Thanksgiving Centerpiece and Setup Ideas

Renee Syler: Hi everyone, welcome to Parents TV. I'm Renee Syler. Today we’ve got
some Thanksgiving prep tips for all you busy moms out there face it what
mom isn’t easy. Kim Bensen is here with some quick and easy centerpiece
ideas. Hi Kim!

Kim Bensen: Hey Renee.

Renee Syler: Good to see you again.

Kim Bensen: Good to see you. Can you believe it’s this time of the year [voice overlap].

Renee Syler: I can't. And you know what just a little touch really makes it that much
more special isn’t it?

Kim Bensen: It does it really does.

Renee Syler: Yes and we love the quick and easy part so do tell.

Kim Bensen: Oh I will. When it’s Thanksgiving time of the year we get out of the attic
and get our old decorations and the kids the first thing they yell is where’s
the turkey.

Renee Syler: Is this being the turkey head?

Kim Bensen: This turkey head is 15 years old and it’s really not too attractive-looking
by itself because it looks decapitated but it’s one of the quick and easiest
and most centerpiece ideas for kids. It’s made out of a pattern and it’s just
felt and just a little bit of hot glue, it’s a rickrack and you can cut it out and
you're going to make a turkey that you can use year after year.

Renee Syler: And we don’t have to saw which is hot glue.

Kim Bensen: Hot glue some rickrack a little bit of felt, it’s really easy it’s so simple.

Renee Syler: And then how do we put it in there?

Kim Bensen: You want to buy a pineapple with a nice top to it because that’s going to
be your tail and I like to sit and do this a little bit to get it fluffing up. But
then all you have to do is stick it on and then I take a straight pin and I put
it in like this and you have the world’s quickest centerpiece.

Renee Syler: There he is and look he doesn’t look a day over three.

Kim Bensen: But I love this centerpiece you can eat. For the end of the meal you cut it
up and you have a low-fat snack as well.

Renee Syler: Here we go. How many, is that 75 calories?

Kim Bensen: 75 calories per cup of pineapple.

Renee Syler: Okay good. Excellent that’s a good one. Tell me about this. I love these
little flowers in the board. So cute.

Kim Bensen: We’re going to do that on a little bit scale. We’re going to each fill the
pumpkin together and you're going to see how easy this is and actually I've
already done the hard work. I've hollowed it out. You just carve out your
little pumpkin and hollow out the seeds and you can throw away the lid.
Now you want a bigger opening if you're going to use a potted plant and
you want a smaller opening if you're going to use the base.

Renee Syler: When you say use a potted plant you mean put the whole pot inside?

Kim Bensen: All you have to do is to take the whole potted plant.

Renee Syler: It doesn’t fit any easier than that.

Kim Bensen: Or you can bring this side. I like doing that on a large scale with a big
mom on my French steps, but for inside I like doing this as a base. So all
you have to do is to take some cut flowers and just start building it around
like I did here with the little mom with the little gourd and you can use
anything that’s in your yard even and some leaves. You can go to the store
and see what's on sale.

Renee Syler: And do you want the leaves still?

Kim Bensen: You can have them greenery whatever looks good for whatever flowers
you got, some have more green some have less. You can put baby’s breath
in. One thing that you can also do is you can take and put a little glass one
of those inexpensive candlestick holders and put it in first or we can even
just stick this because the flowers will hold it. Then you don’t want to
build it too high if you add the candle to it.

Renee Syler: Hey I like wine. [Voice overlap]

Kim Bensen: Isn’t that pretty? You're great at arranging and I'm not so this is what I do.
Sometimes you have potted plants that are two per five and they're really
inexpensive. So all I do is I just do a couple of big snips. I fill my base up
with water.

Renee Syler: I love this too.

Kim Bensen: And you're done you can cool it out a little bit and then you can put your
little guy in.

Renee Syler: And the water is okay in here. How long would be we expect this to last?

Kim Bensen: Well the pumpkin and the fresh cut flowers last about the same amount of
time, a week to 10 days and I kind of figure when I see fruit fries buzzing
around it’s time to throw the whole thing out.

Renee Syler: Good idea good point and all of these are on your website right including
the pattern for the turkey.

Kim Bensen: kimbensen.com.

Renee Syler: Excellent, thank you Kim.

Kim Bensen: Thanks Renee.

Renee Syler: I'm going to try some of these great ideas at home and to check it out you
can go to goodenoughmother.com. Thanks for watching Parents TV we’ll
you next time.