This weekend...natural decorations

Add that extra sparkle to your home and show-off your creativity and skills to friends and family this weekend.

Nature has an abundance of materials that with little effort can be transformed into unique decorations.

Over a couple of quick lunchtime walks around the The Lodge this week, I've managed to amass a good armful of pine cones, and I've even found some great things to do with them!

Three things to do with a pine cone

• tie some string tightly around one of the pine cone scales and loop the ends - perfect to hang from a Christmas tree branch
• remove the scales of the pine cone and place them into a glass jar or bowl. Add a few drops of your favorite fragrant oil, and you've made you're very own potpourri!
• I really like this idea - make pine cone photo frames. For an added festive feel I think I'll use old wrapping paper rather than photos of my family, and hang these up to decorate my tree.

Put pruned vegetation to good use

• Allium seedheads strung in front of a window throw great shadows. They can even double up as the 'star' at the top of your tree!
• twist ivy/other evergreen foliage together with wire to create a rope, then loop this around a bannister, or hang from your wall
• make a festival wreath - for this you'll need to find some bendy twigs (willow, hazel, and dogwood are all good). Cut, twist and bring together the stems in a loop and tie the ends together with twine. Add more stems until you have a solid base, which you can then deorate with evergreens eg holly, ivy, and bay by weaving or tying into this. Then on top of this you can add berries for a splash of colour. Don't forget to add a loop of twine to your finished masterpiece so that you can hang it up!

So, there are a few ideas from me. What ideas can you creative people come up with?