The Beauty of Winter's Twigs and Weeds

The trees are budding out, the snowdrops are blooming, and a few early daffodils have already proclaimed an end to nature's sleep.
So this post is a little late.

Sometime before Thanksgiving I start my rambles through the woods, pastures and along country roads.

I find spent Queen Anne's Lace, now become brown snowflakes.

Dock and other weeds playfully remind me of summer past.

As the catkins emerge, a few will grace my kitchen counter.

The alder twigs cast down by the wind form an arabesque.

Early buds from the Hawthorn are deep garnet.

Just before Christmas, rose hips are tucked here and there.

Soon, violets will fill the vases, and camelias will float in little bowls on the table. But I confess winter's delicate gifts make me smile.

Decorating for Thanksbirthoween

It's a mixed up holiday of our own invention, so the opportunity to be creative was terrific.

(For an explanation of Thanksbirthoween, see my earlier post)

Budget -- basically frugal.

I played with grapevines, leaves and pine cones.

Using what was at hand or free in nature. 

The Birthday gifts were wrapped with shipping paper and leftover wallpaper found at a thrift store. 

Odd bits of ribbons, yarns, jute string and even fabric found in thrift shops added more color.

The most difficult thing I took on was mismatched dinner plates salad plates and cloth napkins. 

Mismatching has become very popular, and I love it, but when you look at a lovely image all put together it seems so easy.

This was not quite perfect, but still fun.

I discovered several things:

Keep to a very narrow color palette, including specific tones in that palette.

The shapes of dishes matter. Some of my dishes were more bowl shaped at the sides, and these don't work as well as those with a slight well and a defined, flat rim.

I discovered that creating individual settings was easy, but making the whole thing look right was much trickier.

And mixing modern designs with antique designs adds a layer of complexity. Some of my favorite individual settings just did not work together.

I have been collecting colorful water glasses for years. These helped tie it together.

I hate tall fussy floral arrangements in the middle of a dining table. I much prefer to see the people I am enjoying dinner with! Four delicious Comice pears and five simple candles was perfect for our centerpiece. And we ate the pears the next day ;)

Pumpkin Eaters

I love photographs of front doorways beautifully decorated for fall, and many times I have tried to create a welcoming entry for our home. But Oregon has other ideas.

Cornstalks mold in the soaking rain, and then the wind breaks and shreds them all over the yard.
Fall arrangements fill up with wind driven soggy leaves and decay overnight. It's just more maintenance. What is pretty for half a day ends up a black slimy mess all over the porch.

So this year, I just set out a lot of pumpkins. They don't seem to mind the wind and rain. Ah, even this has its problems.

We saw the jay start it two weeks ago. What could we do? He has all the time in the world.

This morning as I snapped photos of our saboteur, he suddenly flew away. Had I scared him?

No. Cue the other miscreant.

As soon as the chipmunk scurries away, the jay comes back. So much for my fall decorating.

Back and forth they go.

The Blue Jay

And the chipmunk.

Leaf Collage Fabric Table Runners

Before tackling this project, please verify that the leaves you are working with are not toxic. Many popular garden plants and shrubs are highly poisonous, and you do not want to get the leaf sap on your skin.

Some to avoid:
Euphorbia, also known as Spurge, is a common nursery plant and poisonous. Getting the sap on your hands may produce blisters, but getting it in your eyes may produce blindness.

Angel's Trumpet is highly toxic - I will not grow this in my garden. Oleander is another extremely toxic plant, and the smoke from burning the wood is deadly.

Cherry, peach, plum, apricot and almond leaves are reportedly poisonous, as are Caladium, Elderberry, Horse Chestnut, Golden Chain (Laburnum), Mountain Laurel, Oak, Rhododendron & Azalea, and Red Leaf Maple.

Here are a couple resources for checking this out:
http://naturalbird.com/mcwatters/toxic.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poisonous_plants

Generally safe -- but please verify on your own -- are Japanese Maple, Big Leaf Maple & Vine Maples (West Coast natives)  and Sweet Gum.

Place your fabric on a sturdy and disposable piece of lumber. It will get stained from the leaves. Using Non-Toxic leaves, put the top side down on your fabric and pound with a hammer. It is very tedious, and ear protection is a good idea. Watch your fingers! 

