Thanksgiving Table with Plumbing and Bath Items

This Thanksgiving Craft Wars was really a great challenge.  I have to admit I was totally stumped with the wine rack challenge.  I couldn't think of anything for that, but I have tons of ideas for the master craft. I really liked a lot of the ideas the 2 finalists had.  The trees made of plumbing supplies were really cool although no one really would cut huge holes in their table!  I know the judges liked the toilet brush flowers but I could not get past that they were toilet brushes on your table- GROSS!  They needed to be disguised some more.

My Ideas
As soon as I saw the plungers I thought of pumpkins and the caps on acorns.  So I bought a plunger for $2.95.  Everything else I had at home.  I used pinking shears to cut out some dark brown and tan felt and other fabric scraps to form the acorn cap.  The stem is covered with some dark brown ribbon. For the base I found an old mini Oreo To-Go container (RECYCLE!) which I covered with some batting and tan fabric (I wish I had more dark brown, but that was the best I had at home).  Then I wrapped the entire base in dark brown yarn.  Other ideas for the base would be dark brown burlap or other fabric.  I also like the idea of twine or that thin twiggy stuff and possibly even Spanish moss would be cool.  The yarn took awhile to wrap but in a perfect Michael's Craft closet I would have found something cute fabric to use.  They also had a brown shower curtain in this challenge that would have worked.  You could make the pumpkin easily as well.  The top half would be the plunger, the bottom could be half of a Styrofoam ball or fabric and batting.  Just some orange and green paint would be needed. Easy peasy!

If I was making this entire table display I think I would go with a woodland theme.  Acorns, pumpkins, gourds, little forest creatures like owls, squirrels, etc. on the mantle.  The toilet brushes would make really cute hedgehogs!  Were there any bath loofas available? Those would also work for making some cute animals.


Other ideas include napkin rings made out of the pvc pipes- duh, I thought that was an obvious one but I didn't see it in that challenge.  What about using the rubber gloves to make some turkeys?  The winner made some classic hand turkey drawings, but you could take that one step further and stuff the rubber glove with batting, make the thumb the turkey face and paint the other fingers like turkey feathers.