I love foraging and I know that Peter is always relieved when I arrive home with material to make things with rather than some weird plants that I think we should try. At least he knows that fir cones and leaves are not going to poison him!

So it is that in the autumn I am out and about in the countryside and our garden collecting beautiful fir cones and evergreen twigs for making into seasonal decor.

Moving house

If you've been following our social media, you will have seen that we have recently moved house. This is when we realised how much "stuff" we have at the back of cupboards. A lot of these things are not things that we use often, if at all, but I am loathe to send anything to landfill, so I try to think about how they can be re-purposed. I realised too that I am a bit of a magpie and like to hoard sparkly things in an old chocolate tin - ribbons and glitter seem to feature quite prominently in my arty tin.

So, this weekend I put together the foraged treasure, items from the back of the cupboard, ribbons and a whole lotta Christmas leaves to see what I could come up with.

Red and Gold Rustic Table Centrepiece

Using a brown fruit bowl for a base and a red and gold candle to set the colour scheme I got to work on the first creation. After a bit of trial and error I decided it looked best with the candle off set to one side of the bowl. I then arranged the fir cones with the largest near the candle, getting smaller towards the edge of the bowl. By packing them in tightly there was no need for any glue.

I then took red and gold bodhi leaves and wrapped them around the outside of some of the fir cones, keeping them in place just by the closeness of the cones. The bodhi leaves were a bit large to go round some of the smaller cones, so I just popped some small skeleton leaves into any gaps.

I had picked some ivy from the garden and used the natural curve of the plant to wrap it around the bowl, tying it in place with some florists wire. Finally, because I have loads of ribbon I tied a red ribbon around the whole bowl, although tbh it might look better without the ribbon.

Silver and Green Table Centrepiece

I also discovered at the back of the cupboard a dainty silver sweetie server. I popped a small tea light candle holder into the centre and surrounded it with some conifer leaves.

I then popped some green and silver skeleton leaves into the foliage to give some height. For a little extra seasonal sparkle I added some curls of green ribbon (amazing what's in that old chocolate tin). With the candle on, this made a lovely Christmas Table centrepiece suitable for a romantic winter's evening meal.