Decorating the Christmas Tree

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Ho ho ho everyone!  What a chore.  I got the tree together Friday night, finally figured out the internal plugs yesterday morning so now all the lights are working, except the burnt out ones.  I replaced two bulbs near the top of the tree where they are most noticeable.  I tried using a standard replacement bulb and it burnt out instantly, pfttt!  So I need a special kind of bulb and I guess I'm going to have to do some hunting online, and hope I can find some.  Well, the tree was purchased in 2006 or 2007 and so it's 7 or 8 years old.  Under the circumstances, it's held up extremely well.  There are not a LOT of burnt out lights, just a few. 

Today is the last day of my wonderful four-day weekend.  I've been puttering around all weekend, doing this and that, just hanging out and enjoying every single second.  I decided this year to forego a wreath on the front door, opting instead to hang the pretty wreath I bought on clearance last year at Menard's on the staircase wall and temporarily retire the bullseye mirror.  I put fresh batteries in the wreath that will go above the fireplace and need to decorate it -- but how?  Last year I added gold and silver round glass ornaments and my ubiquitous gold beads and thought it was just beautiful!  This year, hmmmm....

I have been hauling boxes or ornaments and decorations from the upstairs closet and unpacked the centerpiece for the top of the fireplace mantle/mantel.  I also got it on clearance last year at Menard's, and it's so pretty!  But other than it, I still haven't decided what to do decoration wise. 

Earlier this summer/fall I put together a family tree for a friend of mine, and a few days ago I received a surprise gift package delivered to me at the office -- white feather boas!  I loved the feather boa she gave me last year so much (you may remember, I hung it from invisible hooks underneath my mantle/mantel and added beautiful snowflake ornaments, and loved the effect), and had thought about decorating the 2013 Christmas tree with some feather boas.  Well, she remembered that and bought out the entire stock of white feather boas from the Claire's store at Southridge Mall.  LOL!  These boas, however, are not plain white.  They have silver and pale purple (lilac?) tinsel interwoven amid the feathers and so they sparkle in the light.  I used two of the boas to make the "few minutes" Christmas wreath that I posted about a day or two ago and am absolutely loving that wreath!  Last night I added seven battery-operated votive candles more or less evenly around it, wherever I could get purchase in the vines hidden behind the feathers, and it was so pretty, twinkling and glowing in the darkened front room.

In a relatively short period of time this morning (much shorter than the time it took me last year to add French ribbon) I got the remaining feather boas tucked around the tree branches and I love how they look!  The issue now is - exercising restraint.  I'm going to try and stick with a pearls, silver, white and glass ornaments, and it's going to be difficult, especially since my penchant is for a tree that looks like the one at the beginning of this post! Fully loaded and weighing 1,000 pounds...

I had earlier determined that I was going to go with a white-themed tree this year, perhaps with some natural elements in it.  Then I started seeing all kinds of really lovely "natural" decorated trees and some of the cutest ornaments and decorations!  I blame Home Decorators and Granden Road for my fits of indecision -- their catalogs -- totally unsolicited by me -- arrived in the mail and were so gorgeously rendered.  I spent days on the bus rides to/from the office drooling over each and every detail and gasping at the prices.  Ach, what can I say.  It's enough to drive a normally rational woman stark raving mad, mad I tell you!

To try and recapture my rationality, I started hunting around for white themed Christmas trees.  Oh oh. Here are just a few of the trees I fell madly, passionately in love with:

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When I showed the tree above to my bus-buddy Thelma, the look on her face, LOL!  Waaaaayy too over the top for her.  "Where's the star?" she asked.

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The tree above is a tabletop tree, tiny!  Imagine it six to seven feet tall, oooh laaa laaa!  Of course, this is straying far far away from my basic green tree with white lights.

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Unfortunately I lost the link to the source for this
photo.  I want to say it was from ZAS decorations, but
just not sure, and of course now I am unable
to find it again!



Thelma doesn't understand trees with the elaborate top decorations, but I'm in love with them -- just wish I could duplicate them.  But no matter how hard I try (within budgetary restraints), I cannot seem to duplicate the look of any of the trees above.  I always wander off track, somehow.

And, as you can see by my selections, restraint ain't exactly my middle name...

Final Touches to Christmas 2012 Decorations

Today was our investment club meeting and gift exchange.  This year we opted to keep it simple and we met at Meyer's Restaurant (Milwaukee) for breakfast instead of having bring-a-dish and then adjourned to Maison Newton for our meeting and gift exchange. 

Before I left the house I had put on the battery-operated lights on the tea lights, wreath and around the live greenery centerpiece on/around the mantle, turned on the flameless candles on the coffee table, etc. so that when the ladies walked into the front room (the front door opens directly into the room), they saw the full glory of my decorations, LOL!

