Fall Decorations

We've had a busy fall here at Chez Charmville. I had to take my Ph.D. qualifying exam in September, then I went home to Kentucky for two baby showers, and now my husband and I are getting ready to head to Baltimore for a conference he's presenting at. Plus, I'm still unpacking and organizing things from our move this summer, if you can believe it! I didn't have time for holiday-specific decorations (plus I thought I lost the box most of them were in-- luckily, I just hadn't opened it yet!), but I'm very pleased with what I managed to pull together.

On our table I've used fall colored linens we already had (all wedding gifts... my mom thought ahead and bought me these at Williams-Sonoma when they went on sale last year!), plus the hurricane glass that was also a wedding present. I bought the rattan "charger" on clearance at Walmart for $3, and filled it with pinto beans and a candle (non-scented). I was initially going to go with some kind of fall vase filler, but the nice ones are crazy expensive! I wanted some of Pottery Barn's acorn vase filler, but it was like $20 for what would amount to two handfuls! For a container of this size, I would have needed quite a bit, and I wasn't ready to spend that much money. Instead, I bought 4 lbs. of pinto beans for $3.42 and have a lovely, natural looking centerpiece. (I also considered going with coffee beans, but they were more expensive.)

Here's a close-up:

I spent a lot of time looking for a nice, durable inexpensive wreath. I bought one I thought would work at Walmart, but it ended up falling apart before I even got it out of the bag! Finally, I decided to make one. The idea for the design, I'm sure, I saw floating around some time in Martha Stewart Living.

I started with a 16 inch styrofoam wreath I bought at Michael's and then wrapped dark brown satin ribbon around it. I think I used 3 rolls that had 4 yards each. To keep it from slipping, I just stuck straight pins in periodically (on the back). My bow is made from copper wired ribbon, and I just stuck that on with straight pins, too.

Here's a tip for all you crafters out there: it may be easy to pick up all your supplies in one place like Michaels, and they even have good coupons. Watch out, though, for the prices on things you don't have coupons for! At first I bought all my supplies at Michaels, but when I went next door to Joann's, I noticed they had all the same things for a lot less, so I bought them again and returned the things from Michaels Then I went to Walmart and got my ribbon for $2 less a roll than Michael's was selling it! Ha! Walmart doesn't have everything when it comes to crafts, but what they do have is much less expensive.

Hope you like my decorations!