It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas... ... or not

Although we are a little more than a week away from Thanksgiving, I needed to think about Christmas.  Middle One and Pleasure's church hosts an annual event for Women entitled, The Christmas Gathering.  It is modeled from Oprah's Christmas give away show and, believe you me, it is pretty darn close to the real deal.

Anyway....... Pleasure asked me to help with some of the table center pieces.  Many women sign up to decorate well over a hundred tables since the affair prepares for nearly 3000 participants.  I got the word yesterday that Pleasure and I will be taking on eight tables.   

So what do you do when you have to create eight centerpieces on less than a shoe string budget?

This is what I did.........

I took an old bent and broken metal deer that was given to me when my neighbor could not sell it at her garage sale...

 

I took an old star basket that I picked up at garage sale months earlier, thinking Pleasure and I could use it in one of our room designs....

 

I purchased four evergreen pics from Michael's during their 50% off sale for $6.00.

I dug in my paint cupboard and craft box and took a step away from the traditional red and green and ended up with this.

Since it is supposed to act as a centerpiece I needed to make sure both sides were pleasant to view.

While digging in my cupboard I also found three wine bottles that needed to be emptied.  No, I did not drink them.  I poured the remains down the drain since it had probably turned to vinegar from being opened and aging in the back of our dark cupboard for years.  

I dried the bottles thoroughly inside and out and painted them white.  Sprayed them with adhesive and rolled them in Epsom salt.  

 

To finish it off I painted twigs found in our back yard and placed them in the bottles.  It's a stretch but thought it represented snow and winter which many of us associate with the Christmas season.

 

Still needing more centerpieces, I clipped some holly from our bushes and placed them in a stump vase that He-man had made for me months ago.

For those who like the al-naturale look, this centerpiece fills the bill.

Running out of steam I pulled a bowl and scalloped platter from my cupboard, stuck some embellished sticks inside and added a bag of, uhh, glitter balls, which you use for I don't know what.  They were in my storage bin of craft items.

 And that's all the Christmas I could do in November!

  

Now I turn my thoughts toward turkey and pie as we prepare for the gang from Wyoming.  Yahoo!!!

18. I am grateful for junk

I hope your day allows you time to let your mind wander to Christmas.  I hope your night allows you rest from your day.  I hope love comes to stay in your house.

 Yaya