Be the envy of every squirrel. 
I love easy, cheap centerpieces. You may be thinking, “weeeeell Heidi, it’s the only choice you have, ” and I’d respond, “Touche’… but how great that I’m poor or I’d’ve never thought of doing this!”
I was having a stressful day recently, I was sitting at my computer and having blocked goal after blocked goal until I wanted to pull my hair out. The sweet smell of decaying apples distracted me and I noticed that my apples that provided such a great centerpiece were starting to go bad. In an effort to have accomplished SOMETHING for the day I quickly threw out the apples and ran to my back yard.
I had been tossing acorns in a pile by my tree to get them out of the yard. We had a very dry summer and I had a husband who told me not to water my yard. SO- the obvious result was that most of my grass died and the ground is now very hard, even with scraggly new growth looking patchy like an older man’s comb-over. The acorns that fall sit on top of the ground without settling into it and the result when my kids fall is tiny cuts on their hands and knees. To help out with that little problem, I scurry around my yard like a rabid squirrel making piles of acorns while they play. What can I say. I’m a GREAT MOM.
Having been divinely inspired, I ran out to get my piles and dump them into a bowl. Then I pushed in a candle from my wedding 9 years ago that I hadn’t used. voila. Simple, eco-friendly & a bit of outdoors inside.
This wasn’t my first time using acorns as centerpieces, check out my Before/After Dining Room Make-Over post and see what I use instead of a table-runner.
But guess what? I wasn’t only person inspired by a squirrel’s desire… check out Crate & Barrel’s front cover for their fall cataloge…
I coudn’t believe it either. Laying by the wine glasses, little acorns. They totally stole that idea from me. 
(thanks Amanda for telling me about the Crate & Barrel cover!)