I mentioned yesterday, I finally got the tree up and I have to admit that between taking on a new client, school work, holiday shopping and battling a cold the tree almost didn’t get decorated. Fortunately, I found a small window late one evening and just plowed through it thanks to Theraflu and Pandora radio streaming Christmas music at full blast.
I opted to not do a real Christmas tree this year. The thought of a live tree seemed too overwhelming, so I opted to use the white plastic tree I picked up at Wal-Mart last year for $20. Last season I become obsessed with having a white tree and rushed out and found this one on clearance. It’s 6’5″ tall and the perfect size for our living room which was not the case when we bought a live tree 2 years ago – that sucker was HUGE. Because it was the wrong size getting it out of the house once the season was over was a nightmare. Once it was unfurled, it couldn’t fit down the staircase, so we had to hoist it over the loft into the kitchen and spray the entire first floor in a rain shower of pine needles (not fun).
Fortunately, the artificial white tree proved to be quick and easy to assemble and provided the perfect back drop to the bronze, brown and gold color scheme I envisioned. However, I did sneak in a few colorful accents to spice things up……
I could not find a tree topper in gold that was not an angel or an extremely clichéd looking star. So I opted to create my topper out of a stuffed owl and two gold candle wreaths. I simply wired the two wreaths together and with some fishing line added the owl. It took about 10 minutes total to do and I am quite pleased with how it turned out.
Don’t these ornaments remind you of something Jonathan Adler would do for his stores? Surprisingly, they are some off-market brand that I was able to pick up at Marshalls for about $1.50 per ornament. I am totally scouting out my local Marshalls to see if they go back on clearance this year so I can scoop up some more.
Told you that I snuck in a few hints of color like these fantastic peacock ornaments that I found on clearance at Marshalls last year.
I even bribed a certain adorable dog to get in on the Christmas action. It’s amazing what Scruffy will do for a well-placed (and well-timed) doggie treat.
I think I may be a full convert to artificial trees after this year with one caveat. I think fake trees should look, well fake, hence why I love the white tree. There is no way in hell unless you are Helen Keller that you would think my white plastic tree is real. So where do you stand on white trees artificial trees? Yay or nay?