Treasures From Outside

My children are always bringing me treasures from outside - bird feathers, weeds, flowers, leaves. A few years ago, Hannah brought me an armful of perfect fall leaves, so we came up with some ways to display her collection. This has now grown into a fall tradition. Hannah has been asking all week to make "the leaf garland."

As they bring the leaves to me, I stick them in a phone book (or some other newsprint catalog) for about 3 days so they dry out and keep from curling. Then we tie them to a piece of ribbon and thumb-tack it to the doorways.

These photos are not great, but...

Another thing... I bought a few of those .99 cent grapevine wreaths at AC Moore, pulled some ribbon through it, thumb-tacked it to the top of the door, and filled it with leaves and other outdoor treasures.

We all get to enjoy the leaves,
even after the rake is put away for the winter.