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Tips from Kit

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Decorations from Nature

By Kit Davey

We are attracted to and soothed by nature. On your next walk, see what you can bring home---every season offers new décor, every hike offers new accessorizing ideas. By bringing the outdoors in, you not only save money, but you also add texture and interest to your home.

Branches and leaves

• To make a simple, natural valance, hammer a row of nails about six inches apart above a window. Hang a bundle of dried herbs or flowers, wrapped with raffia, from each.
• Place a pressed maple leaf between two panes of glass, edge with black electrician's tape and place on a plate stand
• Fill your empty fireplace with driftwood, a dried flower arrangement, a bundle of twigs tied with raffia, a collection of fat candles in varying heights, or a mound of river cobbles.
• Thread pressed leaves, feathers or post cards onto fishing line and hang along the ceiling line.
• Make your own square wreath. Clip several fronds from a fern, cut into six or eight inch sections and dry them for a week between the pages of a large book. Unwind and bend a wire coat hanger into a square and wrap it with floral wire. Insert pieces of fern under the wire and use a glue gun to attach them to your frame.
• Have your kids make tree bark frames to accompany photos from your last camping trip. Cut out a 5" by 7" inch cardboard frame, with a 3" by 5" inch opening, or re-use pre-cut mats from old picture frames. Cut a 5" by 7" section of cardboard as a backing. Collect bark and glue pieces of it to the frame.
• Gather a fat bundle of dried grasses, about 6 inches in diameter, and tie together with raffia. Place the bundle in your fireplace or in a large basket next to the hearth. Or, carefully cut off the ends at the same length and place the bundle upright on your mantel or coffee table.
• Make a small bundle of lavender or other dried herbs or flowers. Lay on the top of a picture frame in your bedroom.

Stones and Shells

• For your coffee table, fill a bowl with a collection of beach pebbles or seashells.
• Use a large rock dug up from your garden as a doorstop or bookend.
• Fill a jar with beach glass, add water and place on your windowsill.
• Write the names of your dinner guests on smooth river stones or pressed leaves.
• Do you enjoy having candlelight while entertaining? Make an arrangement of seashells on your coffee table or mantel and place several votive candles in scallop or abalone shells nestled amongst your collection.
• Add interest to a simple glass hurricane candle by placing lemons, seashells or beach glass base of the candle.
• Instead of using glass dots or marbles to support a dried flower arrangement in a clear glass vase, try sand, stones, shells, seedpods or pinecones to add color and interest to your arrangement.
• Use periwinkle-shaped sea shells as a bottle stoppers for your antique bottle collection. Make your own bottle stoppers by carving a wine cork to the appropriate size and gluing an antique button to the top.
• Serve salad in abalone shells at your next seafood dinner.
• Try a different kind of soap dish. Arrange a handful of small, smooth river stones in a dish next to the sink in your guest bath. Sit a bar of soap on top of the rocks.
• Use smooth, flat stones several inches in diameter. Draw personal symbols, images from nature or petroglyph-like images on each and place on your coffee table.

From the birds…

• Do you collect feathers? Incorporate them in collages or homemade greeting cards, or pin up a few on your bulletin board. Slip one or two feathers into the frame of a favorite painting. Gather a several feathers and arrange them in your favorite bud vases. At your next dinner party, tie a length of raffia or ribbon around each napkin and slip a plume into the bow.
• Next time you find a bird's nest, bring it inside and sit it in the branches of one of your tall houseplants.
• Or, put a bird’s nest on top of a stack of books on your coffee table. Add a few egg-shaped pebbles you have found on a beach walk.
• Mix in a few miniature bird eggs, either found or purchased from your local crafts shop, in a bowl of potpourri.
• Build your own herbal bird nest centerpiece. Clip a dozen or so long branches from your rosemary bush. Create a nest shape by using a large salad bowl as a form. Tie bits of wire around the branches and weave them together. Fill your rosemary nest with lemon or apple "eggs".