AWB BLOGtober Fest, Day 3: Fall Traditions

Today is day 3 of the Arkansas Women Bloggers BLOGtober Fest. Today we're talking about Fall Traditions.

Initially, I thought, "We don't have any fall traditions." But then I realized, "Oh, yes we do! My favorite one!" I got the idea from my dear friend, Becky.  We make a Thankful Tree and put it in our dining area at the beginning of November. Each day we take a leaf or acorn and write on it one thing we are thankful for that day.  I need to make a new tree trunk this year - the one I had finally bit the dust.  I make my tree trunk out of photo mat board - buy a big sheet at Hobby Lobby (use your 40% off coupon!). I just draw my best, kiddie kind of tree trunk with a couple of branches then cut it out and then use sticky-tack to hold it to the wall. Leaves are from a pattern I found online (Better Homes & Gardens, I think, for a "fall leaves applique pillow" or something) and cut out of various colors of construction paper - mostly brown, yellow and orange with a little bit of red, purple and green thrown in for good measure. We also use sticky-tack to hold the leaves to the wall.  FYI, if you have an electronic cutting machine like a Silhouette, buy cut files and let the machine do all your work!  :)

Here are some photos of previous Thankful Trees:

Close-ups of a few leaves can be found here.  I love this tradition. We are always thankful for people, things (like "the heat pump" one year - hahaha, that was the year we got ours replaced on 10/31 so on 11/1 we were all very thankful!), church stuff...lots of different things! And it's fun to see what the kids come up with. I fully expect to see "Billy the Exterminator" and "Duck Dynasty" on leaves this year.