Getting Ready for Thanksgiving Part 1 of 3

I went to the store the other day to get stuff I didn't need for projects that I wanted to complete.  If you are anything like me, you walk into Michaels or JoAnn's or whatever your craft store of choice and you end up leaving with a cart full of things that you don't need.

On this particular occasion I picked up a large $2 grab bag of leftover halloween decorations.  I guess by mid November they just throw everything that is left in a bag and put it out for suckers like me.  So of course I used my skill of feeling my way through the bags trying to decide which one was going home with me and I picked one.  There is nothing quite like a little surprise to brighten your day don't you think?  So I eagerly drive home a little faster than I should and with two small kids by my side I unpacked my bag.  Now, I purposefully picked a bag that I could tell had a non-descript orange basket in it.  It also seemed to have some teal fuzzy costume of some sort which I knew would go in the dress up bin.  But to my surprise there were plenty of non-Halloween specific items.

I will now quickly rush by the fact that there were 2 flet Halloween baskets, a Halloween flag, a bunch of little Halloween boxes, and a lot of little bat hanging thingies that all went right in our Halloween storage bin for next year.  Nothing I want right now, but still awesome goodies to stock away for next year!

On to the Thanksgiving part.  So remember, in addition to the things listed above, I paid $2 for EVERYTHING!

Here is what I pulled out for my Thanksgiving centerpiece.

Ok, so the little turkey off to the side is actually something that Chris' grandmother made and was handed down to us after her passing and the pumpkins were left over from Halloween.  But these are the supplies.  I got an orange basket, two yellow handkerchiefs, and 6 green flowers.

I started to put them together by putting the green flowers around the outside of the basket.  Then I put the yellow handkerchiefs inside.  I stacked the pumpkins inside also.  But they sat too low.  I solved this problem by crumbling a bunch of plastic grocery bags and placing them in the basket.  Then I put the yellow handkerchiefs in again and went from there.  As you can see in the photo, it turned out pretty nice.

I didn't need it, but the turkey fit in well also.  The best part about this was that it was low enough that I was able to see my 3 and 5 year old at dinner last night over the centerpiece.  I think it turned out beautiful and it makes me smile knowing how cheap it was.

 It may not be perfect, but it is something I am proud of.  How do you put together decorations for your Thanksgiving?  Have I convinced you to run to your nearest craft store and search for a grab bag bin of your own?!