Fall Decorating with Fruits and Veggies

Sometimes just plain flowers don’t quite get the job done when it comes to decorating. Here are some ideas for using what’s plentiful–fruits and vegetables–to help you create the perfect centerpiece, place cards or spooky addition to your next party!

Fall Flowers

Choose a handful of large sunflowers for your bouquet and line a clear vase with lime slices. This will hide uneven stems and fill the vase so that the flowers won’t slip out of position. Plus it looks great!

I added some like-colored gourds with the flowers to round out the arrangement. You can use other fruit to line the vase, such as lemons or oranges and change up the flowers based on the season. Try hydrangeas with limes or daisies with lemons in the spring.

Pumpkin Place Cards

For your next fall dinner party, write guests’ names on small pumpkins to assign seats. You can paint each pumpkin a hue to match your color scheme. Eco18 recently threw an all black themed Halloween party so I spray painted mini pumpkins black (actually dark brown, but they looked black in person) and used a silver paint pen to write each name. At the end of the party, guests can take their pumpkin place cards home as a gift.

Apple Candles

Use a knife (I actually used the small knife from last year’s pumpkin carving kit) to carve out a tea light-sized space in the top of as many apples as you would like. Apples brown quickly once peeled so, to keep them fresh, rub lime juice over any exposed part of the apple. Then place one tea light candle in each apple, light and enjoy the autumn ambiance!

Perfectly Carved Pumpkins

Carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns has been a fall tradition for generations. Most kids and adults alike opt to carve their toothy grins freehand, but if you prefer a more intricate design, such as a ghost, owl, pirate or other spooky-scape, here are some tips.

First, print out a pattern (you can search for many free patterns online). Next, cut out a top hole in the pumpkin big enough for your hand to fit through to insert and light a candle. Don’t forget to include a notch or notches so that it’s easy for you to replace the lid in the proper spot. Using a spoon, scoop out all of the seeds and as much as the pumpkin gunk as possible. Now, tape your paper pattern to the side of the pumpkin you want to carve. The paper will tear if you try to cut the outline so, instead, use a push pin to poke holes through both the paper pattern and the pumpkin along the cut lines. Position the holes closer together for the parts with more detail. After you finish the outline and remove the pattern, you should be able to see the lines on the pumpkin well enough to use your pumpkin carving knife to complete the cut outs. Carefully remove all cutouts and clean up any stringy parts of pumpkin before putting a candle (either real flame or battery operated) inside. You’ll be amazed by how great it turns out once you turn off the room lights and turn on the pumpkin light!

Have any other fall decorating tips? We’d love to hear about them!