In the olden days people decorated their homes with homemade treasures, often with resources grown on their own farms. I’m excited to share with you 10 nostalgic fall ideas we made this year from resources grown(mostly) our property. I hope you make a few for your home! If you have any old-fashioned ideas for fall decorating–I would love to hear them!
An industrious woman always plans for the future. Pin this post so you can plan for the things you’ll make next fall. In the spring you’ll want to plant flowers that you’ll dry at the end of summer for your fall arrangement. You’ll want to plant gourds and pumpkins if you have space. Back in the day even those who had little money purchased a few basic items in town at a store, like cloves and a lemon. I spent less than $10 on everything I made in this post. I’m not sure how much money a grapevine wreath is in the store. You may find one at a yard sale or thrift store for a fraction of the cost of a new one. A good resource to find free treasures to decorate wreaths would be in the forest. Go on a nature hike and return with bags of possibilities.
#1 Dried Zinnia Wreath
My summer Zinnia’s dried and made into a wreath! I enjoy them all year! I’m giving away zinnia seeds to 3 people! Just tell me you want seeds in comment section! I’ll pick 3 winners next week–save them for next spring!
I picked fresh Zinnia’s of multiple colors-you can see them growing from the window.
Pour silica crystals into a large bowl- set flowers on top.
Cover flowers with crystals. I’ve had my crystals for 18 years. They still work.
Put covered flowers in microwave for a couple of minutes-shake off crystals and hang with clothes pins on a drying rack.
Let dry completely for a couple of days- these are ready!
Use a glue gun to glue the dried flowers onto grapevine wreath
#2 Pinecone Tree- We have pine trees on our property, so pine cones are plentiful. If you don’t have any–ask someone who does to give you some. Most people who have pine cones have hundreds or thousands to share.
Dale made this beautiful pine cone tree for me! We’re putting lights on it tonight!
Some pine cones are open, some closed. I put the closed ones in the oven to open them. *pumpkin grown on Glasgow Farm
Closed pinecones- put in 200 degree oven until they fully open- couple of hours or more
Half opened
Fully open- you can turn heat up for faster opening or reduce to slow–they are dry and break more easily when to heated too high
Two large tomato cages from the garden served as the base of the pine cone tree
Dale screwed screws into the bottom of each pine cone and then took a long piece of wire-wrapped each pine cone tightly around each screw and wrapped around base of tomato cage
#3 Cornucopia I bought our basket- but baskets are easy to make if you’d like to be 100% authentic!
I’ve had this cornucopia for 20+ years- every year I fill it with fall produce
#4 Pine cone garland
Pine cone garland- string pine cones on twine and hang from nails at your kitchen window
#5 Stained Glass Dried Leaf & Flower Art
Supplies needed: Iron, flowers or fall leaves and wax paper
Stained glass dried leaf & blossom art- Pick fall colored leaves and flowers, place between two pieces of wax paper and press with hot iron until sealed all the way around and in-between Can you guess what these are?
Pansy in the center
Fall Leaf Stained Glass
#6 Pomander- Clove Studded Lemon
Prick lemon or orange with nail and then insert cloves into the holes. Cover the entire lemon or orange if you want it to last years. Then sprinkle orris root, cinnamon and ground cloves over top of it and let sit in paper bag for a couple of weeks. Every few days I shook the bag around making sure the powder covered it well. The orris root preserves it. The cloved lemon to the left is 18 years old.
The blue bowl holding the cloves was made by my sweet nephew Thomas Killian, he makes handmade pottery and has an online store.
Pomanders are wonderful smelling. You can decorate them in patterns, wrap a ribbon around them and place in a bowl or cover completely and preserve them for years to come.
Supplies needed: small or medium size unblemished fruit. (Oranges, Apples or Lemons)
cloves
Spice mixture: 1 tablespoon each: cinnamon, ground cloves and orris root
Knitting needle, toothpick or nail
#7 Corn Husk Garland
All the corn stalks tied together and ready to hang over front door
I bought 15 regular corn cobs @5 for $2. Pull the husks up over the corn–like in the photo
Tied twine around each corn husk
I tried to hurry the process by putting in the oven on 200 for 10 hours. It wasn’t perfect, it overcooked the husks. You’re supposed to let them dry in well circulated space for several weeks
After out of the oven I tied all the corn cobs together with twine
All the corn stalks tied together and ready to hang over front door
#8 Natural Wreath
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Fall wreath- Fall weeds and produce on a grapevine wreath–whatever you
find interesting in your part of the world that dry’s well- stick in the wreath
and hot glue into place. This only last one season. Next year it will be an
entirely different look depending on what I find interesting in our field.
Weeds growing in our field- picked for wreath
#9 Pomegranate pumpkin face
Pomegranite is hard fleshed and easy to use like a pumpkin- Crave with small knife, let dry and enjoy-
#10 Retro Art
I’m going to send a copy of my retro Thanksgiving Day card to all my subscribers next week! Mine is framed and sitting in my kitchen window. You can find vintage frames at all thrift stores!
I’m giving away some of my zinnia seeds! Tell me your favorite color flower below to enter your name for the drawing. I’m picking three winners for the seeds. I’ll announce winners next week.
If you are a subscriber to my blog I’ll send you the retro Thanksgiving Day art next week!
Winner of $40 Target gift card and devotion book from last week is Mary T. you posted on2013/10/14 at 12:09 PM! email me your address!
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