Holiday 4-R's

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Repurpose!

We haven't made much headway with holiday decorations...yet. I emphasize "yet" because my husband likes to protest premature holiday decorations and celebrations. Meaning, we probably won't get a tree put up until the second full week of December - and that's purposeful, not because we're procrastinators. Due to his Scrooge-like behavior (Bah-humbug!), I have to sneak decorations one at a time.

I started by repurposing the dining room centerpiece. This year, I'm trying to go for shabby-chic and used rusty jingle bells I picked up at an after-Christmas sale a few years ago.



I then moved on to redecorating my multiseasonal, multipurposeful pine cone wreath! I picked up cheapo ribbons from Target and went to town:

DIY Pinecone Wreath

Now comes the time of year when I'm hesitant to make too many posts about DIY projects for fear I'll spoil Christmas presents. Thankfully the purpose of this project was to enhance the outdoor aesthetics of my house.

I've been collecting pinecones for almost a year with the intent of turning them into multiple craft projects. I was inspired to create a plain pincone wreath that I could decorate according to season.

For this project, you'll need:
30-50 pinecones, various sizes
Wire floral wreath frame
Floral wire, brown or green
Wire cutters
Hot glue gun
Hot glue sticks

I began by taking the larger pinecones and attaching them to the wreath frame with wire. I alternated cones facing in and out. Where there were large gaps with the frame showing, I took small pinecones and attached them with wire to the frame. I then began layering pinecones on top of the "base layer" and attaching them with hot glue. I then loosely fixed the autumnal touches to the wreath with wire - this is so I can easily swap these out for Christmas-y accents in a few months.

Here's the finished product:


Front door fall display, complete with mums and pumpkin: