We live in the Tampa Bay area and I was raised in a Pirate loving town. Gasparilla is Tampa’s infamous partyfest. We drink. We catch beads. We drink. We walk up and down Bayshore like bums. We drink. We run in the marathons (well, I don’t but some do). We drink. We go look at art. We drink. We take our tots to the kid’s parade and activities. And then we go home and drink.

Wait. I forgot about the tent goers. Some go hang out in tents to avoid walking. They drink too, fyi.

It’s good wholesome fun. Ahem.

For those of us not in a Krewe, we wear normal clothes to the parade while we are young and normal. (As normal as a drunken scalawag can be…) But as we age, for some reason we feel the need to wear some blinged out pirate themed shirt that costs $100. To be worn once a year. And since most of us have acquired a home as we’ve aged, we also feel the need to hang crazy looking Gasparilla wreaths on our front doors. Costing upwards of $100.

And don’t accuse me, for a second, of judging. I own said shirts. Yes, there is an “s” after the word shirt. And I don’t wear them anymore because they haven’t fit in years. Bygones.

But by the time I hit the “wreath” age, I was way too broke smart to spend one of my paychecks on a tacky wreath. Luckily, the year my desire meshed with my frugality, my crafty co-workers and I came up with an idea to make our own wreaths.

I’m giving everyone from this former “work group” credit for this brilliant idea because 1) it was way too long ago for me to remember the specifics and 2) it was a group effort overall.

In a nutshell, here is what we purchased:

– Grapevine wreaths from Joanns with our coupons. Duh.

– A smattering of goodies from Oriental Trading for super duper cheap. Their selection varies each year and season but we managed to snag the following:

– little treasure boxes

– pirate bags with coins

– maps (which we burned to make look old and I swear we didn’t almost burn down our breakroom in the process)

– pirate hats

– flags

– skulls

– Our very own Strawberry Queen found the awesome colorful, metal parrots for $5.99 at a local Plant City store.

– Feathers (some had their own from previous projects but I snagged mine at Joann’s for $1

– Since we all have beads out the butt, those were free.

All told, I believe we spent approximately $30 per wreath.

I realize the timing of this post doesn’t give you a ton of time to order and craft up your own wreath but in the spirit of the Land of Pirates, I had to post in hopes that some of you have stuff lying around your house that you can whip together.

The Strawberry Queen sent me this photo of her wreath which is in much better shape and has more appropriate plumage.

I plan to tweak mine over time and I won’t lie…the photos you are looking at are after both of my kids (and poor storage) have wrecked havoc on my beloved wreath. As I’m typing this I’m wondering where my little pirate bag is… I’d love to add a pirate ship and a better flag down the road. And maybe more bling. I am getting older, after all.

I love that this project was so fun to make and that it cost us all significantly less money than running to a local boutique to buy one. I also love that our boss totally let us do this project at work. Do that math. I think we actually made money on them. But we made her one too, so all is well.

Argh, mateys!