Fall Decorating That Morphs Into Christmas

If you're a typical American consumer, you probably get a lot of catalogues especially around the holidays. Two of my favorite are Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel I think because they're centered on decorating the home which I am enormously interested in.

Their most recent offerings were Fall and Christmas Holiday themed and I savored each page like a child with a toy catalogue...I wanted everything! But the professionally styled and photographed items can be recreated very cheaply by using some typical items you might have in your home, a few things from the supermarket and others found while walking outside during these cool autumn days.

I'm sure you've received flowers now and then and perhaps saved a glass vase that the flowers arrived in. Some vases are a bit pedestrian but others have great shapes and since I like to do my own flower arranging, I'd saved a few that were now collecting dust in a closet. I decided to put them to work.

I filled some with pine cones I'd collected and others with acorns also from outside. I rinsed them off and dried them in the sun for a day to insure that tiny critters would not get inside. I filled other jars with some inexpensive potpourri purchased at a discount off season. I had some small green apples (not real) and I repackaged them in a tapered round vase. I purchased two packages of real cranberries at the supermarket, They're cheap right now and hopefully they'll dry out nicely and last through the Christmas season. Corn candy rounded out my fillings and some old colorful candles served as centerpieces in some of the vases.

I was pleased with the result and will place these throughout the house for Halloween and Thanksgiving. When December rolls around, some flaky fake snow and bright Christmas tree balls will make the tansition form fall to winter.

Happy Decorating!