Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Thrifty Fall Mantle

 

Fall is one of my favorite seasons to decorate for. What I love about it is the fact that natural things can be  displayed, directly from mother earth.

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One of my favorite areas to decorate is the mantle. Since we have no actual fireplace, the primary reason I installed a mantle was so I would have one to decorate. You can read all about the mantle here , from a few years ago.

I knew I wanted a wreath hanging above the mantle, some sort of a fall-ish wreath. I checked out Pinterest and tried to come up with something I could make, and wouldn’t cost a cent. I once again thought how neat it would be to have my unfruitful bittersweet vine hanging full of berries, to make a nice fall wreath with. When I planted the vine, I didn’t realize a male and female would be needed to produce berries.So now I would need to plant two more vines since I have no idea whether the present one is a male or female… :/

Finally, I decided to try and make a burlap wreath. I really had no instructions to follow, so I had to feel my way through until I found the groove.

I started out with a piece of wire that I made into a circle, twisting the ends together. Then I cut 2”x 8” strips of burlap. I then proceeded to tie these pieces onto the wire, pushing them together as I went. At first it looked pretty hopeless, but as more strips were tied onto the wire, it took on a wreathy shape.

I didn’t take any pictures while making this,mostly because I was fairly certain it wouldn’t work out, but it turned out better than I had expected…

 

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I trimmed some of the ends then, to give it a fuller look.

 

The mantle…

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The “Thankful” banner is from last year and you can read about it here.

 

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The only thing I bought here was the corn and pumpkins.

I made the old door a few years ago for one of our arbors, but had since taken it off.

The beautiful leaves are from a  Maple tree that resides beside our driveway.

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I painted the jars with spray paint and distressed them using a black paint marker. The jars on the end are filled with plants from my gardens. Don’t look too closely at the one in the middle… I glued cotton to a twig, trying for a pussy willow look alike. :o

 

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I painted this basket and put a few logs in it. (which, unfortunately will never be used in this room:()

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In a few days I will be sharing a few more simple, thrifty fall decorating ideas and also a before and after makeover on this…

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Pretty ugly, rite? :) (my type of makeover!)

Thanks for visiting & enjoy this wonderful season of color!

-Mary

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