I’m enjoying taking you on this tour of my trees. Today’s trees are feather trees. I bought these years ago and they have had some adventures. The little tree is a favorite of our dogs. It has been snatched several times. They are, after all, bird dogs (golden retrievers) so I can’t be mad at them for doing what comes naturally. I’ve always managed to rescue it. The big tree is starting to look a little not so pristine at the bottom and I’m debating what to do. If I get the feathers wet I don’t know if they will ever look the same. I don’t think I could replace them. I could gather some material or fake snow around the bottom to conceal it. That’s a problem for next year I guess. I do love these trees and think they are so unique. They are part of the dining room forest as well.

I’m enjoying taking you on this tour of my trees. Today’s trees are feather trees. I bought these years ago and they have had some adventures. The little tree is a favorite of our dogs. It has been snatched several times. They are, after all, bird dogs (golden retrievers) so I can’t be mad at … Read more →

These trees are in my family room and the entire montage is new to me this year. The tree on the left was purchased in Yellowstone this summer. I just love it’s cragginess. The tree on the right was purchased in the Adirondacks this fall. I love the curled wood branches. The reindeer was my mother-in-law’s. The glass piece to the left is not new and was bought in Colorado Springs. My family room is a more casual room with a bit of a woodland feel to it.

These trees are in my family room and the entire montage is new to me this year. The tree on the left was purchased in Yellowstone this summer. I just love it’s cragginess. The tree on the right was purchased in the Adirondacks this fall. I love the curled wood branches. The reindeer was my … Read more →

Today’s tree is a new addition, purchased at a local decor shop (Room on Hertel, for you local folks). The icicle theme seems to be gaining in popularity recently and I’ve been seeing lots of decorations that are icy with crystals. This tree sits in the forest of trees on my dining room chest (I’ll post a pic of the entire collection in the days ahead). This tree is glass with lots of icy, crumbly, snowy things all over it.

Today’s tree is a new addition, purchased at a local decor shop (Room on Hertel, for you local folks). The icicle theme seems to be gaining in popularity recently and I’ve been seeing lots of decorations that are icy with crystals. This tree sits in the forest of trees on my dining room chest (I’ll … Read more →

Today’s tree is an artificial topiary that sits on a small cabinet on our stairway landing. At Christmas, I stick these pink poinsettias into it. And yes, pink, not red. I don’t have any red themed decor in my house since I work from a pastel palette. The photos on the wall are my grandparents’ wedding photos.  On the left is from the 1930s during the Depression and on the right is during World War II.

Today’s tree is an artificial topiary that sits on a small cabinet on our stairway landing. At Christmas, I stick these pink poinsettias into it. And yes, pink, not red. I don’t have any red themed decor in my house since I work from a pastel palette. The photos on the wall are my grandparents’ … Read more →

Welcome to my office. Since I’m a writer and an avid reader, it only made sense to have an office tree that is all about books. My skinny little tree was meant to be a foyer or outside tree I think, but it is perfect in my office. It is decorated only with book ornaments. The tree topper has one of my favorite quote from Louisa May Alcott. Many of my ornaments are miniature books – all titles that have some meaning to me. Some ornaments are just generic books. The bookshelf ornament is a Christopher Radko which I just had to have. One of my favorites is the stack of books with the mug. It reminds how wonderful it feels to cuddle up with a book and a cup of tea or hot chocolate.

Welcome to my office. Since I’m a writer and an avid reader, it only made sense to have an office tree that is all about books. My skinny little tree was meant to be a foyer or outside tree I think, but it is perfect in my office. It is decorated only with book ornaments. … Read more →

Today’s tree is a small beaded tabletop tree. I picked it up on the clearance rack at TJ Maxx a couple of years ago. This year it is in the kids’ bathroom upstairs which is blue and green. I used to display all of my little tabletop tree together, but I now have too many and I enjoyed putting some throughout the house.

Today’s tree is a small beaded tabletop tree. I picked it up on the clearance rack at TJ Maxx a couple of years ago. This year it is in the kids’ bathroom upstairs which is blue and green. I used to display all of my little tabletop tree together, but I now have too many … Read more →

Bedroom tree

I have a problem with Home Goods. I find an excuse to pop in there about once a week and at this time of year, I’m always finding holiday decorations to bring home. But often they just aren’t quite right. This year, I’ve taken to customizing some store bought decorations. It’s much easier than starting a project from scratch and I’ve found I’m able to achieve a really high end look with just a little attention at home.

I bought this tabletop tree on the left at Home Goods for our bedroom dresser. It was a little sad looking with just the silver balls on it, but I really liked the pot and the fact that the branches had glitter on them. So I added some magnolia flowers I found at a nursery gift shop. We just stuck them in, didn’t even wire them on and it really gave the tree a nice face lift.

