Gourmet Meals For Less

It's a very merry Dollar Tree Christmas!

 

I'll tell ya. In this economy I love the Dollar Tree.  I think the "dollar stores" often get a bad rap for having cheap tacky decor items.  Cheap...yes.  Tacky...not always.  I have been so impressed the last few years with items I've found at the Dollar Tree and what I've been able to do with them when I utilize a little creativity.  I find that when I mix the "cheaper" items in with items I already own especially my antiques and more classic decor I am able to create fresh, new centerpieces and decorations for very little money.

Case in point.  My Christmas centerpiece this year for my dining room table.

 

 
 Almost all of the items you see in this centerpiece were purchased at the Dollar Tree.  If I had not already owned some of the items, I could have easily recreated this centerpiece with ALL Dollar Tree items.  Take a closer look.

 

You might recognize these "hurricane candle holders" from my Fall Centerpiece.  I filled one with ornaments...from the Dollar Tree.  I filled the tall one with a sparkly miniture tree, purchased from the Dollar Tree last year.  Behind it you will see a hurricane top on a brushed gold base with a candle glowing..you guessed it all Dollar Tree.

 

 
 Here is another hurricane holder.  Nestled within is another miniature tree. yep. Dollar Tree.  The tiny crystal candle holder is also from there as well as the ornament sitting on top.  This is a fun way to use candle holders if you don't want to use taper candles in them.  Now behind them is a chunky silver candle holder that I purchased several years ago.  On clearance.  At TJ Maxx.  I know, last of the big spenders.  But of course sitting on top of it is..you guessed it another hurricane topper from the Dollar Tree.  And you will notice another of the gold candle bases and topper purchased from there as well.

 

 
 I love this centerpiece for several reasons.  It's sparkly, it has great height.  It has visual appeal (there is a lot of detail), but most importantly because it is glass and therefore clear, it makes it very nice for seeing your guests while eating.  I hate centerpieces that are impossible to see around.  They always ended up being moved because usually guests like to see each other when they are eating and visiting.  (Unless of course you are my husband and he knows I'm trying to catch his eye across the table to get him to perform some necessary dinner host duty.  Then he loves a nice tall centerpiece that blocks my line of vision.)  Otherwise though, they are a pain.   

I also love to mix my Dollar Tree finds with my antique dishware.

 

 
 
It's fun to place Christmas decorations in little tucked away places.  They are not obvious but are charming when you get a glimpse of them throughout the home.  Again, so cheap to do when you purchase the ornaments at the Dollar Tree.

One other fun idea I came up with this year was to re-purpose some pretty olive green table runners I found at the Dollar Tree last year.  I believe I saw them again this year as well in both cream and the green.  As a table runner they weren't super impressive but as decorative bows on my dining chairs I think they are adorable!

 

 
There is no way I could have made these with tassels and all for a dollar each!  They as such a festive touch to my dining room for the holidays.

I want to share one other idea I had this year for my kitchen island.  I love using large jars of Christmas candy and holiday cookies, etc as part of my Christmas decor in the kitchen, and I will share more of that with you in the next few days.  I wanted something along those lines but a little more dramatic then just jars of candy for my island.  It needed to be bright and cheery since it is the kitchen but also something I could easily move when I needed use the island for baking.  I think this fit the bill!

 

 

This year the Dollar tree has the cutest "candy ornaments"  They come several to a pack for...you guessed it a dollar.  I also purchased all of the regular ornaments in the jar there as well.  I love the green ones.  They are not "christmas green" which I try to avoid but a more chartruse green which I love. 

 

 
 

I think it looks so festive and kitcheny at the same time.  I placed them in a large arpothearpy jar I normally keep on my kitchen table, but I think for the holidays it looks perfect right where it is! 

 

 
  

You can find other great ideas on the Dollar Tree's facebook page.  They are also hosting a contest

 

 

Tomorrow I will share with you a few more of my holiday decorations including my mantel, which you guessed it uses Dollar Tree items and last but not least on Saturday I will share our tree during the

 

 

Cookie Exchange!  Get ready to link up your favorite cookie recipes to our Sister Saturday Cookie exchange where my sister, at Southern In My Heart, and I host virtual parties during the holidays!  So mark your calendar for this Saturday the 11th and visit both of our blogs to link up your cookies for the cookie exchange!

