I Love Using Natural Elements In My Home

We have such a short fall season here, it makes me really appreciate the warm brown tones in nature that we get.  We used to get to travel more and I would go crazy in North Georgia and the Great Smokey Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee in autumn.  All those beautiful colors and the crispness of the autumn air.  Aaahhhh ~ I just love it.  Here are a few of the Thanksgiving things I made the last couple of weeks.

I like to use what I have.  And this whitewashed reed bowl was perfect to hold all the pine cones.  I've had this beautiful candle for years and bring it out every fall through Christmas.  I love the embedded apples and greenery.  

This year I didn't get any cinnamon scented pine cones.  (I hate buying them knowing that they are on the side of the road and in yards everywhere here)  But I love the smell.  I found an easy tutorial here at Suzy's Sitcom to scent them yourself. 

I found the tutorial to make a pine cone garland thanks to Jessica @ Two Shades of Pink  and put my own spin on it and came up with this garland for my kitchen/dining room bar.

I love my Willow House hurricane lantern that I won from Heidi at Decor & More this year.

Another item from a thrift store that I've had for the longest time is this cute little turkey that's just right to hold walnuts and pecans.

And my table wouldn't be complete without a table runner.  So I made some patch work turkeys.  The plaid fabric is such a soft flannel feeling wool blend that I tea died.  I just cut some half circles and scalloped the edges in 3 different fabrics for the turkey feathers.  Then I sewed them on with a zigzag stitch.  Okay zigzag stitching the individual pieces for 7 turkeys was a little time consuming and tedious.  But hey, I'm totally happy with the end results.  Much cuter than my photos show.   I used brown flannel to cut out Mr. Turkeys body and head for a simple silhouette.  I made a wider burlap runner to go underneath.

Another simple and easy to make decoration are these adorable pumpkin candles.  Already having the twine and the glue.  I spent a total of  $2.  $1 for a package of balloons, which I have plenty left and $1 for the pkg of 2 flickering candles from Dollar Tree.  No chance of fire with these.  It's as easy as blowing up a balloon and wrapping it with jute twine.   I'll post the simple tutorial later.  I think I could make some really cute ornaments with this idea.

We had a late dinner this year.  Instead of the usual 2 o'clock meal we ate at 6:30.  I loved having it by candlelight.  I've had these metal twig candle holders for years and still love them.  I didn't have a tall candle for the big holder so a simple trick was to take 2 of my autumn leaf embedded candles and stack them on top of one another for the look of one large candle.

Well that's it for my Thanksgiving decor.  I hope you enjoy looking at it.  It's time to pack it away and think about Christmas now.  I love looking at everyone's Christmas decorations.  Being a crafter, sewer, etc...I love seeing these things months ahead of time.  If only I could start doing them in July and have some for Etsy early.  I think that is going to go on my calendar for next year.  Start Christmas crafts in July.


And for those of you who got your decorating done yesterday or even this weekend ~ Big, major kudos to you!!!  I on the other hand am still in the exhausted after Thanksgiving mode.


It was a really nice Thanksgiving.  I think it was all the projects that I took on before Thanksgiving that whooped me.  I'll be sharing more of those this week.  We had my cousin, Greg over.  I told you about him a week or so ago.  He was having heart problems but seems to be fine now.  It was great having him over.  The sweet guy, brought me a hostess gift and cooked greens (yum) and a green bean casserole himself.  He helped me in the kitchen and we laughed and had fun.  We all ate too much.  It's hard to cook Thanksgiving for 3 and not eat to much.  You just want to have a little of everything available.  We had so much fun that I completely forgot to take pictures.

Another reminder not to forget to enter my two giveaways.  Just click the pictures below to visit each and enter. 

 EatSmart Retro Scale

Cheerios Spread the Cheer

Have a fun weekend Ya'll!

Check out the fun party hops below that I've linked up to this week.