Fall Decorations: What to do with Pine Cones…

So the cheapest season to decorate for, and most lovely in my humble opinion, is autumn. Seriously, all you have to do is collect a bunch of leaves from outside, and throw them into the corner that runs along the back of your counter top! They dry out, curl up and turn color...voila, free decor! Buuuuut, every year those scrumptious cinnamon pine cones come out and they are 5 dollars a bag! So tempting, but here’s the kicker, you could make them for 1 dollar!!

We went up to Leavenworth with my brother over 4th of July, and stopped by Sugarloaf Mountain, a logging site and campground, and came back with a bucketful of pine cones. To save you the big trip, you could head to a Pine-y park nearby, or make a trek down to St.Edwards State Park! A lovely park for kids of all ages, plus it is surrounded by Pine Trees.

Now you stop by Michael’s with a 40% off coupon (sign up for their email and scout the paper, it’s worth it), I don’t even bother to say if, because I always have one, and pick up a bottle of cinnamon “essential oil.” I found my bottle at their end-of-summer clearance sale, but they always have them on stock, in littler, but more pungent bottles for oil diffusers and oil burner sets.

Take your bucket of cones and douse them with oil! Shake them around, then transfer them to a basket, because whatever bucket you shake them in will get pretty dirty! Tada! Shake them up every couple of weeks to refresh the scent. You can also achieve the same scent with cinnamon sticks, so if you happen to have them on hand, toss a couple in, as their perfume will last much longer than oil. Re-douse yearly!

Another cute project to include the children, as if pouring oil on pine cones wasn’t fun enough!, is to make pine cone bird feeders! You all remember these as a kid, now it’s your kids’ turn. The bag of seed I bought was $7 at Target, and will last for a few years.

Take out some pine cones for the children before you cover them in oil. Put a mat or a piece of newspaper down in front of each child, and allow them to roll their cones in peanut butter, then sprinkle seeds on them. My youngest eats more than she gives to the birds, but I don’t care! Haha, high protein content!

So quick and easy, all you have to do is take a ribbon and tie it around the “petals” of the cone to stick it up in a tree, or on a post, or from your gutter, whatever you have! The ribbon makes it pretty, and the birds don’t care how much is on the pine cone if your children don’t have the best aim with their seeds. If you make your own peanut butter, each pine cone, including ribbon, cost 38 cents to make! If you buy your peanut butter from Fred Meyer, as I do on occasion, it costs 56 cents a piece! Still an awesome project on a dime!