Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Winner, Winner, Turkey Dinner!

And you thought I said I was giving away FABRIC leftovers rather than FOOD leftovers, right? Ha! Okay, seriously, yes, I have a winner for the Christmas fabric scraps giveaway: Anna of Woolie Mammoth who has a daughter-in-law who is expecting a baby in January and whose daughter-in-law's birthday is on Christmas--Anna thought she'd make something for the mom-to-be. Anna, please email me your mailing address, and I'll get the package off to you. Thanks to all of you for playing along.

Now I'll tell you a little bit about my Christmas decorating--first the "main" Christmas tree.

For several years, we've had what I rather politically-incorrectly refer to as "the gay guy tree," because it was decorated mostly with male fairy/woodland creatures and jeweled fruit. Pretty, but somewhat dark and a little more opulent than felt right in our small house. For the past two years, I wanted to do something different but nothing else seemed better for our yellow/red/brown living room.

This year, Hubby put up our tree--which is artificial and pre-lighted--on Friday morning, and as I looked at it, it occurred to me that I knew just what direction I wanted to go with it. Unfortunately, a Black Friday excursion to JoAnn's and Michael's was required, but neither store was too awfully crazy.

Here's what the tree looks like now:


And here's the magazine that inspired the look:


The tree on the magazine cover is much more full of decorations, and maybe I'll add more to mine over the next couple years--it will give me something to "collect" and think about. But for this year, at least, I wanted a little less red, and a little plainer, streamlined look.

What I noticed in the magazine and liked the look of--long before I decided I wanted to adopt the idea for our house--was the addition to the tree of the silk greenery with the white edging. Here's a close up of our tree--you can see I've added the same greenery:


Someone who shopped at JoAnn's must have had the same idea, because they only had one lonely, sorry-looking stem of the greenery. At Michael's, though, I found what I needed, and I cut each stem into three pieces to tuck into the branches.

I also grabbed several stems of white "pip berries" to tuck into the branches:


I'm not too excited about the white ribbon "garland" and I'm sure I'll change that next year, but I'm not sure what I'll do instead; it will give me something to think about during the intervening year.

This year, I simply used ornaments I already had from past years. Hubby was pretty darn thrilled that I finally used the clear glass "icicle" ornaments I bought years ago and never could seem to incorporate into any of my trees or decorations.

By the way, speaking of Hubby and decorating, I know you'll be interested to learn that the fairly large sponge he brought back from Florida seems to have found a home atop his bedside lamp shade. Yep, once I put the lamp shade back on the lamp, Hubby added the sponge to the top, like some crazy lamp hat. And you know what? I've just been struck with an idea. I think I'll buy one of those fuzzy red Santa hats and put IT on top of the sponge. After all, I still need to decorate our bedroom. I think I'll go to bed and sleep on it. Goodnight!

10 comments:

Shirley--Knot-y Embroidery Lady said...

Verra, Verra Nice! You do have that special decorating gene or genie or is that jennie with a wand. Your home is always lovely no matter the season, yet especially wonderful at the winter holidays.

Donna said...

Your tree looks lovely.

PunkiePie (Jen) said...

Congratulations to your winner and your tree looks great! I hope to get ours up and decorated this weekend. Fingers crossed that it happens because I have no other free time after that and to Christmas. Sad, isn't it?

Me and My Stitches said...

Love your tree! Mine is still not completely decorated - every time I try to hang ornaments the cats get all wild and crazy and think it's their toy! Maybe today...

dianne said...

if you start to smell the aroma of smoky fish, you might want to check the sponge, Bob ...... years ago, i almost set the bedroom on fire when i draped sumpin over the little bedroom lamp's shade (Cosmo said it was a romantic idea, but i really didn't have THAT kinda smokin' luv in mind)...

love the tree!

Anna said...

Yahooooo!!! That was me the chubby woodland fairy dancing the winner dance in the dark!!! Send my snail mail address shortly!!!

I ROFLOL when I read your discription about your tree decor! It is fun to change it up. I absolutly love the wangon!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! my DIL will thank you!

Heather said...

Love your tree. I too have added some extra greenery into my tree this year including some silk magnolia blossoms to represent the fact that I am now living in the south. Love your quilts in the trunk below the tree. Great idea!

Pam B said...

Congratulations to Anna (you lucky girl!).

Love your Christmas tree...you did a fantastic job!

Hugs,
Pam

debbie m said...

I like your tree even more than the one on the mag. Too much red on thiers. I also really like the gold moon (? face) ornament. My tree is still at my friend's tree farm. I am a little afraid to decorate it this year. I inherited my mom's cat when mom moved to an assisted living home. Cindy is less than 2 years old and still quite playful. Wish us luck!

free indeed said...

Love the tree! You did a great job with it.