Here is a close up of the runner I made years ago on a light brown fabric, still my favorite!

Step 2, I simply used a zigzag stitch and trimmed with scissors. A satin stitch would have been very nice also.

Step 3, I took it outside & sprayed it with Scotch Guard & hung it to dry. The colors bled a little from this, but not too much. I wanted to create an irregular shape, like a "leaf puddle". 
This did not turn out quite like I wanted --lace helped.

This is for my "Banquette" table.

And the brown runner for the dining table.

Winter Container Arrangements from your Garden

The tender annuals are nearly done for the year. Time to raid the garden and woods for materials to fill the flower pots until spring.

Here's today's project.


1. An antique woodstove sits by my front door. The begonias gone, I started by arranging various greens (evergreens and Bay Laurel) and some hydrangeas.
The hydrangeas won't last too long. I will probably replace them by Christmas. 

 Silver Nettle grows out of the pitcher.

 2. The Heuchera coming out the top of the stove is getting leggy. I filled in with sprigs of Santolina -- jammed into the pot, they may even take root!












3.  Cottoneaster added to the pot to partially cover the rusty stovepipe. I discovered the stems were easy to bend into shape.













 4. Sword Ferns for a little drama. Almost done.








 5. (below) A few rose hips was just what it needed.

I put a plastic salad container in a wooden box to hold water for the next arrangement. Evergreens will last a long time in the cool temperatures even without water.



Step one, something big to help hold things together, then add some Santolina & Russian Sage...








Weeping spruce and red twigs, Variegated evergreen broadleaf.
This might take root also!




Finally, Cedar Berries and some Bay Laurel.
 Not bad for free.

Queen Anne's Lace Pressed Flowers in a Frame

The Queen Anne's Lace Room.

In an earlier post, I explained how I was inspired by Queen Anne's Lace and September colors when re-decorating my oldest daughter's old bedroom.

Queen Anne's Lace happens to be one of her favorite flowers; fortunately they are prolific here on the farm. They will help us fill out her wedding bouquet next summer!

So we gathered an armload of blooms for this project, and on the way back to the house, added some Russian Sage to the mix.
No fancy flower press in sight, I pressed these the same way my Grandmother did: between sheets of wax paper slipped between the pages of several large books. I stacked these on top of each other and stacked on about 20 pounds of weights for good measure.

About a week later they were finely pressed and ready to use.


I drew inspiration from an online "how to". Here's a link

I chose a background paper that would be a good contrast to the white of the flowers, but a more neutral background would have worked also. I played with composition, trying out many ideas. The flowers were not as fragile as I expected, but a pair of tweezers makes handling them much easier.

You can often bend the the stems very gently to get things where you want them to go. I also decided that if there were too many leaves in one place, I would just pinch them off. They are easy to glue back later if you change your mind.

I used Elmer's glue when it was time to fix the design. The final picture is not exactly the design I chose, as a few flowers landed slightly off the intended spot, and once on the paper it is difficult to move them. I just worked around it. This was part of the fun.

The frame was a Goodwill find. It had been water damaged, so it was a challenge, but affordable.

I don't expect this to last for decades. Dried flowers tend to turn brown over time, and I am not going to wait for it to be an eyesore before replacing it with a new creation. In the meantime, I have hung it far from the window where it will be protected from direct sunlight.

Arrowhead Shadow Box

Obsidian Arrowhead

Over 100 years ago, my grandmother found these arrowheads and trading beads while wandering the fields near Enterprise, Oregon. She passed along this childhood treasure to my mother, who passed them along to me.

They lived in an old tin, wrapped in cloth and tucked away at the back of a desk drawer, only to be re-discovered on those occasional desk cleanings.

It seemed a shame not to enjoy & share their beauty more often. An inexpensive piece of suede-like fabric, heavy thread (mine was like a tapestry yarn) and a shadow box solved the problem.

I asked one of my artsy daughters to put it all together. She used a tapestry needle and yarn to fix the arrowheads to the cloth. Now my grandmother's collection is enjoyed daily by the family and all who come to visit.

I would be interested to learn more about these artifacts. I wonder, for example, if the one on the top right is a drilling tool or an arrowhead?

How do you display your favorite heirloom collections? I'd love to hear from you!

Eastern Oregon Arrowhead Collection Shadow Box