Hi gang!

With a designer and a metro-sexual in the house, you can imagine the creative juices flow freely and frequently. Through the years tree ornaments have been collected to create various themed trees ... four to be exact. What's unfortunate is that we weren't excited about any of them this year!

On Thanksgiving Day, we had some time to kill before attending a Christmas light display in West Virginia and partook of some K-Mart blue light specials. Literally! (Ok, there was no blue, flashing light.) In the holiday section of the store, we were surprised to see all the trendy colors and wanted them all! Joe suggested our tree be adorned in various shaped baubles and white lights. He spotted a bucket of 50 plastic ones in bright, retro colors. His idea with this bucket was a great, but I wasn't sold on the colors. Being around the Martha Stewart Collections, must have been my muse, for in that instant, it occurred to me, "Why not paint them to be exactly how we want them?"

That bucket of ornaments was $9.99 and the second was half price. Four cans of spray paint from Lowes cost me $18. We collected 2 boxes of glass balls from our storage boxes and I painted 150 ornaments in shades of olive, harvest orange, butterscotch and burgundy. It looks amazing!

If this has inspired you, let me know and I'll pass along some painting tips to make your project go smoother.

What's the theme of this year's tree Stacy? Sounds like it might be "fun for all" or "Spraying for a white Chrismas" or maybe .

I always go nuts over the tree and my Christmas table. This year I put silver tinsel, white lights and big white roses all over the tree. Then I made what seemed like millions of large glitterong butterflies and put them on. I put small flower stems all around he angel.

The tree's so beautiful. My husband even loves it. I'm wrapping all the gifts in white and with my usual method and writing the names in very big letters on each of the gifts. Helps not get bows squawshed while traveling and the kids love coming in and all start looking for their names and guessing what is in each package. I do tons of stocking stuffers and all kinds of gifts. Okay, I'm a Christmas nut, but hey, it's not agains the law.

smile

Stacy, if I like something, I will buy it even if it's the wrong color. Your tree sounds awesome!

I have a half wall, between my living room and hallway and I hung a curtain rod on the ceiling over it so I can hang stuff. I just bought some large glass globes, which I will use year round, and for the holidays I hung some regular Christmas ornaments, all at varying levels. I must say, it looks pretty cool.

Smile, your white theme sounds beautiful! My tree has the usual dog and travel ornaments.

Daisygirl

We bought one of those pre-lit trees last year. All white lights, it's got so many lights that it's almost blinding. It's pretty though and made all the old ornaments look great again!

Us too T.V....talk about low hassle set up.

The problem is...I love so much how my house is decorated, I didn't want to "upset" it with Christmas stuff. LOL.

But, I made the sacrafice, moved my favorite everyday decorations aside to bring in some cheer.

Stacy, you are such a creative thing! I miss you girl! sniffles

Dania

After looking at the tree for a couple of days, the conclusion is that something is missing. The muted tones of the ornaments don't really call for glittery tinsel or beads. SO, today I'm stringing popcorn garland....a more natural looking accent.

I tell ya, if someone told me 10 years ago that I'd be doing this stuff I'd call them crazy! Maybe I am crazy? Oh well! tee hee

Stacy, have you ever tried stringing cranberries in with your popcorn? That's a real favourite tree garland up here. And pine cones tucked here and there add a nice touch too.

My tree is like me, a mass of contradiction. It's fake, because until a few years ago, we always lived in apartment buildings where real trees weren't allowed. And it's covered in a hodge-podge of ornaments: some were part of Mom's collection and have been hanging on the family Christmas tree since I was very young; some have been given to me by kids and friends over the years; some are home-made ornaments that I've bought from various co-workers over the past 3-4 decades and the rest are special ones I've bought myself. I love our Christmas tree. Every ornament has some kind of meaning or memory attached to it, so looking at the tree fills me with gratitude for all the people who have contributed to it and my life.

I have friends who have colour-co-ordinated ornaments and even more than one tree in the house so that they can be colour-co-ordinated to match the different rooms. They look wonderful and I enjoy seeing the creativity and artistic skill behind them, but I just can't bear to part with my rather homely-looking love-infested fake tree.

[ December 07, 2005, 03:08 PM: Message edited by: Eagle Heart ]

Had to LoL... with the love-infested tree.

My son Josh actually put my tree up this year. Normally, I was the only one to put the tree up. Guess I thought it would only be perfect if I did it.
So, I changed that this year.

All the boxes were brought up and Josh went to town. Pausing at each ornament to comment on how it had come to be hanging on the tree.

Many of the ornaments were made by the kids in grade school. Several have their pictures on them.

Clear crystal bell's that belonged to hubby's mom. Then all the favorite's I have collected through the years. Strings of pearls and angel dolls mingled through out the branches. Long tiered crystal icicles, bouquets of pink rose oval rings, dancing ballerina's, gold fig strings and grapes wrapped in tiers from top to bottom. Large glittered rose tinged balls that glow from all the tiny miniature lights.

It was priceless to sit back and watch him search for the perfect spot to put each and every treasure.

Suppose, I must have one of those love-infested trees also. How perfect!