heart set on a boxwood wreath and Rocky. I just knew it was what our mantel was destined to be decked in this year. But once we had him hung, it was lacking something. After staring at it for a while, I thought… it needs another layer of color. In a different material. In the shape of a circle.

So I left it for a night. And I stared at it. I knew I wanted to make a giant skinny wreath from yarn. And after toying with the idea of trying with wire, Jamin suddenly exclaimed “Hula Hoop!” like we were playing charades, and he totally won the game for bonus points and super hubs with cool ideas. Duh. The perfect size was a giant hula hoop.

This is how our process works. You should see us argue sometime.

(Side note: this word is a lot like tee pee. Tipi? Hula Hoop? Hoolah Hoop? Hoola Hoop? Rolling with it…)

So, I went to the local craft store, and picked out a plethora of pretty colors that we liked. (Emerson, my design accomplice was with me and insisted on adding pink. I went with it.)

I now have a pretty yarn problem. To add to my pretty tape/fabric problem.

So I sat down and taking my hot glue gun, used little bits of glue while I wrapped the yarn in sections. I worked at my leisure, tending to the kids as I went… and I was even able to catch up on Parenthood. It probably took about 3.5 episodes of Parenthood, so it’s a great nighttime or while-the-kids-play kinda project.

Just a side note: most hula hoops are filled with liquid. When you hang it, it will sag.

So give it a little support with another nail placed subtly beneath. Worked like a charm.

Also? If you want to hang a moose like Rocky and a wreath, you will need to give him a little something to hang on. So we painted a thick piece of wood cut to size, and mounted it first to the wall (the wreath was already up). Then, we added Rocky. Tada! You can’t even tell unless you come up beside it and underneath like the photo shows.