Decorate Your Holiday Dining Table for Free!

I have a fascination with plants, trees, flowers and leaves of all types. Anyone who knows me can attest to that. As a child, my grandmother had me tend to my own little patch in her garden and that's where the love and appreciation of plants and flowers grew. My sister and I share the same interests when it comes to plants and flowers-In the spring and summer we can hardly contain ourselves when shopping at the local garden shops. When driving, it can be a danger, since our eyes are on the flowering yards of everyone in the neighborhood rather than on the road. Not safe I know.

With that said, I can appreciate a good branch or greenery when I see it. I don't really have to look too far to find decorations for my home, especially around the holidays. The yard is filled with an array of treasures.

Now, I know not all of us have backyards with trees or plants but we all know someone who does! Scope out your neighbor, family or friend's yard. They  will be more than happy to have you prune their trees for them. When clipping the trees or plants, try not to clip where it'll be noticeable.  Clip from the back or in a way that a big hole or gap will not be noticeable.

Fill vases with them-keep in mind the size, shape and weight of your vase-lighter vases can fall over if not filled with heavy floral stones or rocks etc. If you are concerned about bugs being on the branches from the yard, its very unlikely that there will be any, especially in the cold winter months. But shake them out thoroughly and inspect them carefully just to be certain.

Use clippings to dress your napkins instead of using napkin rings.

These tiny branches look amazing in small vases on the bathroom sink or on your nightstand.

I used baby food jars to wrap tiny branches of berries around the rim and dropped a tealight in. The branches were surprisingly flexible. The ends are held together with thin galvanized wires.

If you cannot find fresh berries-you can use the artificial ones from last year's Christmas decor. They are very cheap at craft stores also.

You can use a hot glue gun to glue berries, leaves, or tiny branch pieces onto candles.

Below, are Rose of Sharon seed pods from the summer.  I clipped off the dried seed pods and sprayed glitter on them--glitter does wonders...This is an example that evergreens are not necessarily needed to decorate for the holidays. You can even use dried rose pods as berries or spray them with glitter. I would even spray glitter on grass if I had to :)

Again, I used my beloved baby food jar to hold these branches and seed pods in.

Tip: You can use leftover cranberries from thanksgiving to adorn also. String them with a needle and heavy duty thread or hot glue them on.

Hopefully everyone can look at plants a little differently and appreciate them for the beautiful creatures that they really are.

Happy Holidays!

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