We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves :-)
But now the cold winds have blown in once again, and I've turned my attention to Thanksgiving. You know the drill, Dollar Tree, make it cheap, do it yourself ;-) Since I started decorating for the holidays I focus mainly on two things: the mantel and the dinning room table. Because these two areas are so central, I allow them to speak for the entire house (and of course my scarecrows are still holding it down outside).
Me and the little guy are also in the process of making these old-fashioned hand turkeys for the windows. Perhaps, I can share the finished thing in another post.
Again, I waited a little too late to begin shopping for my decorations, but luckily, I was still able to find some really good deals.Nothing really ever turns out the way I imagine it in my head, but I think I did alright with the things that I picked up. At the end of the day, I'm decorating solely to create memories for my son (& I kinda enjoy it too). When I was a kid, there was some type of mysterious joy about pulling out the holiday decorations year after year. After some time I knew what to expect, and those simple pieces, whether a dollar or a hundred dollars, became nearly sacred to me. That's what I'm trying to create for my son. Anywho, let's get to it.
The first thing that I purchased was these orange carvable pumpkins from the dollar store.
If you're interested in these I suggest getting them BEFORE Halloween. They were all gone afterwards--even after seeing them the day before. I think the store took them off the shelves. So like, people only use pumpkins for Halloween now???
I had the bright idea of painting the pumpkins gold (I paint everything gold, right?). I found out the hard way that if you want a smooth, sleek look to your painted pumpkin then you probably have to buy a real one or possibly use some other type of paint. I used my old standard spray paint and the Styrofoam didn't actually love it. *Shrugs*
The spray paint actually caused the pumpkin to bubble and prickle. I'm a fan of texture so it was all good with me, but if you're strictly going for a smooth look chances are you won't be happy. Let's take a look at the finished mantel, shall we?
Can you see the texture on the pumpkin? :)
I decided to keep the left over Spanish Moss from Halloween--without it the mantel looked a bit bare & the moss still works great for a fall harvest theme. The lantern was a Mother's Day gift to me from my mom (LOVE IT). Normally I keep the lantern in my writing room, but I felt that it fit in well with the theme. The picture in the back is just a image I printed off of the net, cut it to size, and threw it in a frame. The view is a bit obstructed, but it says: Family, together we have it all :-)
Love, love, love this old-fashioned flower bouquet and the material of the flowers is awesome--not sure what it is though.
I came across this fall colored bouquet at Home Goods in the clearance section and instantly fell in love with it. While I normally like to keep my holiday décor pieces to a buck or less I made an exception for this and still got a great deal!
Introducing Mr..& Mrs. Quail...
In total In have 4 pumpkins. I decided to top my candle holders with two of them, & I kinda like the way it looks.
Dashing!
I liked these little brides because they really have style AND they were 50% off the day after Halloween ;-)
Dapper
They were originally $5.00 a piece at Target, so I figured $5 for both wasn't too bad.
I love my little cornucopia sign! Another Dollar Tree find.
I would have loved to have a Cornucopia as my table centerpiece, but it was just too costly to make or to buy :-( So speaking of centerpieces what did I get?
Dollar Store Stuff!
I picked up 3 different types of florals, 2 packs of Christmas bulbs (that aren't too Christmasy and the kicker is I only needed one pack), more moss, a bird, and the foam to stick my pieces in. Luckily I had just happened upon a free vase that day. I also had white candles already on hand.
Humm, I just thought about it, after adding everything up my centerpiece cost $8 to create...much more than I ever want to spend. But that being said, it was MUCH cheaper than the ones in the store and I also had the added benefit of creating it myself, hands on work is a great stress relief for me!
I started by cutting the foam into 4 pieces (I used 3). I then stuck the candles into each side of the foam and began to wrap the moss around in the hopes that none of the foam would show. Next, I placed the Christmas bulbs on top. Lastly, I randomly began to place my florals and set my bird in place. TIP: buy florals that can be separated to get more bang for your buck.
Once I was satisfied with my arrangement I put that to the side and set my table with a table
set I picked up last year on clearance after the season. I still need to YouTube a pretty fold for my napkins though :-( Here's the table:
Unfortunately, my main piece was not the scale that I would have liked (I wanted something a bit larger), but it works--especially since I built around it with other pieces. Obviously I won't be burning the candles in the centerpiece, so I added lighting options around it. All in all, I like the centerpiece and it looks gorg in the daytime when the sun shines on the glittery branches :-)...if I say so myself.
After all that Holiday Spirit, the hubby and I decided that it was a fine time to take our little guy to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland. Basically Bronner's is a huge Christmas store with about everything you can imagine and even some things that you can't! It's open year round, but since it's so close to the season it was really crowded. Crowds aren't exactly my thing so it made our tip less enjoyable, however, our little guy had a blast looking at all the sights and he even got to pick out his own ornament. On the bright side it was a pretty day (even if it was cold) and I'm always down for a nice, long car ride (Bronner's is about a hour away).
Amazed ;-)
I don't think there's many places that you can have a picnic by the water and then head to a Christmas Wonderland all bundled up in the same week--but in Michigan, it happens.
Well, that's it for my Thanksgiving décor. If you've decorated already be sure to leave a pic in the comments. Until the next time, XO!
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