BigFamiliesBigIdeas: Inexpensive Thanksgiving Table Center Pieces

We have a big Thanksgiving dinner coming up, and we've got to set a lot of tables. So I was looking online for some inexpensive Thanksgiving table center pieces I could make at home out of everyday items. Many of the ideas I found were way too fancy (aka expensive!). Even more of them were pathetic little kids' crafts that could hardly be called a center piece at all. However, I did find a few good ideas that weren't completely lame, but were still in my price range and skill level (sort of).

There is this great idea of simply putting candles on upturned glasses. Simple and elegant.

So I gave it a try.....

Unfortunately I don't own any long stemmed glasses, so I had to use mugs. I'm told that variety makes things more interesting, so I threw in a Crater Lake mug for extra aesthetic appeal (I think it makes us look well-traveled).

Then there was this idea of putting flowers in flower pots (not very creative if you ask me), but still pretty:

I didn't have any pots, so I just used a vase. My boys bought me these flowers just yesterday, and they are.... BRIGHT! While they aren't completely terrible, I think my little boys may have manhandled the flowers a bit too much because they came out looking a bit wilted. And still not incredibly original as far as centerpieces go.

Next I tried this leaf on a jar idea:

We don't have any trees in our yard, or in our neighborhood really, so leaves were difficult to come by. But we did manage to scrounge up a few. Also I don't have any of those clear glass candle jars, so I just had to use some rinsed out alfredo sauce jars instead.

Last on the list were these pitchers with berries:

Nailed it!

Okay, maybe not. I didn't have any fake berries, and I figured real fruit would look better anyway. I guess there is a big difference between plastic and ceramic because mine didn't look right at all.

So after failing miserably at copying these online beauties, I decided to branch out on my own. I found this sparkly pumpkin for a dollar at Walmart. Then I used my bow-dazzler and some old wire ribbon to make this ginormous bow! Bigger is better, right?

While at the store, I also stumbled upon this super cute (just kidding, I think we can all agree this little guy is really scary) little scarecrow for 10 cents. I tried sticking him in a candle, but something about this whole set up just didn't seem right.