More Free Christmas Decor

I mentioned a few weeks ago of decorating the cabin with live greenery that we went out and collected on the mountain. I brought some back and made a live spray for my mailbox. Here is the final picture. I really need a bigger now, I had one last year but don't know where I put it, so for now, the scrawny one. I don't know if you can see the berries. They are gorgeous! I used berries of poison sumack, purple berries and Pyracantha. I mixed those in with wold magnolia (I am a southern girl) and some short leaf pine that had cones attached to the branches. And I threw in some sticks, reeds and dried ragweed for interest.

On Thanksgiving Bama won a live wreath at our annual Dirt Santa game. Here is the wreath on my door....

I finally got all of my wrapping done. What a great feeling. And the packages are so pretty tucked under the tree. Can you see the sticks coming out of the top of my tree. I have a "thing" for sticks! There are many of them. They are silver and gold glittery.

Speaking of sticks and trees....using more natural elements that I found in the woods at the cabin, crabapple branches make a perfect gumdrop tree. A gumdrop tree is easy to make. Take a small branch of any tree that has many stiff twigs. Wild crabapple or hawthorn trees are especially good for this purpose. Place the branch in a pot. I used a large glass cylinder but you may have to use soil or crushed rock in the flowerpot to hold the branch up and keep the pot form tipping. Stick gumdrops on the end of each twig. The crabapple is perfect for this because the branches have little sharp sticks on them that are perfect for holding the gumdrops. In case you wonder, yes, I rinsed my branches off really well. I love the look...very natural, and once again-Free!- with the exception of the gumdrops that I purchased at the Dollar Store.