Well, things were a big hit, and that makes me so happy.  We had our meeting in the kitchen/dinette area where I did minimal decorating this year (not that I ever went full out in prior years!):

Fresh-clipped juniper fronds from my gigantic juniper out back, with barberry clippings
(with berries still attached) from out front.  Ruby-red beaded snowflakes hang from
the chandelier over the table.  Christmas cards (not shown) are taped to the side of the fridge.

 

I took several photos of us, but all of them turned out too blurry to use, except this one:

Guess you can see just how much my hands shake as I tried to take these photos at low exposure -- look at the path the little light on the t.v. (on the fireplace mantle/mantel) took!  LOL!  As for the spooky white smoke effect - I've no idea what caused that!  Hey, Gay!  And not-quite-half of Angie!

Gayle is on the right and I'm on the left, nearest the tree. 

Presents are under the tree, and fresh greenery was clipped and added (left upper corner) yesterday, in an old basket I had on hand.  This is the first year I actually thought to utilize the evergreen resources that reside in my front and back yards!  Last year I had used clippings from the barberries out front, but those are red with berries, not evergreen.  This year, I combined both in three separate arrangements and the house is now filled with the fresh scent of juniper.

Close-up of the arrangement on the kitchen/dinette peninsula (now back in the center of the table underneath the light fixture, as our meeting is over).  The barberry is so pretty, and so ouchy with its sharp thorns!

Above, a photo of the mantle/mantel.  I added two gold-glittered tall picks to the Norfolk pine and added the feather boa as a garland across the bottom of the mantle/mantel shelf above the firebox.  That was one of my St. Nick's gifts from one of the Ladies of the Bus/Crazy Cougars.  She brought each of us a special St. Nick's gift bag filled with goodies :)  Thank you, Pepper Spray. 

The kitchen/dinette greenery looking toward the kitchen.

New this year, I decorated the top of the tall curio cabinet next to the staircase.  I framed a new greeting card I received showing a cardinal on it (to add to my fledgling collection of cardinal greeting cards) in an old frame (you may recognize it from my bedroom), added some clipped juniper, a bit of Mugo pine, and a barberry branch arranged in a woven basket (one of those holding fresh fruit at a Christmas past) lined in tin foil, and one of my Home Interiors candleabra. 

Yesterday I pulled out this very old basket that was given to me (filled with goodies!) when I moved into this house 21 plus years ago!  I stuffed it full of juniper clippings and some barberry and planted it near the northeast corner to hide the power outlet and electrical cords.  I'm going to add some battery-operated mini-lights to it tomorrow after I stop at Walgreens to buy some (on the way home from the office).  It adds color and a wonderful scent to the room!

I am loving my white feather boa -- it reminds me of snow and angels' wings:

My decorating scheme this year was a big hit with the ladies of the investment club.  In January I will be hosting a party for the Ladies of the Bus/Crazy Cougars (actually we're the Rockin' Crazy Cougars). 

My decorating is now totally complete, I will not be adding anything more, well, unless I get another feather boa or two for Christmas...

A view of the tree from the staircase.

The Tree is Done!

It's finished, at last!

Picking up from last night's post, here is what the tree looked like after I put the feather garland on:

I should have bought more!  There are six of them and they had a very distinct character to the tree.  They are long, but flexible.  As you see, they bow out naturally when the ends are tucked into the tree.  I didn't have to use twist ties or clips to anchor the ends -- wonderful!

This year I left off my wine/maroon colored ornaments and only used my clear, white, gold and silver ornaments in addition to the gold French ribbon and the newest addition to my tree decorations, those gorgeous wonderful faux-feathers!

Below are some photos of the finished tree, taken in full daylight before the Packers game came on at noon.  It is beautiful today, feels like it must be close to 60 degrees out there!  Last night there was thunder and lightning but not much rain.  On December 1st!  We will have one more warm day tomorrow, and one of my walking friends and I have a lunch-time excursion already planned, probably it will be the last time we'll be comfortable doing three miles this season.

The magic of a Christmas tree is at its best at night, of course, when all the lights are on and the candles and tea lights are glowing and the lights around the inside of my round top window are aglow.  The room is actually bright enough, probably, to land an airplane by.  But I'm not good at taking night photos.  Perhaps when I retire I will take a course in photography at the local technical college.  I would like to take really beautiful photographs like many I've seen on your blogs. 

I added some snowflake ornaments to the mantle/mantel as a finishing touch.  I am so happy with how it turned out that I'm not changing a thing!  This side of the tree is seen when one is entering through the front door, so I try to make a good impression.

