Dining Room Dilemma and a New Center Piece

Of all of the rooms in our house, one rarely gets as cluttered as our dining room.  It is the room that we eat in, that Moira often plays in, and of course, the room that I do all of my crafting in.  And since my crafting never ends, there is an endless trail of crafting supplies hanging out on my dining room table...paper, beads, fabric, glue, sewing machine, thread, etc...Needless to say, the table never really looks much like a dining room table but more like this:

I have been trying to keep my dining room tidy (read: clutter free), but functional (read: able to be used for crafts and play) by not accumulating new things until I have wrapped up some of the started, anticipated, and lists of crafty things that I have accumulated over the winter months.  It is like crafty-nesting.

I have also tried thinking of simple accessories to decorate with that are, let's face it, easy to push aside when I need my work space or when it was time to eat.  (Really, who wants to push aside 6 glass vases and votives and move them back into place every day, several times a day.  I love looking at pictures of beautiful dining rooms, both casual and formal, and the clever, seasonal, pretty center pieces that go in them.  There is just too much going on in ours for something elaborate to work.)


Now, I don't know if it is the highs and lows of pregnancy or living with the same color for 5 years, but I am soooo tired of green.  We are not, however, in a spot to repaint a dining room right now.  Actually, I am not interested in painting.  Although we are not in a spot to buy a new home right now, we are sort of "window shopping" and a baby is on the way, so I can't justify paining a room right now.  I can, however, justify making things a little easier or simpler.

In that spirit, I decided on a something that was a single piece; low; neutral and natural looking to work with our current green and the season; and able to be moved back and forth easily.  Having seen these moss-and-rock-type center pieces online and in magazines, I gave it a go.

Isn't that nice??? (And look!  My table is clear!!!)

Grab a couple of supplies like:

A container (I used a rectangular, flat saucer...found at JoAnn Fabrics), sheet moss, styrofoam to fit your container, some river rocks, hot glue, and your candles/votive holders.

Shave off some of your styrofoam using a serrated knife.  Let's face it, where can you find right angles and perfect rectangles in nature?

Start by hot-gluing some large sheets of sheet moss to your styrofoam.

 Glue on some more moss in random places until you get the "natrual" look you want.

 Place your candles where you want them.  I shaped the moss around the base of the candle holders and pressed them into the styrofoam a little bit so they would stay in place.

Hot-glue some rocks here and there for your finished look.  I have also seen words and phrases written on the rocks before.  Thinking of doing that too...just haven't don it yet!

I also cleaned up the dresser-turned-buffet in our dining room...

And fixed up a nice little vase...

Using some rolled paper flowers...

And hot gluing them onto some branches.

A side note--my dining room table is currently (sort-of) clean with just a small pile of bead containers and  small boxes of thread and buttons at the end of the table.  Not tooooo bad, right?

:)
Anne