Before the house is taken over with Halloween and holiday decorations, decorate your home with a taste of fall. In the spring, we celebrate by bringing in the first dandelions. In summer, we bring in roses from the garden. Why not bring in the fall too?

Start with an assortment of gourds, squashes, and pumpkins. These are great to arrange in baskets and set in corners, on mantels, and on countertops. If available, add Indian corn, pampas grass, cattails, acorns, pine cones, bittersweet or other natural materials. Let your creativity run wild! Larger pumpkins and squash can form a standing arrangement in front of the fireplace.

Handpicked colorful leaves can accent many areas of the home. Use them as coasters under glasses at the table, pin them up on bulletin boards, splash them across the mantel of your fireplace or tape them along the bathroom mirror. Press the leaves between waxed paper and iron to make table runners, coffee table centerpieces or placemats.

Pumpkins are just the right color to liven up the table. Locate small ones and paint faces on them with acrylic paint and name them. They can be used as doorstops to liven up the children’s rooms. These are some ideas to get you started.

These are wonderful natural decorations. You can also decorate straight from the kitchen.

• Why can't a table centerpiece be edible too? Decorate your table this fall with an edible candy dish, Halloween Cookie House, pumpkin-shaped cake or possibly a dome cake pan in the shape of a pumpkin.
• Create individual pumpkin mini cakes and arrange on a platter in the middle of your coffee table. Then invite in the neighbors or some friends - they will be delighted to eat a fall arrangement.
• Bake a pumpkin or apple pie. Use extra pie dough to cut out mini leaves and place them around the edges of the pie while baking for an added fall theme.
• If you are serving cookies, use fall theme cutters and fall-colored sanding sugar to decorate. Bake buttery Linzer cookies and fill with apricot jam - use the fall cutter set.
• Use some decorated parchment leaves to include on serving trays when passing around treats or beverages.

There are natural and edible ways to celebrate fall. So become creative in the kitchen this afternoon with some baking and take a nice hike or stroll this evening and look at the nature around you. You will begin your fall decorating extravaganza!