Article: Create last-minute decorations from home and garden miscellany.

Byline: Kathy Gilbert

Dec. 16--The pie's in the oven, your in-laws are on their way and you need a table centerpiece -- fast. Where do you go? Try your front yard, local crafters say. Or in a pinch, your neighbor's nandina bush.

"Found objects" such as pine cones, evergreen boughs and gnarled branches can be the basis of simple, elegant Christmas decorations.

"I put baskets of pine cones from my pine trees in a bucket on the porch and tie a ribbon on the handle. Later, my husband uses them as fire starters," said Red Bank homemaker and musician Sylvia Hildebrandt.

Lay branches of pine, magnolia or even nandina on the mantel ...

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