Thanksgiving Centrepiece

It been a while since I have put fingertips to keyboard for my blog.  The summer has been full of work and play to move our home plans forward.  Without boring you with the details, some of my creative outlets went to the wayside while important life details needed my attention.

Nothing gets me more into the creative mood then the changing of season, an opportunity to begin again, try something new and view your world through a different lens.  In my little corner of the world, we are blessed to have 4 distinct seasons which are just as dramatic in terms of change as you could well imagine.  

Fall is full of colour, dramatic landscapes, stormy weather, cool nights, warm drinks and time spent indoors with family and friends.  Here in Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving in October which is typically timed so that the leaves are turned into their fall colours just perfectly, family and gatherings only seem to make the landscape that much brighter and it screams for you to go outside and enjoy before snow keeps you wanting to be inside rather then out.  

To help bring a bit of the outside in and to be able to bring in some of the outdoor colours, I jumped on a Pinterest trend of using a hallowed out pumpkin as a vase for fall flowers to have something to add to my family's Thanksgiving table.

One of our local farms (Belluz Farms) has a pumpkin weekend in which they celebrate all things harvest, round and pumpkin in nature.  That weekend we picked up pie pumpkins (perfect for roasting and freezing the pulp for cooking or baking later), 'boo' pumpkins (white little pumpkins for decorating and later to add to your compost pile), decorative pumpkins (grey green and great for composting), jack-o-lantern pumpkins (what the name implies) and this interesting pumpkin called a Kakai pumpkin. It isn't only because of it's interesting colour but that the seeds inside are hulless which means the seeds are green in colour, easier to eat and I would say have an almost nutty flavour to them.  

What I wanted to do was be able to use the seeds but have a purpose for the interesting look.  Bring in Pinterest, my local Saturday morning market and there you have it,  a cute gift to bring to dinner and an interesting discussion starter as well.     

With cold weather settling in, the wild flower variety at our local Thunder Bay Country Market is getting pretty limited however I was able to make due with some cut wheat from Moss Cottage: The Urban Farm Chick and a small bundle of leaves, dried wheat and miniature sunflowers from Mile Hill Farms.   

As you can see, the seeds are a beautiful dark green with little pulp which made separating it fairly easy.  If you follow me on Snapchat (RunnerByDesign - daisyjanie) you might have seen that one of my best tips for making pumpkin seeds that I have found is to NOT rinse them.  I find that by rinsing them, you have to add so much oil of some sort to them and they don't have as good and rich of a taste.  Do clean them as best you can but after that simply put in a bowl, mix with melted better, add corse salt and any other seasonings you would like and roast them in the oven (350F) for about 10-20 minutes depending on the seeds and your oven.  Just keep a close eye.   

Once you have your hallowed out pumpkin your ready to get some flowers, shrubs or any other items you would like to display into your pumpkin.  The thing to remember is that pumpkin will really only last a couple of days inside after it has been opened so you can get a bit more life out of it buy putting it outside as a lantern but really what you need to think about when building your masterpiece is taking the pieces out so that you can get some more enjoyment out of the flowers etc.  

The rest is your imagination.  I used a mason jar so that the flowers can easily be taken out and displayed after the pumpkin is no longer.  The burlap I used to fill in space as most of the flora I had were tall and I wanted some volume on the bottom.  After the pumpkin is discarded, the burlap can be used to wrap around the mason jar to give some texture.  I had enough wheat to keep a bundle for myself and wrapped it with burlap and the ribbon it came with.

Mostly, I loved using my hands and creating something that can be enjoyed.  Going to a gathering where we are fortunate enough to have plentiful food, bringing more seems like it would be missing the point of being thankful.  Using what we have around us and somehow honouring the beauty from our area to me fit just a bit better.  What I love about creating something for someone is that it always look different and it's a true expression of love and connection from one to another.  

I hope each of you have had a lovely weekend, enjoyed the outdoors and time with family and friends alike.  


"I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual."
       ~ Henry David Thoreau

​xoxo