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.