Fail: DIY Candle & Gourd Fall Centerpiece

The hubby and I are staying in my parents' "basement apartment" right now until we can find & close on a house. So.. since there's only so much you can do to make a basement look pretty, I've been having fun storming up all sorts of ideas for my parents. Luckily, they're quite receptive of my projects so it's been fun.

With our recent moving process, I hadn't been able to do any fall decorating of my own. To relieve my "itch" I whipped up a fun little centerpiece.

I found this decorative tray my mom had stashed above the refrigerator.

Then I lined it with a piece of burlap with the ends frayed a bit {I know, big surprise.. :)}.

I placed an assortment of gourds on the tray in a design I liked.

To add a little extra "pretty", I cut out holes in the 3 larger gourds in the back & inserted candles.

Then, just to top it off, I tied some jute around the big candle & two of the gourds (had to use hot glue for it to stay on the gourds). Annddd.. we're done! Somehow in the commotion of everything, I didn't get an after shot.. and now I can't get one.. read on. [For the record, though.. it looked suuuper cute. For real. :) ]



AFTERTHOUGHT: So.. I waited a week to post this, and in that time I found something out. Cutting holes in the gourds causes them to rot.. fast. I came home from work today to find a giant green spot on my biggest gourd & the other two I put candles in were quite mushy. Soo.. nice thought but if you want this project to last longer than a week, I'd suggest figuring something else out.

This is all I have left now.. (the rot soaked into the burlap & even got the tray dirty so I had to wash it).



Can't win 'em all, right?? :)