Autumnal Decorations

Walking home from the dry cleaners, I was struck by the fall leaves all over the ground. Being an East Coast transplant from California, where the seasons are much less dramatic, the changing leaves never fails to amaze me.

I picked up a few colorful leaves from the ground and brought them home determined to do something with them. What I struck upon was decorating some candles and candle holders with the leaves. It only took a few minutes to put together and I already had all the things I needed, so it was really simple and convenient little project.

I simply chose leaves that were the height of the votive holder or candle I was working with and used some tiny pieces of double stick tape to hold a leaf on each side while I used some kitchen string to tie the leaves onto the candle or holder. I knotted the string and cut off the excess "tails".

You could probably get away with not using the tape, but it helped since I didn't have an extra set of hands helping to hold everything in place. I think it probably would be cuter to use twine or bakers' string to hold the leaves on, but all I had was the cotton string I use to truss poultry, so that's what I went with. Finally, I didn't bother to press my leaves before I started working with them, and as they have dried out over the last week or so they've curled a little at the edges, which is evident in the pictures, but that doesn't really bother me. If it bothers you, I suggest you just press the leaves.

This is pretty much the extent of my fall decorating, but I'm happy because it didn't cost me anything and I have pretty leaves to look at.