Guest Post :: Fall Upcycling

My cousin, Sarah Rosen is back with a guest post on upcycling for fall decorating!

As soon as I turned the calendar to September I have had the bug to start decorating for fall. Not the Halloweeny stuff yet but fall colors.  As I started to think about packing up summer I was about to throw away the pool noodles that somehow made it through 2 summers but wouldn’t last a 3^rd. What a waste! Then a light bulb went off and I cut about 3 inches off and got out my trusty roll of packing tape. Voila a wreath form! These things cost about $7 new and why create more waste when you can upcycle for free?  Have you ever heard the phrase “Say no to Styrofoam. The ozone is the only zone?”  That’s stuck in my head since high school so buying a Styrofoam wreath form feels like treason!  I had a skein of grey yarn, yup one skein what was I ever going to do with that? I was feeling the fall inspiration and started wrapping the noodle.  I have to admit I did get the idea for this wreath off my favorite site Pinterest so I knew it would need a pop of color.  The only thing I bought was 3 pieces of felt at .50 each to make some flowers.   I used my trusty glue gun to attach them and jazzed it up a bit with pearl beads left over from another project. I loved it so much, and had another pool noodle, that I decided to make one for my mom too.   This time I went with variegated yarn that I had bought years ago thinking about making a sweater but hated how it knitted up so I never used it.  Again the only expense I had was the felt. 

I kept 2 pool noodles & probably 2 skeins of yarn out of the landfill and ended up with 2 pretty cool fall wreaths!

Whew, now I had a fire under me to get a little more fall in my home. I was inspired this time by one of my favorite bloggers, Becky Higgens. She had decorated with pumpkins & gourds on candlesticks.  Off to Tiffany’s (aka Goodwill) I went. I didn’t find anything with a wide enough top to hold much so I improvised.  I bought a couple different sized saucers/desert plates. I spray painted the whole lot with hammered bronze paint. Broke out my ever trusty glue gun and attached the plates to the sticks and instant pumpkin holders. I was able to make 4 of them for less than $5! 

Again 4 ugly as sin candle sticks & 4 mis-matched plates re-purposed into something kinda cool to look at!

It has turned into an obsession of mine, what can I make this into instead of throwing it away?   My husband just shakes his head and says not again when I walk through the door loaded with my garage sale treasures.  He says at least its better than bringing home strays!