Fall Decorating. Or, How to Decorate for Fall with Dollar Store Items.

I love Fall. Like, really LOVE Fall. Changing leaves, pumpkin flavored EVERYTHING, warm spices, the return of comfort food, pumpkin patches....all of it is just so comforting and welcoming to me. Also, when Fall arrives, I know I'm that much closer to my favorite season: Christmas! More on that later. :) Anyways, I did some decorating for Fall today and thought I'd share. Most of my stuff came from the Dollar Tree or the dollar section at Target. While I got almost all of my stuff last year, I did check and the Dollar Tree is carrying all of the same items this year (which is awesome, because I need to pick up a few more since I have more space to decorate this year). So I started with this....

The rubbermaid container stored all sorts of Fall decorating magic....

Like these styrofoam gourds and pumpkins. They sell them in packs of 5 at the Dollar Tree. They are fairly small, but when you put them in jars and such they are super cute. I'm going to pick up some more of them this year!

And these silk leaves came from the Dollar Tree as well. These are also fairly small, but are beautiful when arranged.

 I have three different strands of leaf garland from the Dollar Tree. They are kind of sparse, but perfect for my purposes. I layer them together on my piano, which I'll show you later. I am thinking of picking up some more full Fall garlands at the end of the season when Walmart and Target has them on clearance....a full garland on my mantle would be perfect!

The Dollar Tree also has a variety of glass pumpkins that are super charming. I have three from last year and am planning to pick up a few more. LOVE them!!

 My Mom gave me this one last year. Not sure where she got it, but she's the one who taught me to bargain shop so I'm sure she didn't spend much on it. I love it and it's a great reminder for this season!

This is a gigantic bag of Fall table scatter that I got last year at Target in the dollar section. I picked it up towards the end of the season, so I think I only spent maybe $1.50 on each box. There are yellow acorns,  orange pumpkins, and red leaves...each box had like 150 pieces in it! I was so excited to find them since table scatter is expensive and I refuse to pay $5+ on a box of 20 pieces!

 I also have six of these beauties from the Dollar Tree from last year. I wanted some leaf tea light holders, but they were at least $5 a pop elsewhere, so I was ecstatic when I found them at the dollar store....I bought the last 6 that they had!

 I got this guy on clearance from JoAnn's last year. So cute!!

I made this little arrangement last year using Dollar Tree Fall flowers and a faux pumpkin. I'm glad it held up in storage! 

Ok....so time to decorate! I first filled one of the apothecary jars by layering the silk leaves and the gourds and pumpkins until I was happy with it.

Isn't it cute?? Bursts of Fall in a jar!!

I put the glass pumpkins on top of a few  green and yellow silk leaves in another one of the jars. I'm going to pick up a few more of the pumpkins to fill out the jar.

I did a few things with the table scatter. I have some plain pillar candles sitting on plates from the Dollar Tree that needed sprucing up, so I filled in the plate around the candle with the scatter. I also put some in a mason jar and put a small pumpkin spice candle on top of it (the candle also came from the Dollar Tree last year).

For the cute "Happy Harvest" piece, I decided to fill the barrel with a small flower arrangement that mirrors the pumpkin one. I got out leftover flowers from last year....

 Cut some floral foam (it comes in a two-pack at the Dollar Tree, just fyi) and put it in the barrel.

When arranging flowers, you start with the biggest pieces first. This ensures they stay the center of the arrangement as you work around them.

Next, you fill it in with smaller flowers (the little dahlias) , and then finish with filler (the foam berries). Tweak until you are happy with it! And then stand back and admire how cute it is! :)

I just needed to pull my piano together now, so I wrapped the leaf garlands around the music stand. I wrapped the ends around the pillar candles (with the table scatter), then punctuated the garland level with two of the leaf tea light holders and the little "give thanks" pumpkin. The top part of the piano also got two leaf candles, and the first apothecary jar I filled is up there. I also had previously filled my glass candle holders with leftover flowers from the dish towel cake post, and they fit in perfectly with fall. The bow was leftover from last year (made it with Dollar Tree wired ribbon). Here's the end result of the piano....

The Happy Harvest piece went on my built-in in the hall. I'm not going to mess with the smaller jars for Fall....I have major plans for Christmas though! I have recently added three vintage insulators though, and am starting an antique/vintage hardware collection to go in my glass milk jug.

The third large apothecary jar will be filled with the gourds, pumpkins, and silk leaves too, once I pick up more of them. I thought about filling it with candy corn, but I'm pretty sure Brandon will eat all of it, and I can't have my decorations disappearing!  The mason jar, pumpkin arrangement, and apothecary jar with the glass pumpkins are on the mantle. I have some pumpkin spice wax in my scentsy warmer, and my house is warm and welcoming like Fall! I'm excited about this not just because I love Fall, but because up next in seasonal decorating is CHRISTMAS!!! And I go all out for that. Not. Even. Kidding.


Sola Deo Gloria!

Spring Apothecary Jars!