This is the tree viewed from the corner.  Hmmm, a few bare spots.  After I took these photos I added some small floral picks and a few ornaments to fill them in :)

I straightened up the top leader (you can see in the top pictures from yesterday that it was bent) and, stretching on a chair (I don't use my rickety step-ladder for this job) I attached my jerry-rigged star topper, then added some gold-glittered pine cone picks and two gold glittered sticks that remind me of chop sticks.  Last year the pine cones and chop stocks were used as decorations in Dad's plant which normally sits on the right side of the fireplace mantle/mantel.  I also filled in the top of the tree with small floral picks. Overall, much improved over prior year's attempts at a tree topper:

The stars were purchased last year at Walgreens, two for $5, and I've got them tied together with twist ties except at the bottom where I slip the opening over the top tree leader.  The glittered pine cones are sturdy and help anchor it so it doesn't flop over, LOL!

Some close-ups:

The photo below shows the pearl naos (house or shrine for the gods) around Nefertiri and Mr. Don's kilt pin, as well as hearts on either side of it.  Yes, I'm very sentimental!  This vignette is near the love seat where I can see it close by.  Mr. Don passed away unexpectedly on October 12th, so he will be here only in spirit this Christmas and Christmases to come.  His favorite down throw will be on the love seat.

Next weekend I will be helping my sister put up her two trees.  She recently underwent an emergency appendectomy after her appendix burst and she was very ill and put quite a scare into all of us over Thanksgiving.  She is well on the road to recovery now but will be off work for some weeks and is on restricted physical activity, so I imagine she'll be directing me from the sofa and have me running around like a chicken without a head, LOL! 

I will be glad to see 2012 finished, it has been a horrible year for me personally and, indeed, for some of my family and friends too. 


I am already thinking about next year's tree.  Perhaps white ribbon instead of the gold?  More feather garland?  Some clip on birds - in white?  Banishing most of the gold and going with white and clear ornaments, or more silver, instead?  What would the tree look like if it was flocked?  Oy, the mess -- and how would I do that and not cover the lights with spray flock?  Do I really want to buy a flocked tree instead, or one that looks "frosted?"  But this tree is still in excellent shape, how can I justify the expense?  Besides, I don't WANT two trees!!!  Oh, decisions, decisions...

Finally, thanks once again to Laura Orr for her wonderful tree last year being the inspiration for my tree this year!  Mine doesn't look near as pretty as hers but I'm fairly happy with it.

Finishing Up Decorating the 2012 Christmas Tree!

Hola, darlings!

I am finishing up the long process of decorating my Christmas tree.  It is almost ready for prime time, but my livng room is a mess, so no photos of the nearly finished tree are posted tonight.

During the week I'm just too wrung out after putting in an 8 hour plus day at the office plus the trip there and back to do anything to finish off decorating the Christmas tree.  So, it sat there with some internal dressing that I put on over the Thanksgiving Day weekend until today, when I finally had the time and energy to do it justice. 

Today I took several long hard swallows, made sure I had taken my blood-pressure meds on time, and I tackled putting on the French ribbon:

This is what my tree looked like after the first spool went on.  Hmmm....

A view from the corner.  Oh my, not looking very good, plus my "leader" at the top of the tree is decidedly crooked.  Great, just great NOT.  Plus, you can see all the crap piled up around the room, including my "shawl" sprawled over the pack of the chair at the desk.  I wear it while working on the computer cuz I get cold, darlings!

Then I put on the second spool of ribbon.  I am going to run to Walgreens tomorrow and buy another spool to use next year, if they still have this ribbon in stock.  They had it a few weeks ago, but no telling what they may have now...

Here are pics after the second spool of ribbon went on the tree:

Ach!  I think I'll just tear it all down right now...

Well, from this corner it maybe doesn't look quite so pathetic, but nobody stands in this corner to look at the tree!

I did NOT futz with the ribbon.  I like how some of it turned out, and hate how some of it turned out.  That's par for the course.

And then - TA DA! - at long long last I brought down from the spare room/former den/former library/now big fat mess room the box that I received from Paul Michael Company earlier this year.  I think it may have been January?  I ordered these "feather garland" to use on the tree after Christmas 2011, I think.  My memory isn't so good anymore, so don't quote me on that. The box has been sitting on top of my ratty old bookcases that I absolute hate and want to replace but can't afford to ever since then.  Gathering dust.  Achooo!

Anyway, here's the scoop:

Woo woo!  I cut open the jerry-rigged box.  Paul Michael Company does not do internet orders and ordinarily does not ship -- at least, not when I ordered my feathers last year.  But they were so very accomodating to this northern gal, I will forever sing their praises.  After email communications, I telephoned in my order and gave my CC info.  As you can see, on the other end of the line the folks at Paul Michael Company had to create a box large enough and sturdy enough to ship my feathers.  It worked!

 White stuff greeted me after I removed the tape and gingerly pushed back the "top" of the box...

I unwrapped the white stuff, to reveal THE FEATHERS!

They are not real feathers.  They are made out of something that is sort of like poly-plastic???   But as you can see, they sure look like the real thing if one is not right on top of them. 

Here's a close-up of the wonderful coloration:

Enough for tonight.  I'm pooped.  It's almost 11:45 p.m. and way past time for bed.  More tomorrow.