We are on a rather strict budget so as the holidays approach I find myself not able to spend much on decorations. And honestly, when I look at the decorations within my price range I'm not impressed with the quality or overall look of most of them. Nice things can be had at second hand stores but I don't often get to the second hand stores to look. (We did find a lovely nativity set for $2 at a thrift store this past Monday, though! It has a candle behind the manger where baby Jesus lay and I can't wait til we light it!)
We had a few days of nice weather this week so a few days ago David and I were able to get out and go hunting for decorations from The Wild. We had a wonderful time although we were somewhat cold and we found a lot more than we thought we would. We found all of these things locally, mostly around the edge of the woods at a local park.
Here are the results, after being sorted and somewhat organized on our old kitchen table, which is now on our enclosed side porch:
What we found: (and alas, I know not the technical nor scientific names of most of these things, so bear with my labeling)
Big Red Berry Clusters, from a Thorny Vine
Tiny Red Berry Clusters, from a different Thorny Vine
Purple-Pink Berry Stems from a vine intermingled with the abovementioned Thorny Vines
White Berry Clusters, from a Tree with Red Stems
Red Berry Clusters from a Different Tree
Deep Red Cone-Shaped Things That Grow on Trees
Dried Grasses, Assorted
Dried Mustard Yellow Blossoms
Dried Things that look like grain in long stems
Assorted Dried Blossoms that are probably Weeds, but look Pretty
Dried Queen Anne's Lace Heads
Two kinds of Greenery, one long-needled pine and the other - unsure of correct name. . .
Big Pine Cones
Little Pine Cones
I decided to make wreathes since I have a little experience with attempted wreath making in past years. None of my previous attempts ever came out well, so I took a new view of the project and came at it from a sewing perspective. The frame and wiring of the greens is like the construction of a basic gown. The decorative things added after the basic wreath is made is like trimming a dress.
To make the basic form, I used some of the pine sticks left after I cut off the greenery and tied them together in a circular shape. I used basic twine for tying and cut the ends off. I used 3-5 sticks per wreath (so far I've made three). Then, it was just wiring on the greenery. I used florists wire that we got for free earlier this year to do my wrapping. I wrapped the wire around the form, adding greens to the sides and front as I went.
Here is one wreath with the basic form done:
After that, I laid out my pine cones on the wreath to decide where I wanted them and how many I wanted to use. I used the little cones since I'm saving the big ones to do a plain pine cone wreath later. For the long-needle pine wreath I glued the pine cones to wire and stuck the wire into the frame, but for the shorter needle greens I just hot glued the cones directly to the wreath.
Then, it was just a matter of laying out decorations and arranging them how I wanted, and gluing them down. Simple, easy and completely free!
Here is the finished wreath I made earlier today for our living room. It has small pine cones, purple berry stems and mustard yellow blossoms and white berries arranged on it, with strands of things that look like seed stems sticking out at the sides.
Here is another one I made this afternoon that is more "holiday" looking, with red berries:
(sorry the pictures are not of the best quality, and the colors are washed out. The lighting was not that good when I took these).
