Thankful Tree

Last night I began clearing away some of my "specifically Halloween" decorations.

{You know, the things that say, "Trick or Treat", my dead branches, etc.}

In their place I tried to add a little Thanksgiving flavor to my all-ready-there Fall decor.

It's killing me not to just jump the gun and bring out all my Christmas boxes and add a little Christmas flavor here and there, but I'm trying to be good and not forget good 'ole Thanksgiving.

Last year, after I saw the Thanksgiving Tree that Wendy made over at The Shabby Nest, I made a mental note that I was totally going to make one of those for our family the next year.

Well next year is here so here is my rendition of a Thankful Tree to add a little Thanksgiving cheer to my home. 

The first thing I did to make this little guy was grab an old branch from the front yard.

 {After a recent big wind storm, I had many to choose from...}

I put the branch in a left over canning jar and filled the jar with small white and gray rocks {that used to be in our old fish tank}.

Tip:  If you decide to make one of these for your home and you put rocks in your jar, BE CAREFUL when dropping them in.

This is my second jar.

The first jar I used broke because the rocks were being dropped too hard into it.

To pretty up the top of the jar, I wrapped twine around it.

{Just use glue to make it stay like I did HERE.}

Using some scrapbook paper I already had, I cut out some leaves, punched a hole at the bottom of them, and used twine to tie the leaves to the branch.

Each day someone in my family will get a turn to write down one thing they are thankful for.

By Thanksgiving we will be able to look back and be grateful for how wonderfully blessed we are.

The other little switcheroo I made to go from Halloween-Fall to Thanksgiving-Fall was to take my mantle from a classically scary Halloween look to a more Harvesty Thanksgiving look.

All I really did was remove the spray painted "dead" branches and replace them with a couple of tassels from the corn stalks in our garden.

And the ironic thing about this whole post is that I'm totally listening to Christmas music while I write.

Oh boy...

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So what are you thankful for this year???

p.s. - if you'd rather have a cute little vinyl thankful tree instead, check out giggly gumdrops version.

Linked to:  Blue Cricket Design, My Backyard Eden, The Thrifty Home, Tatertots and Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming