Decorating on a budget

I try to reuse what I have from year to year making it last as long as possible. And even though I do have some artificial pumpkins and dried flowers every year I still want to go pumpkin picking and get some ornamental Indian corn.

Last year my daughter gifted us some pumpkins, plus I received some sugar pumpkins from a friend.   But my yearly hunt for ornamental corn was very frustrating. None of the usual farmstands had any.  The only place I could find them was the third Home Depot I visited. They were small scrawny looking trios of corn for four dollars each. But I did buy some because not only do I decorate with them for October and November, but then I put them out for the squirrels and the deer to enjoy.   Last year I spent $28 on six of those trios. This year we got an amazing ornamental corn wreath and five huge trios of ornamental corn for $20.   

Isn't this wreath beautiful? I won't be feeding  this to the squirrels, I will be preserving it from year-to-year and hopefully it will last a long time.

I hung four of these from the banisters on our front porch

One on our lamp post

This year on a trip to Lancaster County Pennsylvania. We were looking around the area where we were staying where there was a local nursery shop. We found some unusual pumpkins, gray ones, Dusty green, warty pumpkin shaped gourds, all at ridiculously high prices.  Well I shouldn't say that they were normal commercial prices. $20 for the gray one various prices for the other ones. Since we have never seen a gray pumpkin like this before, I said to my husband let's look around at the farms first and if we can't find something and it's here when we get back then it's meant for us to have it.

There were mud sales and yard sales and lots of benefits sales on Saturday. We've never been there for a full Saturday or even on a Friday.  We were able to experience things that we have not in our previous trips. The mud sales were the reason we had planned a trip for this date.  Also the Green Giant farmers market is only open on Fridays. Boy that was an adventure and since Friday was our first day we couldn't buy any of the things that we wanted to buy because they would have spoiled in the car. I will tell you about that in a different post.

Back to the pumpkins we purchased four huge pumpkins at an Amish benefit sale.  I'm assuming it was to help raise money for one of their families. There was at least 25 different families selling homemade and gently used items. But we stopped for the pumpkin wagons. I am so glad we did. We spent $19 on pumpkins.   Pictured are three as my Mother kept one.  An Amish boy wheeled them to our car in a wagon and helped my husband put them in the car. He was surprised that he received a tip.

Last but not least is an ornament that we purchased from some Amish boys. It was made from recycled horseshoes. I can see this lasting for a lifetime. They wanted $20.  One of the two boys was also juggling with a tip jar so my husband gave him two dollars. Again very appreciative and surprised. My husband always believes that someone is entertaining him whether it be in any city and they make him smile he will give them a tip.  He told the young boy to keep up the good work at learning this new skill.  

Notice my donkey looking down at it? Isn't it cute? I know I'm a weirdo LOL