Christmas Tree 2010

Once again, I've been gone too long. Things around here have only gotten crazier since I last posted, so I've been forced to neglect this little blog of mine. But don't think I haven't been crafting! Ohhhh, have I been CRAFTING. One of these days (if the sun ever comes out again) I'll take some photos of what I've been doing. LOTS of Christmas stuff has been springing from my desk. For right now, though, I'd like to share our Christmas tree with you.

First, let's have a look at last year's woodland-themed tree.

This year's tree is quite different.

Silver and white is big right now, so I thought I'd jump on the trend. I also added touches of gold to warm it up a bit.

I bought a few new things, like the sparkly branches, the ribbon and these glittery birds.

Joann has a lot of their floral items at 50-60% off, so I got a few of these feather and tiny bell picks for $1 each.

These clear plastic ball ornaments were from Michael's (also 50% off) and the glittery snowflakes came from Joann for around a quarter apiece.

I can't find a box with a lot of my ornaments in it, which includes my sentimental ones. So the tree this year is missing some of its usual nostalgia. But I did manage to find a few ornaments that make me smile, including this one painted by my husband for our very first Christmas together ten years ago.

And of course there are the photo ornaments that I adore.

Remember this one?





At first it looks like our tree has no star, but it's nestled up there among the highest branches.

I didn't have a tree skirt to go with my color scheme, so I had to come up with something easy and cheap to cover up this monstrosity.

This tree turned out to be REALLY heavy and while we were trying to stand it up it fell over (before decorating, thank goodness) and bent one of the screws in the base. Long story short, we got the base on as straight and tight as we could, then I chopped up a chair to raise it (last year we used my wreath box) so there'd be room for the presents, and then used some cardboard to tilt the whole thing so it'd stand up straight.

Anyway, back to the skirt. Here's what I came up with.

I bought a couple packages of this cotton craft batting at Joann (40% off with a coupon) and after doing some measuring I started cutting out my scalloped pieces.

I just butted the edges of each piece against one another then zig-zagged them together.

I zig-zagged along the top for added stability then attached ribbon to either end to tie it onto the tree base. EASY.

While I do miss my childhood ornaments and the other sentimental ones that are usually present each year, I really like how the tree turned out. It's sparkly.