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Harvest Home Decorating
by Colleen Moulding - editor@allthatwomenwant.com
Description: Tips for decorating your home with a harvest theme.
Porch or Hallway Display
If you can get hold of a block or two of hay this is perfect for
the base of your hallway or porch display. If not, cover some boxes
with sacking, or a throw or a piece of cloth in a neutral colour and
build up from there.
Start with some large pumpkins for instant colour, then add some fun to your
harvest display by making vegetable people. Heads can be turnips,
pumpkins, gourds or beetroots, and arms and legs can be suggested
by cucumbers, carrots, parsnips or corn. The bodies can be large parsnips,
melons, anything you have to hand. You could make mini ones for
a table or almost child sized for a kitchen, garden room or
porch. Terracotta pots make great hats or boots to finish off the look
and of course flowerpot men made completely from terracotta
pots wired or stacked together with wheat or corn poking out of
the top one for hair always look fantastic and it's a good way to
store pots that you won't need again until next Spring.
Fall Floral Arrangements
Using the abundance of nature at this time of year can make for
some unusual containers for seasonal floral arrangements too.
You can push pieces of florists foam into holes made in pumpkins
or gourds or try hollowing out crinkly cabbages, or gourds and
stuffing them with pre soaked florists foam before arranging a
selection of berries, grasses, seed heads, curly willow,
wired tiny pumpkins, oranges, pomegranates or whatever you can
get your hands on.
Another way to make ordinary containers special is to wrap a couple
of strips of double sided tape around a plain vase or simple jar
and stick on overlapping fallen leaves, twigs, or even
vegetables. Secure these with a raffia, string or green gardener's
twine bow, before filling with your chosen arrangement.
Nature's Table
Use fallen leaves as a base for a decoration that runs down the
middle of your table. I would recommend that you use paper
underneath just in case any moisture left in the leaves damages a polished
table top. Then add twigs, or small branches, acorns, cones and an abundance
of fruits and vegetables interspersed with candles for a sumptuous look.
A row of apples along the centre of a table with just enough of
the apple carved out to drop in a tea light candle looks magnificent
and costs hardly anything but a steady hand. For upright candles
a core remover can help take out enough of the apple to keep a
candle securely in place.
Autumn Wreaths
Vine wreaths or the lighter coloured bamboo variety are
available quite inexpensively at florist's supply shops. Use whatever
you have to hand, wheat, corn, dried or silk flowers in appropriate
colours and hot glue to the base wreath before adding a raffia or
paper ribbon bow.
Wreaths made entirely of wired on pine cones wrapped with
gingham ribbon look very good at this time of year and
with a change of ribbon to something more glamorous will
do duty for Christmas too.
If you do not have or cannot afford to buy bases for wreaths
make some from cardboard. First draw around a large plate,
then draw around a smaller plate. Cut out the hole in the middle.
Add some batting, wadding or any padding that you can find
then cover this with a fabric remnant before hot gluing cones,
fruits or any other harvest decorations and a large bow to the wreath.
Children may enjoy just painting the cardboard wreaths and
sticking fallen leaves all the way around.
Autumn Leaf Garland
You can also make a pretty leaf garland by pressing leaves
in a heavy book or telephone directory for a few days and
then stringing them together with invisible thread or gold
thread to drape or wind anywhere that you need a little
extra colour.
Fall Kid's Crafts
Kid's crafts make the most charming harvest decorations of all.
Use the Internet to find ideas for fun projects, Kid's Domain
Thanksgiving Crafts at http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/_Thanks.html has good ones, as does Childfun Thanksgiving Crafts at http://www.childfun.com/themes/thanks_craft.shtml. If you need more ideas just put Thanksgiving crafts into a search
engine and you are sure to find plenty to keep creative fingers busy.
Then try to find the time to make memories by sitting around the table
with your kids enjoying cutting and gluing and laughing and giving thanks
for each other!
Colleen Moulding is a freelance writer
from England where she has had many features on parenting,
childcare, play, travel, entertaining and the Internet
published in national newspapers and magazines. She has also
published a variety of women's and children's fiction.
Her work frequently appears at many sites on the Internet and at her own
site for women All That Women Want.com a magazine, web
guide and resource for women everywhere. Why not drop by?
It was made for you! http://www.allthatwomenwant.com
