Autumn Garlands Galore

 This past week our hands have been busy.  We've been collecting, cutting, tying, threading, and buttoning to make some autumn garlands to sprig up the house.  It is no secret that, while I'm very grateful for this spacious (to us) rented home, I detest the shiny white wallpaper that is in every room (except the oddly tiled bathrooms and kitchen, and that is another story).  How I wish we had Jim's large oil paintings to cover up large portions of the wall, but those didn't traverse the sea and I can't bring myself to spend money on buying prints, when we'll be back to real art in a year (or two).   So, I'm grateful for seasonal decor that covers large areas and brings the eye away from glaringly white and paisley wallpaper to something festive.

Garland #1 is a simple a pinecone garland made with pinecones and small strips of fabric tied to twine.  I saw (here on bending birches) and loved how natural it looked and the fact that Jonah and I could collect pinecones and throw it together in an afternoon.

 Garland #2 is truly going across a wall I have nothing to hang on are the felt leaves I stitched last year while nursing a wee babe.  We slipped a piece of paper in one each day with things we were thankful for on the thanksgiving tree, but this year I tied scraps of fabric on our seasons tree and really like it, so I decided that tying some branches together and hanging these as a garland might be fun.  I'm not sure if we'll tuck our thanksgiving thoughts in them or do something different this year.

 Garland #3 was inspired by the felt garlands in handmade home and Jonah's disappointment when a blow up ghost he was given last year got a hole when we first blew it up this year. For the garland, I made the ghost and cut out the bats and felt squares (the grey is from felted sweater scraps - same sweater I used to make the birthday elephants.)  Jonah drew some ghost faces and happily threaded the first bit of the garland.  I used orange wool yarn that I had a small piece of and it was a bit hard to thread.  If doing this with Jonah again I would use something thinner, maybe even embroidery floss.  But, I finished the project and hung it today.

Happy Autumn Days!