Every now and again, you have one of those perfect days – when the planets align, and the weather cooperates, and the children are both in good moods – at the same time – and everything just works.
This was one of those days.
We went for a lovely walk at the nearby woods. It was a crisp, sunny Autumn day, and the tree leaves were ablaze with red, orange and yellow.
Then we passed a copse of pine trees, which gave me an idea for some fun kids’ Christmas crafts. We all joined in collecting pinecones – the girls excitedly rose to the challenge and we ended up with so many we had to use Big Sis’s woolly winter hat to hold them all.
We took them home, where I washed and dried them and put them in a pretty ceramic bowl I already had at home.
I added some cinnamon sticks and some cloves because the smell is utterly DIVINE, and then I prepared the final flourish…
I’d seen people making oven-dried orange slices and decided to try it for myself. After researching how to dry orange slices in the oven, I cut some thick slices, patted them dry with a kitchen towel and laid them out on an oven tray.
Then I turned the fan oven to 65 degrees and let them slowly bake for three or four hours, checking them every so often to make sure they weren’t burning. Once all the moisture had been completely drawn out, I removed the oven-dried orange slices and let them cool down.
Then I added them to our bowl of foraged pinecones.
TA DAH!
A delicious smelling festive pinecone, cinnamon and clove bowl and some fun kid’s Christmas crafts to get us in the mood for the festive season.
Even more than that, a lovely reminder of a brilliant family day.
Great day and fab tip!! X
Ooh the oranges really look nice amongst those pine cones! Lovely!
What a lovely day x
ooh your pot pourri looks amazing – I’ll have to try doing that with some oranges….& both children in a good mood at the same time? unheard of! x
I think we might have to have a go at this, brilliant! Stumbled and pinned 🙂
fab photos – you look like you had an amazing time x
[…] up and went in search of some pinecones. I recently read about a lovely day in the woods over at Mummy’s Little Monkey and was inspired by the idea of collecting pinecones and turning them into something festive and […]