Real Fruit, Fake Fruit

One fish, two fish… real fruit, fake fruit. Did anyone else start quoting Dr. Seuss when they read the title? 🙂 Speaking of, Mitch and I just watched the Grinch (the one with Jim Carey) the other night- let’s just talk about the costumes, makeup, and scenery they had to whip up for that production. Incredible. We’re on our annual Christmas movie marathon spree right now- last night was The Santa Claus (my personal Christmas favorite… by far) and tonight might be a Home Alone night. Hooray for Christmas cinematic classics!

Anyway, let’s rein ourselves in here (although I could talk about Christmas movies until the day is done) so I can show you some of the fruity goodness that we’ve employed as “holiday decor” this season. We’ll start with the real fruit: cranberries!

I did this last year too and loved it so much that I decided to bring it back. In fact, I still love it so much that I might make a mini theme of it for next year’s Christmas! The idea actually came from a local restaurant last year (but I’m sure it’s all over Pinterest too) who had clear votives on every table filled with water and cranberries with a white tea light floating inside. They were so simple and beautiful that I had to try them out at home.

We have two of them sitting on the back of the toilet (how romantic) in the downstairs bathroom. In the middle, I took a glass container and filled it with some silver and purple mini ornaments… easy!

My favorite version is when they’re all glowy and soft-looking:

Oh, and here’s a bonus project that’s not about fruit at all:

Another one of last year’s classics that made the cut this year too.

The letters started out in funky, bright colors (from the dollar bin at Michaels) and I just hit them with a coat of spray paint, spelled out the word “adore” as a nod to the song, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, and added some evergreens. Simple, meaningful, and pretty.

But back to the fruit. You saw the real fruit. By the way, I tasted one of the cranberries, wanting to get that refreshing “cranberry juice mixed with another fruit” taste, but WOW- they were worse than lemons. Sour city. Ok, onto the fake fruit. This was a project that is literally just as easy as it sounds: Glitter Fruit.

I pinned something like this and wanted to try it for myself. First I grabbed three fake apples and three fake pears from the Dollar Tree.

Side Story: On my hunt, I found this:

“Rude Awakening” is the phrase that comes to mind. Is fake fruit really that confusing, people? I’m just going to hope assume that this was the work of a child. 🙂

The next step was to cover them in Mod Podge (you could use regular glue for this too).

And finally, douse them in glitter! I used silver and white. Even though I hate glitter more than most things (It’s the herpes of craft supplies in my opinion), it does make things beautiful. And sparkly!

This project was easy and fun, but if I did it again, here are some things I’d do differently:

1. Spray paint the fruit white first. You can see that some of the original color comes through. On one hand, this could definitely be incorporated as part of the look, but if you wanted a full glitter effect with no color, spray it baby.
2. Apply the Mod Podge GENEROUSLY. I think I was being a little skimpy and after the glitter is on, it is really hard to go back and add more glue for another coat.

But all in all, it was fun and they turned out nicely. They’ve been living on a cake stand, flanked by two votive candles on our kitchen table and we’ve been enjoying them all season long. This is one of those decorations that could stay out past Christmas (which I like) because they have a wintry vibe to them too. Score.

Any fruit decor happening over at your place? Real? Fake? Are you tricking people into eating Styrofoam? Sheesh…