Budget Friendly Fall Mantel

FREE IMAGES Happy Fall y'all!!  (that's the one time a year that I say y'all)

My favorite season is officially upon us and here in the Midwest we are having some lovely cool fall weather!  This makes me SO happy as sometimes summer stays around too long and we go to the pumpkin patch and sweat (sweat = not fun).  It's also hard to be motivated to decorate for fall when you are sweating. 

Anywhooo, this year I did a budget-friendly Fall mantel.  I haven't done a Fall mantel in a while (last year only did Halloween).  I had to come up with something from scratch because I didn't want to pay full price on fall decorations (it's against my religion ;).

I luckily picked up this great gourd filled swag for 90% off after the season at Hob Lob last year.  $6 bucks!  (Major score like my fall wreath you can see HERE)

I used a bunch of candle stick holders that I already have and picked up some gourds and mini pumpkins for .25 cents each at our local Farmer's Market.  (I heart our Farmer's Market!  I love the fresh finds and supporting our local farmers plus, the same gourds at the grocery were $5.99 for a bag, about $1 a piece!)

I like the long, spindly stems, gives them character. :)

I left up my black vase 'o sticks to give it some more height and I added my first attempt at a coffee filter wreath to finish it off.

So there you have it, a new fall mantel for about $7.25 (and $6 of it was spent last year!) 

What are your thrifty fall finds??

Linking: Sunday Showcase, Tatertots & Jello The Lettered Cottage, Nest of Posies

Pumpkin Plastic Surgery

FREE IMAGES Last year I had fun doing pumpkin plastic surgery... taking apart some old junky fall decorations and giving them a new life (check it out here).  While tearing old pumpkins apart I realized that a lot of my fall stuff had gotten old and had started to look shoddy, most of the stuff had been around since we got married (11 years next month!). 

I made do with it last year but decided I needed to pick up some good stuff on sale after all the pumpkin-type holidays were over.

I hit the pumpkin jackpot at Hob Lob when I showed up on the first day of 90% off fall decor and they even had an amazingly good selection left.  Usually by the time it's 90% off they only have very ugly and/or broken stuff left. 

I didn't buy a lot but got some of the really good expensive stuff for super-duper cheap!  I then had to wait an entire year before I could use it or even share it with you (you didn't know I was this good at keeping secrets, huh?)

It's been so long that I pretty much forgot about my 90% off deals.  As I dug out my fall stuff it was like Christmas morning.  I was like, Whoopee, a zeplin!  (name that movie)

Anyway, the big daddy deal that I got last year was something that I totally didn't need, but whatever, it was too awesome to pass up.

This super huge-mongous wreath!

Isn't she a beauty??  (even propped up all crooked on the floor in a poorly lit picture?)

$149.99 marked down to $14.99!  Just to buy the big grapevine wreath with nothing on it is worth way more than that!

SCORE!!

She had one little flaw, a pumpkin who'd lost her stem exposing the cheap styrofoam.  Good thing I'm a skilled plastic surgeon (for pumpkins).

Yuck.

I'm pretty sure that's why she was still there, (do you like how I keep referring to it as "she"?)

I knew I could save her but had no idea where I'd put her.
 
She is really big... 31 inches across at her largest point!  That's almost 3 feet!! 

Before I figured out where to put her she needed a stem-job.  Nothing ruins a fancy wreath like cheap white styrofoam poking out where a stem should be.

So I went to work, I found one of the old junky pumpkins from last year and pulled the stem off to use as a replacement.

I then decided I needed some wire or the glue gun to attach the new pumpkin stem.  Both were in the basement and because I was too lazy to walk down the basement stairs  so I came up with this brilliant Macgyverish idea...

I took the twist tie from our bread bag that happened to still be laying on the counter leftover from lunch,  bent it and stuck it in the stem which then easily stuck into the damaged pumpkin!

It worked perfectly! 

By repurposing the twist-tie I am helping to save the planet because that is one less twist-tie taking up lots of space in a landfill. 

All because I am too lazy to walk down the basement stairs a skilled pumpkin plastic surgeon.  ;)

Good as new!!

Now I just had to find the perfect spot for her. 

She is too gigantic for the mirror over my fireplace and even for the front door.

I am not one to just hang a holiday wreath on the wall so that wasn't happening.   Hmmmm....

I decided she needed to be on the biggest mirror we have (ummm, not the bathroom) and thankfully she fit!

She is a lovely addition to our formal living room!

No one would ever notice the wired on with a bread bag twist tie stem-job, right?? 

Speaking of my formal living room, I'll be giving a tour soon so you can check out my new French Script pillows.  I'll also be sharing some of the other 90% off steals from Hobby Lobby, I have to warn you that they aren't as good as this... but they are still really good. :)

Don't forget to enter my UPrinting Giveaway HERE for 50 free brochures here, ends soon at noon CST on 9/15/11!

And, don't forget that this Saturday is the first annual "Flaunt your Fall" link up party... you've got a few more days to get your Fall on!  (don't worry, Flaunt it Friday will be held as usual too.)

Linking up to:  One Project at a Time, Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays, Tuesdays Treasures, Wow us Wednesdays,  Fall Nesting Party