A staple of our wreath decorations is the pine cone, in all varieties. Some years we have bins and bins of them, collected over the late summer and fall by our members, and some years we are a little short and end up stretching the supply by cutting them in half into pine cone “flowers”. When we have extras at the end of Wreath Week, we pick through them and store the good ones in plastic bins in our rented storage facility. We’ve learned from experience that the term “sorting through” is key. One year, tired and worn out from marathon decorating days and nights, we threw lids on bins and hauled everything off, only to find the next year that some sort of bug had gotten into some of the bins and managed to reduce the pine cone supply to dust. After disposing and sanitizing, we swore not to do that ever again. The same principle applies to dried fruits, nuts, and berries. We do, however, save ribbon, mechanicals such as wire and picks, and artificial decorations mostly used in our “Glamorous Glitz” category. Below is a ten-year-old example of how pine cones, when fresh, are put to good use.

Thanks today go to Francie Cramb, our Wreath of the Day Sponsor and Past President who travels from up from Florida to staff the Assignment Desk and all important Quality Control, along with Jolinda Taylor, each December.