I LOOOOOOOOVE apothecary jars! I also had a serious itch to make some spring decorations. The pups got me up at 6:30 am, so I decided to be productive this Saturday morning and do something about the spring decor itch.

A few thoughts about decorating in vases and apothecary jars first:

The lovely thing about vases and apothecary jars is that you don't have to do anything complicated to make them pop. All you need is some filler and you're good to go. The other thing you can do is make them sort of like a little seasonal scene. Either way, not complicated. In fact, I usually use seasonal stuff from the dollar store to fill mine. So I took some inexpensive seasonal items I either already had or that I recently picked up:

 The floral moss, floral foam, and mossy rock thingies (why yes, that IS their official name) all came from the dollar store (I got them last year for a different project). I still see them at the dollar store all the time so you should be able to pick up something similar to these.

 The rafia came from the dollar store this year. The fern basket I picked up on sale at Artco last year for $7. I haven't been able to use it until now, so I definitely wanted to take advantage of it....it's an awesome piece!

 Butterflies....I got these last year for a different project and am reusing them. I think I got them at Artco, but you can find these at any craft store. I don't remember exactly how much I paid for them, but it wouldn't have been more than a few dollars (definitely under $5, probably more like $3).

 The dollar store has an excellent silk flower collection. I wouldn't use them for higher-end decorations, but are perfect for my purposes today!

 No spring decoration is complete without speckled eggs! Dollar store came through again!

 I got all of these little guys at the dollar store. Aren't they perfect?!?!

 Dollar store Easter grass....you could always just run colored paper through a shredder too if you don't want to buy a bag of it. I'm lazy so I just bought the bag.

Last year's plastic Easter eggs (I make a basket every year for Brandon. We don't have kids so he gets a basket instead!).

So I gathered my hurricane vases, apothecary jars, and small cloche, and got busy experimenting. By the way, no crafting morning is complete without...

CHICK FLICKS AND TEA!!

Anyways, the first thing I did was get out some canned goods. They are great for putting in the vases or jars to add height, and you also can use less filler per jar. This makes for cheaper decorating, and you can make more of them with your supplies instead of having to buy more supplies. 

I worked on that small jar on the left first. I decided the little white bunny would look great in it. I put in some moss and sat the bunny on top. I didn't actually leave the can in it because it made the bunny sit too high for the lid.

Isn't he cute?? I decided to not add anything to this jar...less is more, and I wanted the bunny to be the focus.

Next, I worked on the hurricane vases. I put smaller cans in both of them, then filled one with rafia and one with moss. You might have to really stuff your filler down into the bottom of the vase to make sure your can doesn't peek out. Once I was happy with the filler, I set my birds on top. I added three speckled eggs to both vases, moss rocks to one, and was good to go. I did add a butterfly to one of them...it just needed something more. Vases and apothecary jars are really about experimenting until you are happy with them.

By the way, if part of your can is peeking out, just make it the back of your display. Unless it's a table centerpiece, no one will be the wiser for it.

Anyways, I decided to do the fern basket next. This one was really easy...I just stuck a bird in it and some speckled eggs, and it was good to go!

Next I filled the milk-jug looking apothecary jar. I stuck some floral foam in there, along with some moss rocks....

I filled it in with a small rock, some moss over the foam to hide it, some silk flowers, and a butterfly. I just played with it until I was happy with it...

For two of my smaller jars, I just stuck some glitter eggs from the dollar store in them. This is the finished vase and jar collection....

LOVE THEM!! So spring-y and natural. I just needed to do the cloche now. I got out a dinner plate, turned the lid upside-down, and filled it will the Easter grass and plastic eggs. This one is less natural feeling, but it is fun and festive. I added two little butterflies to it after I stuck it on the mantle. I think I may transfer it to a cake stand to add some height.

Here they are in their places:

And here is the giant mess I had leftover after I did all this:

Crafting is messy work, people! :)

A few thoughts about apothecary jars and vases and then I'll sign off. Purchasing apothecary jars and hurricane vases can get expensive fast! Michael's and Joann's has them ranging from $12 to upwards of $45 dollars! That is NOT in my budget! I mostly only have smaller jars right now since we haven't really lived in a place that warranted bigger ones. I found mine at antique stores and paid no more than $6 for a piece. The hurricane vases were leftover from my wedding, and I think I bought those with a coupon. If you want some bigger apothecary jars or vases, purchase them at places like TJ Maxx or Marshall's. They have them for really inexpensive (I think the most expensive one I saw at Marshall's recently was $16, and it would have been $45 at Michael's). I'm putting a few of those on my birthday list since we now have a mantle that is PERFECT for large apothecary jars!!

Other filler ideas for spring: jelly beans, plastic eggs and Easter grass (like the cloche....these would be super cute in a hurricane vase or jar too!), faux speckled eggs, decopauged eggs, small garden gnome, peeps....the possibilities are endless! Pinterest also has fabulous ideas :). Also, it's never a bad idea to buy filler stuff at the end of the season when it's on clearance to use for next year! :)

Wow I just realized how long this post is....thanks for reading!

Sola Deo Gloria!