My second sprucing up project was not quite so easy. I found this pearl covered tree at a nursery gift shop. I loved the idea of it, but it was rather bare and I could see the wire under frame very easily.

Pearl tree

What I should have done was stick some fabric underneath to cover the frame. Instead, I spent far too much money on bridal sprays of pearls to attach to the tree to make it fuller. I also ended up buying some stick on pearls and attaching them directly to the wire frame to cover it up. I’m happy with the result, but not with the avenue I took to get there!

Here are my tips for dressing up store bought trees. Make sure that what you start with has good bones. If you thinks it’s ugly there’s probably not much you can do. Evaluate how much it would cost to fix it and then decide if the total price of buying and fixing it makes sense for you. Determine if the fixes are easy and are things you can actually do yourself. Also think about whether you can find the materials you need (I had a hard time finding pearl sprays to use for the pearl tree).

I have a problem with Home Goods. I find an excuse to pop in there about once a week and at this time of year, I’m always finding holiday decorations to bring home. But often they just aren’t quite right. This year, I’ve taken to customizing some store bought decorations. It’s much easier than starting … Read more →

Welcome to the 25 Days of Christmas Trees! I’m celebrating this year by sharing a tree a day (ok sometimes more than one a day), each day in December until Christmas. I’m embarrassed to admit I have more than 25 trees in my house. Most of them are tiny, but still…. Because of this my husband says he is a Christmas lumberjack. It turns out that I just love trees. So I’ve decided to simply embrace it. And now I’m sharing my wonderful madness with you.

Today’s tree is a new addition. I am crazy about this ice tree, which I found at a local nursery. It’s on the table in our front hall. I found some fabric at JoAnn that is white with metallic sparkles on it to go underneath it since it has an ugly black base. It does double duty as a night light in the hall.

Welcome to the 25 Days of Christmas Trees! I’m celebrating this year by sharing a tree a day (ok sometimes more than one a day), each day in December until Christmas. I’m embarrassed to admit I have more than 25 trees in my house. Most of them are tiny, but still…. Because of this my … Read more →

The wreath I saw last year at the holiday tour of homes

Every year my daughter and I go to a different holiday tour of homes. We love to see decorating ideas and also like seeing the insides of other people’s homes (yep, we’re nosy). Last year we went to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a lovely town just over the Canadian border. We saw lots of amazing things and came away with some fresh ideas. One thing that stuck with me was a popcorn wreath. It looked so fresh and white, almost like snow. I kept it in the back of my mind all year and when we started working on updating some decorations this year, I decided to get started on it.

I bought a flat wooden wreath frame at Michael’s. This is the same type of frame I used for my nut wreath, which hangs in my kitchen all fall and is one of the best craft projects I’ve ever made. I put a wire through two of the holes in the frame so that I would have a way to hang it.

I did some Googling for tips on how to make the wreath. Several sites said to string the popcorn then wrap it around the wreath frame. I spent an hour stringing popcorn then found that it looked pretty ridiculous when I wrapped it. First of all, the popcorn on the back of the wreath was going to break off and it was going to scratch against the door. It also ended up looking too orderly. I trashed that and started over. I began gluing popcorn to the wreath with a glue gun. This worked, but it used a lot of glue sticks and I also burned myself over and over because it’s impossible to see where on a kernel the glue is. If it falls off and you pick it up to restick it, you’re going to get burned.

Next I tried using Mod Podge to dip the popcorn in. This saved my fingers from burns, but it also ended up giving the popcorn a very yellowish tinge – it looked like it was buttered or even caramel corn. Next  I went out and bought Aleene’s Tacky Glue Clear Gel and that worked better, but still the popcorn turns a little yellow on contact, I think probably from shrinking when it gets moist from the glue. After three bottles of Aleeene’s glue, innumerable batches of popcorn and a lot of therapeutic time spent dipping popcorn in glue then sticking it on the wreath, I declared it to be done. My handy husband did the work with the ribbon to finish it off. I can’t even begin to estimate how much time I spent on this. Maybe 8 hours? I found it rather relaxing once I figured out how to do it well. I’m really proud of how well this turned out. I think mine looks just as nice as the one I saw last year.

Mod Podge disaster

Now, please learn from my experience. If you’re going to make a popcorn wreath, here’s how to do it efficiently:

