Dollar Store Decorating and a $20 challenge!

I grew up in the midwest and now I live in Phoenix. One of the things I miss about living in Michigan, Chicago, and Minnesota is FALL. I love fall. The colors, the cool air, the hot chocolate. There's something about fall that comes with a sense of nostalgia. What is it about fall that makes me feel like I'm 8 years old and have nothing better to do than read "Anne of Green Gables"? I don't know. But it's always been my favorite season. I wanted to live out East where all those trees make fall a little bit of heaven. I wanted to get married in the fall. Can you imagine the pretty wedding you could have? And on the cheap!!! I could spend ALL  DAY looking at fall pictures on pinterest. If I could find a job that would pay me to do that, I would be QUITE the expert in my field.

So last Saturday here in Phoenix it was cloudy. Those of you who don't live here cannot understand the importance of that statement. A cloudy day in August is a breath of fresh air. And it makes all of us fall people yearn for our beloved autumn even more. So I started to decorate. I told myself that I could only decorate the dining room, and not even the whole dining room. Just part of it. And that I had to come up with something that my girls could help me do, and that I could re-create in my classroom, especially on the door.  And that everything I bought had to be from the Dollar Store and I could only spend $20. So here's where I started:

 

This is what I bought that day.

$23. Okay, I went over. But to me, that was alot. I'm a teacher with a husband and 4 kids. My budget is tight. That may not be a lot to you, I don't know. Now, not everything I bought has been used yet, so my $23 can be stretched a little further.

I want to also say right off the bat that I know that using the fake stuff can be a faux pas. But cut me some slack, I live in Phoenix. Once the real stuff is for SALE (yes, sigh, I'll have to buy some of that stuff that many of you can just go outside and pick. But I don't have to buy sunshine!) But I think it's really important to use nature in decorating. The REAL stuff. I may have to head up North for a weekend to pick apples and plunder some obliging field full of cattails and fall foliage to finish my decorating.

I decided to focus on the light and the window sill.  Here's the finished product:

 I have a long way to go, but next weekend is a long weekend, so I'll pull out the rest of the fall decorations and force my daughters to bond with me. Check back to see what gets added! I'll put some candy corn in the vases to anchor the berries and mini-cattails. And some squash and mini-pumpkins. The holders that the little pumpkins are sitting on are candle holders that we painted brown and put a glass plate on top. They turned out pretty cute!

I know this isn't about my classroom, but I want to incorporate some of these decorating ideas into my classroom. Watch for that in the weeks ahead!

And take the $20 Dollar Store challenge!! What can you come up with?

Have a great week!
Ann