The Start Of The Fall Decorating

This is my favourite time of year to decorate!  The autumn leaves, baskets of fruits and vegetables, rose hips and sunflowers are so vivid that they look wonderful in any arrangement you try.

I started with the front porch. ~

Since I have a seemingly endless supply of burlap that I bought at Christmas, I decided to make a swag to hang over the front door.

First, make sure you have a helpful kitty to get the ribbons right. ~

All pictures with Maeve are blurry now, as she has become camera shy.  Actually, since I became a blogger, she considers me paparazzi.  It's kind of like my family who preface everything they say with, "Don't put this in your blog!".

I've decided to work with what I have on hand.  A doubled layer of burlap is the base and I made bows from a clearance $1 roll of ribbon.  It's not  wire edged or as wide as I would like, but it will work.  A couple of feather wreaths I used at Christmas are wired onto the swag as centres for the bows.

Add some faux grapes and a bit of dollar store leaf garland. ~

Here's where you use the window dresser's special tool to gather the burlap up into bunches and secure the ribbon tails in a pretty drape.  Some people call it a stapler.  Seriously, that's how we get everything to stay right where we want it.  Staplers and floral wire are indispensable!  I'm photographing this in near gale force winds and nothing is moving.

The cornucopia I picked up last year at the Salvation Army is filled with fake pumpkins, sunflowers and grapes.  This thing is huge and almost the length of a bale of straw! ~

Luckily I have chickens and already had the straw!

I bought this pail years ago.  You could easily paint a dollar store bucket in this design. ~

I want to add some little pumpkins to the overhang on the door and trail some more leaf garland down from the top but that's as much as I could do in the cold, rain and wind for one day.

I think this is starting to pull together! ~

I'm sharing the bounty with ~
Creative Things Thursday, Cottage Style Linky Party, It's Fall Y'all Autumn Link Party, Sunny Simple Sunday, Sunday's Best Par.tay, Share Your Cup Thursday, Crafty Cornucopia