Every year around this time the bittersweet is ready to pick. I just love bittersweet! It grows wild around here, and is so colorful. The birds love it, too, so I leave plenty for them. But I pick enough to do something with. Bittersweet makes wonderful fall decorations, really nice for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Thanksgiving is a forgotten holiday now - stores come out with Christmas stuff right after back-to-school sales. I get very upset when I hear folks call Thanksgiving "turkey day". Thanksgiving is not a day to glorify the turkey - it is a day to give thanks to God for all our blessings! It seems like anymore Thanksgiving has become just a day to eat a big turkey meal, watch football, and shop for Christmas gifts on early black Friday sales. Well, we don't eat turkey in this house - my husband doesn't like it, I don't eat it (I am a vegetarian), we hate football, and don't do all the crazy shopping. For us, Thanksgiving is truly a day for visiting friends and family, and prayerfully reflecting on all the blessings of the year. But I digress............
Usually I make some sort of wall decorations with bittersweet, but this year I decided to do table decor instead. My first project was to do something special for our front porch, the enclosed entry to our house. I always like that room to look good. I had a few sprigs leftover and used them to make a harvest look basket for the living room table. Here's what I did today:
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| Here is the pile of bittersweet I gathered from the wild. It is hard to gather, as the vines wind around tree branches so much that it is hard to unwind! Some of the bittersweet grew in deep ditches that I couldn't get to, and some vines were a little too high to reach. Now, what to make with all of this!?! |
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| My first project was to dress up the porch table. I put sprigs in a large brown ceramic bowl, added a paper twist bow, and bound some of the smaller pieces into a sort of nosegay to set by a small pumpkin from the garden. The white tablecloth sets things off nicely, don't you think? |
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| I had a few small pieces left,so I tucked them into a basket of squash and pumpkins from the garden, added a checked paper twist bow, and added some dried corn cobs. This makes a nice centerpiece for the living room! To me, this says "fall" in a very natural way. |
Decorating with things found in nature is so much fun! Using what I had on hand, and a little imagination, makes for cozy country-look decor. No need to go to the hobby store or spend big money!
2 comments:
Well, I have to agree with you. It all looks good, but what the heck is a nosegay? Must be an IN term that we in the north country never heard of? The only nose thing I've heard of is a nose bleed. :-) Now you need something that goes with the snow--a little of which we had last night and this morning. Cheers!
A nosegay is a small bunch of flowers or herbs, tied into a little bouquet with twine or ribbon. It is not just an Indiana thing!
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