Embellished Votive DIY and a Harvest Party!

We had a lovely party Saturday evening. I was asked to put up some autumn decor, which I sincerely enjoyed, since autumn is my absolute favorite season! Most of the decor just came from here and there, but I did decide to do a little DIYing, including these elegant little votive holders. It was as easy as breaking out the trim and the hot glue gun! Then I added some sparkly beads to a foam pumpkin with the hot glue gun as well.

My favorite thing about making the candle holders is that I was able to use up some of the small bits of trim that weren't useful for much else. Do you have any of those? I start to throw them away and then think: "Oh, these sequins are so pretty! There must be some use for them..." and back in the basket they go. They are seriously just as easy as they look:

• find trim*
• glue to votive, starting at top
• keep twirling trim around until you get to the bottom, glueing as you go.

*If you have a slanted votive holder, use a more narrow trim, as a wide trim (like the orange lace) will be too big around the smaller end.

Everything I used to decorate for the party was on hand except the pie pumpkins. The leaves were all from our backyard, and the bark logs were picked up during our ladies' retreat. Even the charming little leaf boxes (filled with almond Hershey's kisses) were leftovers from a friend's wedding that I've been hanging onto for...*gulp* five years? Ouch, it hurts to admit that to you guys. I hoard things, ok? We all have issues. ;o)

I mentioned in my last post that the party turned out to be a surprise party for our family as a "thank you" for all we do! The church members here often mention how much we do for the church, and while my husband does work very hard, I'm going to assume that they include me and Paige out of politeness. Because I pretty much do squat. I feel guilty all the time for how little I do, truly.

Anyway, I thought it was very sweet of my friend Tawnya (whose house we partied at, you may also recognize it from this post.) to have me decorate my party-that proves that she knows me well enough to be sure I would have wanted to!

Have a lovely start to your week! I hope it's a good one. :o)

Love you,

Disney

(My name is having an identity crisis. Do I want to be in the middle? Or left aligned? Decisions!)