Drying Oranges and Placing Them on a Homemade Wreath

 Hi all! I am in the middle of decorating my house for Christmas, which has been all time-consuming.  However, while decorating I have been noticing a trend all over social media and Pinterest.  People are obsessed with dried oranges and are using them in their decorating this season.  Well, I am here to say, I was ahead of the curve on this one!  I posted about this a few years ago.  So, today I am taking this opportunity to share that post I created with you again. I hope to go through the orange drying process again sometime this season but, for now, I will share my insights from the past (with some added editorial comments) and will promise to get back on track and show you what has been going on over here for the past few weeks and share some of my holiday decorating with you soon :).

The last time I posted about this topic, it was after the holidays.  Our family had been going through an especially rough time with several loved ones passing away.  I think that was why I hadn't been able to try drying oranges during the actual season.  At least this time, I am sharing the information in a timely manner, just before the holidays are about to begin!

  All Christmas season that year I had wanted to try drying oranges and using them on a wreath.  I had seen several wreaths that I liked on Pinterest and hoped to get one made by Christmas.  Well, that never happened so, just during a week in January I set out to give it a try.

 I started off by Googling how to dry orange slices.  It is fairly easy but, you must have patience and some time on your hands.  I cut the oranges in slices. I think I may have sliced them a little thick because I cooked them longer than was suggested and some of them still did not totally dry.

***Added info that I have since learned.  You can set the orange slices out after the cooking process on a drying rack to let them dry out even more.  However, I still think it is best to not slice them too thickly and let the oven do most of the work.  I am not sure how long air-drying would take or if this changes how the oranges end up looking but, it is an added technique to try if necessary.

My other problem was that the oranges I purchased appeared to look like pink grapefruit inside when sliced. (***Also new information I have learned.  Different kinds of oranges dry in different colors.  Naval oranges seem to dry in the most orange color.)  I continued on regardless.  You are supposed to put the slices on a cookie cooling rack set up in rows.  You should also have a cookie sheet under the rack.  I lined the cookie sheet with parchment paper to catch the liquid from the oranges.  That extra step made the clean up a snap!  You then place the cookie sheets in a 250-degree oven and cook for 2-3 hours turning the slices 2-3 or more times to help them dry evenly.  Keep an eye on them because some slices will dry more quickly than others.

I went out in my yard and gathered some pine boughs and used some leftover greens that I had kept in a bucket of water in my garage.  I used these greens to fill in the gaps on my wreath.  With a grapevine wreath base I constructed a shaggy looking wreath.  I was ok with that because the oranges were supposed to be the star of the show.

I don't usually integrate silk "flowers" with real elements but, since it was January there were no real berries available anywhere.  I wanted the berries to be white and I am not sure I would have found those during the holidays anyway.  In using white berries, I hoped to bring the wreath into January with a winter look and not make it so "holiday" looking.  I am not sure I achieved that but, I liked the white berries on the wreath as an accent in any case. 

I am not sure if you can catch it in this photo but, I also placed a few sprigs of eucalyptus around the wreath and some scattered walnuts, too.  The final touch was the ivory velvet "bow" positioned at the top.  I had seen other "bows" like this on Pinterest and thought I would change it up and not do my traditional looking bow this time around.

The wreath turned out to be larger than I anticipated.  I wasn't sure where in the house I was going to put it.  I decided on the wall in my kitchen.  I actually liked it there. The oranges and walnuts made it perfectly welcome in the kitchen but, in truth, it didn't really give off that "winter" vibe.  So, I embraced the color and accented the look with copper.  It kind of looked like fall in the kitchen but, I decided to live with it for those few weeks.  At least I got to try drying oranges!

I had a few extra slices, so I hung them from a hook on the same wall as the wreath.  I kind of liked that look too! And there was a scent filtering through my home, which was nice.

There were brass sconces in the kitchen so, along with the copper, I had a mixed metal thing

 going on :).

(As some of you may know, I moved out of this house last December.  I am feeling a little nostalgic looking at these photos.  I did love the brass sconces and that house was easier to photograph than my new house, which is unfortunate since I felt my old house was hard to photograph.  Oh well, I suppose I will figure it out at some point.)

So, there you have it, my way to dry oranges.  I hope you will be able to try it sometime this season because dried oranges are all the rage, and they really are quite loving, and they do smell heavenly.

 ALWAYS HERE TO ENCOURAGE CREATIVITY!