From Christmas Tree to Valentine Tree

This year, I put up my beloved white Christmas tree, and my newest cat (whom we adopted about a year ago, so she wasn't here for Christmas last year), decided that it was too beautiful to let stand there unclimbed. She loved sitting in the branches. Unfortunately, she ruined the tree, as it was a cheap one to begin with.

I was going to donate it, but then I decided that since the top section was intact, I would keep that, and use it as a mini tree next year. As Nick and I were packing things away, though, I decided it would make a lovely little Valentine Tree, so I unpacked it.

I also unpacked a set of 10 mini Christmas bulbs I had that were shiny, pearlized hot pink. Ooo, pretty! I had everything on hand I needed to decorate, or create decorations, except 1 thing- garland. For some reason, I just hate tinsel garland on that white tree. It looks horrid, so even though I had some red sitting out, I refused to use it.

In all honestly, I wasn't going to add garland at all, but I found some cute wired heart garland at Dollar Tree, so I grabbed it. It's pink and lavender, and I'm really glad I did! I love how it looks on the tree.

I made several unique heart ornaments out of felt, and added those to it. I also dug out the last of my flocked red, and pink glitter heart stakes from Dollar Tree (I picked them up for a craft, then hated them in it, and never used most of them), and stuck those in the branches.

For a topper, I took a pink sequined pick I got on clearance 90% off at Michaels after Christmas, and I bent the two middle strands into a heart shape, then two others outward. The lone stray (it was a 5 strand spray), I spiraled around the base. I also formed a heart from some of the left over wire garland, and added that, and one pink glittery heart pick.

Instead of a skirt, I used one of my Valentine's Day placemats under the stand. Last weekend, I picked up 2 glass apothecary jars at Goodwill, and filled them with left overs. One has a couple of pink bulb ornaments, and the left over flocked & glittery hearts, sans picks. The other has the last of the wired garland wrapped around inside of it.

I love, love, love the jars filled with candy, but 2 of my 3 kids have ADHD, with a large emphasis on being impulsive, so leaving candy laying out is an open invitation for them to chow down until it's gone, then look at each other and say "I don't know who did it, Mom!"

So, until the kids are out of the house in 10+ years (my youngest is 8, and this is totally counting on them all going to college, which we are pretty insistent on), the candy displays will just have to wait.

My Tree

 

 

Three years ago, we relocated from a rented house to an apartment about 70 minutes south of where we lived. The apartment was actually larger- we went from 3 small bedrooms to 3 good sized bedrooms and 1 huge bedroom. However, we lost the garage storage space. That meant giving up a lot of items. For instance- every last piece of outdoor Christmas decorations, gone. And my tree, though that was easier to give up. It was a cheap one to begin with, and all of the prelit lights no longer lit up.

When Christmas came around, we weighed our option and our budget, and I bought a fairly inexpensive $35 white Christmas tree. I loved it. I couldn't believe how nicely it showed off our ornaments, and how pretty it was.

Last year, I was longing for a green tree again, though. A "normal" tree, that is. After Christmas, I found one on clearance- a 7 1/2 foot tall prelit tree. I love it! But, I decided as soon as I bought it, that I would keep my smaller 6 foot white tree. See, last summer, we moved again, and bought our first house. It's large- 4 real bedrooms, plus 2 rooms that could be bedrooms, except they lack closets to legally be called bedrooms. Plus a large dining room, a nook, a large kitchen, living room, and a family room. Plenty of space!

Right from the moment I bought the 7 1/2 foot tree, I knew I would have two full size trees put up this year. We put the new tree up weeks ago, with the kids doing all the decorating, as they usually do. It's nice, and I love it.

I lacked the ambition & time to put the white tree up, though, until today. Not only did I get the tree up, I also finally ripped down the horrible stapled valances the prior owners had put in the dining room. They weren't bad, but not my taste. They also had some blinds up in the large windows back there, but the blinds were all in various states of not really working. We finally were able to figure out today just how to remove those stupid things.

So, the tree is up. It had 300-400 lights on it, all clear, as a prelit tree. I added 500 more. 400 were multi colored (with 200 of them blinking), and 100 were solid purple. So it's pretty well lit. I had 1 extra strand of purple, and 1 strand of blue, so I put those around the two windows back there.

I love the white tree. I did all bright colored ornaments, mostly in aqua, purple, and pink, but also oranges, greens, and reds. I love, love, love having my own tree to decorate not. It's not all designed and perfect, but it looks nice, and it'll be a welcome site when we arrive home every day.