Dried Orange + Cypress Garland

I've seen all of the luscious, fresh garland decking the halls all across instagram/pinterest these days and as much as I would love to splurge on those beauties, those just aren't in my budget to invest in for just one month's use!

I was trying to think of inexpensive ways to add some Christmas cheer throughout our kitchen in a fresh and non cheesy way, and I kept seeing dried oranges and pine tree used as bits of garland through the house. Though I'd never seen them used together, only separately. I thought, why don't I just marry the two ideas together and instead of the pine.. just use the cypress trees I've already been chopping up in the backyard! HAHA! -- and I'm SO, SO, glad that I did! I had no idea how it would turn out and I have to say I'm pretty proud of this one and thinking like.... "would this float well into spring?" becauuuuseeeeee I can't bring myself to throw it away when Christmas is over! *WAHHHH*

It was so stinkin' easy, so I'm going to leave the instructions below for whoever would like to give it a whirl or make a variation of your own!

Instructions:
1. Once you've dried your oranges and chosen your fresh limbs, measure the spot that you would like to hang your garland.
2. Cut your jute/twine to the length needed. Leave around 5 inches of additional twine on both ends to tie the garland off where you hang it.
3. Knot each limb onto the jute/twine. Place them 3-4 inches apart to where they aren't touching. (You can use a new piece for each limb or the existing piece you have for the main garland to lower the amount of cutting needed)
4. Once all of your limbs are placed where desired, punture a small section of each orange to tie jute/twine through and attach each orange to a limb.
5. Once you've got both of your pieces on, you're good to hang it in your designated spot and just play with how high or low you'd like the "swoop" to be! (I used push pins to secure mine)

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That's literally it! So, so easy and cheap -- and I think it took me 30 mins to make two strands! If you have crawlers/climbers that are intrigued by these sorts of things(like I do) maybe show some better judgement that I did andddddd don't hang them so low! HAHAHA! (See picture below for what I'm talking about) -- whatevs. I love it in this spot and it gives her something to play with that she enjoys too and if she breaks it, it maybe cost $2.00? So here it shall stay! Hope you guys enjoyed this and let me know if you give it a try!

xx,
Katie