Autumn Laterns

One of the many things that I have always loved on Pinterest is how people decorate their fireplace mantels. I find myself pinning so many different ideas... but I am kind of a creature of habit & just don't always get around to changing things up. Plus with 3 kids 4 & under I also know that if there are pretty things artfully arranged... well then, they are going to yank them down to see what happens. Whether that be mommy going crazy or to see if they can use whatever they've gotten their little hands on as weapons. Sooooo ... when I started noticing lanterns & hurricanes that were filled with different objects I thought "Ding, ding, ding! I can do that!" 

So last week armed with a Pier1 gift card (from a very generous friend) and a few hours shopping with only my 1 year old daughter I was on a mission to find either some hurricanes or lanterns for my fireplace mantle. Well the shopping gods were on my side because I was able to find both!
These are my first attempt at decorating with the lanterns... (ok second attempt because I do have a 2 halloween decorations I tried too & they looked cute, I'll share those soon).

I took my kids out to a local farm today that had some great pumpkins of all varietys - the best part is that it was something I could take the kids too without making a whole day excursion out of it :) I just wish I would've had my camera with me while we were there.

First I scrubbed away all the finger prints from the store & got them ready.

I also soaked my little pumpkins & gourds in hot water & vinegar to get the dirt/mud/bugs/sprays off of them. This is them drying

Next I just kind of started stuffing them in the lanterns & trying to arrange them so they weren't just stacked one on top of the other.

Voila! 2 perfectly pumpkin stuffed lanterns on my mantel!

Also I should mention that the little pumpkins were 3/$1 & the gourds were 2/$1 - so I have like $12 in there. :)

Well, what do you think?

What do you put inside your lanterns?