*I was in no way compensated, bribed, or otherwise coerced to feature the Dollar Tree in this post.  I just really, really like them! :)  

Frugal Fall Decor...or how to knock off Pottery Barn

 

 

In case you happen to be asking yourself, "What the thump does frugal fall decor have to do with gourmet meals for less?"  Let me save you some stress, and just tell ya...nothin.  Unless the fact that the pumpkin pictured up above is actually a real pumpkin and therefore technically food; this post has nothing to do with eating or recipes.  This post has to do with well...frugal fall decor.

I shared in a previous post about my board and batten bathroom remodel, that I enjoy decorating just about as much as I enjoy cooking.  Unfortunately these days, I seem to be focusing more on the cooking then the decorating.  I'm sure it's because having a "food blog" causes me to focus first on my cooking and recipe development, and then on my home.   This causes a problem for me though, because I LOVE my home.  So I started to feel some anxiety when the blog world started to burst forth in all it's autumnal glory...like that..autumnal??  Great word isn't it?  We learned that studying Legend of Sleepy Hollow in a literature class I'm teaching...yes I teach too.  I am homeschool mom...hear me roar.

Anyway, I started seeing all of these beautiful fall decorations, fall photos, fall craft ideas...and I began to feel like the girl who's always late to the party.  I had nothing, nada, zip, zilch fall decorations up.  So my slightly competitive, type A personality reared it's ugly head and I headed out to the storage building to find my fall buckets.  It happened to be 85 degrees here that day, so I was not feeling the "fall mood" at all but I knew this task must be done to calm the "autumnal anxiety" I was exeriencing.  I have collected many, many, many fall decorations over the years...much to my hubby's chagrin.  But, I was in the mood to try a few new things...and hubby was in the mood for me to NOT spend a lot of money. I had read how Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick had found a great way to mimic these:

 

They are $59 at Pottery Barn!  Good grief!! Sarah was able to replicate them from items found at the Dollar Tree, for $2 each! I had to see it to believe it, so I headed to my nearest one and lo and behold there were the items needed....lots of them!  I guess no one in my nearest "large town" reads Thrifty Decor Chick, because there was a bounty of the items I needed.  I practiced putting them together while standing in the aisle...causing my husband much anxiety when he realized I was balancing glass items on top of each other in the store.  I had to gently remind him...THAT THEY WERE A DOLLAR EACH!!  And, I'm sure we could afford to replace them if my clumsy alter ego decided to show up.

So with giddiness and a sense of superiority over all those poor chumps paying $59 for a hurricane vase; I collected up several of the items I needed and skipped with glee up to the Dollar Tree counter.  My husband, on the other hand, was pretending to not be associated with the crazy woman who balances glassware in the aisle and snickers to herself while checking out.  For $9 and the addition of pumpkins I already owned, I was able to make 3 of the "all glass" hurricane vases for my dining room table, and a twist on one for my mantle.  And I will share with you how easy-peasy these really are.

 

 

 In the collage above you can see that this project is more than simple to do.  You literally just stack the hurricane top on the glass candle holder.  You can use a small amount of hot glue to hold them together, or do like I did and use a little putty.  That way, if I need to store them I can still take them apart.  You can put candles in them as they are traditionally used or any type of decor.  I will stack artificial lemons in these when not using them seasonally.  I wanted to try a fun variation for my fireplace mantel.  Something a little more chunky and with black.  So I found two wooden candle pedestals at the Dollar Tree and started playing around with them, and came up with this:

 
 

 I liked having a touch of the color black on my mantle, and I thought the thickness of the base went better with all of the chunky fruit and gourds.  I already had in my bottomless bucket of fall decor all of the artificial fruit, and purchased the real pumpkin in the middle for $4 at Wal-Mart.  I loved that it was a washed out orange and subdued.  I had so much fun making the hurricane vases and have so many other ideas for their use.  If you are a reader of mine and in my area, our local Dollar Tree still has plenty of these hurricane vases and the candle holders in stock...just give me a running start so I can grab me a few more before they're all gone...cause I'm already thinking about all of their uses for Christmas!

Let me know if you make some of these for yourself or if you come up with any variations of this project.  Send me the pictures and I'll even share them on here!  And to my loyal readers, thanks for indulging me a post on decor and not food, I promise a new recipe soon!

  
Enjoy!

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