End of the Season Salad and Fall decorating

 I had one last lonely tomato and a handful of cherry tomatoes.  And I still have more peppers than I know what to do with.  This salad is a good way to use them up. Boil 1 pound of the pasta of your choice.

Add 1 diced cucumber, some diced tomato, thinly sliced peppers, a small thinly sliced sweet onion, 1 can of black olives sliced and some cubes of fresh mozzarella.

Add some cubed cheddar and a handful of fresh basil.  Sprinkle with 1 tsp. of celery seeds.  I tossed this with an Italian salad dressing:  Mix 1/3 C. of red wine vinegar, 1/2 C. olive oil, 1 T. honey, 1 tsp. Dijon mustard, 3 T. grated Parmesan, 1 tsp. Italian seasoning and salt and pepper.  Shake it in a jar to mix.  Taste and add more honey if needed.

Considering all that is going on around here this year, I was thinking I might skip decorating for Fall.  It is at least a month later than usual for me. When I mentioned this to some friends and family, they were insistent that I decorate anyway.  So, yesterday I started making the bases for the decorations.  I am trying something different this year and using mesh as a base for the garlands. A lot more will be added to all of this but I thought I would show you the base structure.  The wreath is formed by making loops with the mesh and ribbon and attaching them to a wire wreath frame using pipe cleaners.

 For the garland base, I had to work on my dining room table.  I was using a hot glue gun so I put an old oil cloth tablecloth down to catch the inevitable glue drops. They can easily be scraped off of the oil cloth.

 I used a long piece of coated wire and hot glued pipe cleaners every 6 inches.  Then you can just loop the mesh down the wire attaching it as you go.  I used 3 different colors of mesh and then added a plaid ribbon.  I bought some decorative branches and added them too.

 The 2 sides of the garlands are 117 inches long.

 Then I made the swag for the top.  It is 70 inches wide.  Once these are hung, I will start to add all sorts of Fall adornments.  I'll post them as I go.