Autumnal Decor '23

My mother isn’t the biggest fan of Halloween decor, especially not at the level that I want to put out. So last year, we sourced and or made more general autumnal decor.

Because we are the type of people to make projects far more complicated than they need to be, I ended last year with a long list of ideas to upgrade the decor we made and even more projects to try this year. So this time, I started earlier.

This year, I embroidered many of the leaves on my wreath (I finally finished embroidering the ivy leaves that form the base of the wreath - it only took me a year). I also embroidered the sweet potato vine leaves and just added more leaves overall. Honestly, I’m stunned by how much better this year’s wreath is.

Here are some photos of the sweet potato vine before and after adding embroidery. It’s more prominent on these larger leaves. It adds texture and depth as well as more colours. It took me ages to get them done, but I am in love with the result.

These are the ivy leaves with and without the embroidery as well. The smaller leaves were such a pain to get done and took even longer to embroider than the larger leaves. There are over 200 of them on the vine, and you can only see a few. I’m going to keep telling myself that it’s worth it, though. They do add more texture and more variations of green to the wreath. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I won’t have to do these ever again (until I get to the garland I made for the entryway).

I also made even more leaves this year that I used throughout the house. Mom embroidered dozens of leaves that we planned to make into a table runner. That will have to be a project for next year. For this year, they make amazing table scatter.

My whole flat feels warm and inviting and ready for the new season.

Now I just need to bust out all the Halloween.