Thankful wreath and autumn display.

Despite everything, I do have alot to be thankful for this year, and I knew I wanted this display to remind me and cheer me everyday. I love the way it came out!


Here is "display central" on the end of my kitchen counter. The textured wallpaper
looks good as a background no matter what I put up there. My first round of chemo went smoothly, and it surely did not keep me from switching up my Halloween decor to Thanksgiving. If you'll recall, this is how it looked for Halloween.....

...crepe paper bats, mod podge balls, a rosette wreath, black spray painted branches and foliage plus Dollar Store knick knacks. That was fun! Now I've changed it up for autumn and Thanksgiving using a bag of Dollar Store leaves and a bit of stash shopping. So this changeover was not only fun but it was CHEAP. Win win!



I hot glued the leaves to the spray painted branches and also used them on a twig wreath that had seen better days. I added some book page leaves leftover from my garland redo and then painted a banner for the middle of the wreath saying, "Thankful." Painting the muslin with country white paint gave it enough body to curve and hold it's shape when I glued it in place. Simple, easy and almost free! A colorful spray of silk leaves is in the white vase now instead of the black foliage.


These are my Thanksgiving napkin rings made of grapevine wire, more miniature silk leaves and tiny book page leaves. A few have tiny berry sprigs. They look GORGEOUS with white dinner napkins but until I need them, they look pretty on this tree.


We've found that with a good pair of craft scissors we can cut 8 layers of paper at a time, so very quickly you can have LOTS of maple and oak leaves cut from book pages for your autumn decor. They are very versatile, I've used them ALOT this year.


I added my restyled candlestick trio to the mix. They started out as tired, old and white but now look pretty cool in gloss black, thanks to my daughter, Insanely Creative Christy. Wrapping the candles with jute and giving them some mini bows of satin ribbon dressed them right up. I kept some of my mod podged balls on the tree and added a few small grapevine balls, too. My fat fabric pumpkins stayed, as well as my little apothecary jar. Looks like all the mini Reese's cups are just about gone, lol!


Peeking out through the candlesticks is a bit of graffiti art my middle daughter, No Nonsense Mom Kelly, did for me for Mother's Day. I'll have to do a post on it all by itself, it is too cool for school! I am enjoying this bright display everyday now that the weather has turned grey, cold and wet. I have BIG plans for my Christmas display, plus lots of projects that feature my two rules....they have to look good and cost next to nothing. Can't hardly wait.

And for all you wonderful ladies who have left such wonderful comments for me, you make me teary eyed with your positive thoughts. My second round of chemo is this week and I know it's going to be a bit tougher, so I truly love and appreciate all of your support. I'm so thankful for all of you! Bless you.

Ahem. I'll be posting to the parties in my sidebar since they are so much fun. Come check them out, the creativity out in blogland is amazing.