1. Use a puffy styrofoam wreath base. The flat wooden base I used was too flat. If I had started with a foam base, my wreath would have looks fuller much more quickly, saving me hours and hours of time.
2. Paint the wreath base white. Again, something else I wish I’d done.
3. Attach wire or a hook to the back before you begin.
4. Buy regular white popcorn. I used organic because that’s what I had in the house, but Jiffy Pop White Popcorn pops up much whiter. I would have preferred that, but I was too far in when I realized
5. Air pop the popcorn. I made mine in a paper bag in the microwave.
6. Put felt circles on the back of the wreath so it doesn’t rub against the door, knocking all the popcorn off the edges. I stacked three felt circles and applied three of these stacks
7. Use Aleene’s clear gel glue.
8. Layer newspaper on your table to catch the glue drips.
9. Prop the wreath up on a couple of disposable plastic containers so you can access the sides and so it won’t stick to your paper.
10. Pour the glue into a disposable container and dip one side of each piece of the popcorn in the glue, using as little as possible.
11. Choose the big puffy pieces of popcorn as much as possible. Go around the wreath, gluing popcorn on then stop. If you try to add more popcorn on top of popcorn that is held by wet glue, it’s going to fall apart. Let the first layer dry before doing another. It needs several hours to dry.
12. Every once in a while as you are working, go around the wreath and give the popcorn a squeeze with your whole hand, molding it to the wreath and ensuring it will really stick and hold together.
13. Yes, the popcorn is going to break. Sometimes it breaks as you are dipping it in the glue. Other times it breaks when you attach it to the wreath. Sometimes it breaks later. It’s ok. You will have so much popcorn on this wreath no one will see.
14. Try to layer the popcorn so that all glued sides are facing down and big puffy sides are facing up. The better you hide the glue, the whiter and fluffier the wreath will appear.
15. Some of the popcorn is going to fall off. That’s why doing this in batches works. Let it dry, then hold it up and give it a little shake. If anything falls off, place a new piece of popcorn in its place.
16. Tie some ribbon around it when it’s done to dress it up.
17. Ta-dah! You’ve made a popcorn wreath.

Every year my daughter and I go to a different holiday tour of homes. We love to see decorating ideas and also like seeing the insides of other people’s homes (yep, we’re nosy). Last year we went to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a lovely town just over the Canadian border. We saw lots of amazing things and came … Read more →

We have two holiday wreaths that go up each year: one on the front door, and the second on a wall in the dining room. I realized these wreaths must be at least 15 years old, probably older. I am also pretty sure the wreaths themselves were hand-me-downs that we redecorated. The metal framing of the wreaths was rusty, so it was definitely time to trash them. I’m on a kick to refresh my holiday decorations this year, purging things I’m tired of or that are just not pretty and adding new things. The wreaths were definitely on the list.  They had tired ribbon, ancient silk flowers and metallic holly that was peeling.

I started by buying two new wreaths at Michael’s for $7 each. We fluffed the greenery on the wreaths after bringing them hom. Since my holiday colors don’t include red (I know, call me a rebel) it’s always hard to find decorations that will work with my pastel theme. I picked up some small white poinsettias at Michael’s as well as some glittery baby’s breath and spray of some sparkly leaves with sparkly berries. I then ordered, returned and reordered several different color pink poinsettias from the Joann Fabrics site. The colors were different in person but I ended up keeping the second batch.

I then went Menne Nurseries, a local garden shop that has a huge indoor Christmas decor shop and found some beautiful light pink sparkly flowers and sage green leaves with white sparkly berries. The choices at this shop are definitely more high end and interesting than what I am finding at Michael’s and Joann. All in all I spent about $60 for the material that went on the wreaths.

The husband did the hard work of wiring the items to the wreaths after we collaborated on placement.He used green floral wire to attach the piece to the wreath frame.  I think they turned out well. The bright pink poinsettia wreath is bit gaudy, but I think it will look nice on the front door, and actually be visible from the road. The lighter pink wreath may be going in the dining room or it may find a new home somewhere else this year.

I’m working on a third wreath that will go in my kitchen and will post about that adventure once I finish it!

Do you have holiday decorations that are tired and need to be refreshed?

Here are my tips for making your own wreaths:

– Buy an inexpensive wreath and put loads of things in it, You’ll never know it was inexpensive because you won’t see much of it.

– Come up with a theme or color scheme and shop towards it. Don’t get distracted by things outside your plan.

– Buy more than you think you will need to fill the wreath. Buy three times more than you think you will need. You always need more than you think and you can return whatever you have leftover.

– Decide on an orientation for your wreath. Which is the top and which is the bottom? Then decide if you are going to distribute your decorations throughout the wreath evenly or if you want to create a larger asymmetrical display area on one section of the wreath.

– Do a dry run first, setting things where you think they might go before you wire anything in or cut off long stems from anything you buy. You’ll be able to move things around and determine what works in the wreath and what doesn’t.

– Once you know where things are going to go, cut them and place them but don’t wire anything in until everything has been placed. If you need to readjust it is much easier if things are not wired in.

–  If you are going to have a bow, wait until the wreath is finished to make it. If you make it for a bare wreath it often looks too small when applied to a fully decorated wreath.

We have two holiday wreaths that go up each year: one on the front door, and the second on a wall in the dining room. I realized these wreaths must be at least 15 years old, probably older. I am also pretty sure the wreaths themselves were hand-me-downs that we redecorated. The metal framing of … Read more →