So the other night I hosted a pinterest party for our neighborhood moms group. We had agreed on a couple of crafts to create and everyone was bringing something pinteresty to eat & share too. So I had our dining room and a folding table set up for crafts which left the kitchen table for foodage.

So… when you need to create some sort of centerpiece tablescape on a zero budget, you shop the house and then–what?–head to the wooded area behind your neighborhood playground… right? I mean, that’s what everyone does, isn’t it??

Anyway, there are these fantastic flowers (or weeds or whatever they are) in bloom all over the place there right now.

So Sis played on the swings, and I cut some flowers!

Yep, just me, my lily-white legs, a pair of scissors, and a basket of weeds. I am the neighborhood crazy woman.

Anyhoo, my thought was to create several little vases of these flowers using these rounded square vases. [I have about a dozen of these cheap-as-chips vases, some small, some big, that I keep on hand for such a need!]

But after playing around for a few minutes, I realized that the flowers and stalks were so dainty that they were not terribly arrangeable. No worry, though, a vase filled with solid yellow is not so bad!

I ended up just doing a couple for times sake. Cutting a ton of little flower stems gets tedious, and time was running short! But I had a bag of lemons that fleshed out the color story nicely.

I added in a simple wooden “welcome” sign with a bit of green accent, and stacked it all–the sign, lemons, and flowers–on top of a piece of washed burlap, creating a couple of different levels with two small step stools hidden underneath.

Adding plates, forks, spoons, and another shot of yellow and green in some paper napkins, I called it done!

It was ready for food! YUMMO!

When creating any tablescape, I like to keep in mind theme, color, and budget (just like with making gift baskets). This look fit a casual but girly get-together (especially since one of the crafts we did used burlap), but really earned its keep in the color and budget departments! It was free since the weeds, er flowers were free, and I had everything else on hand, wheeee!

I’m sure my friends would not have cared if there were nothing on the table at all except the yumminess they added to it, but I love to create–or try to, at least–a little something special! [Does this make up for the fact that my sink had dirty dishes in it, covered by a cookie sheet, during the gathering? I’m just classy like that!]  🙂

So, what are your favorite scavenge and house-shop decor items? Do tell!