Tree Trimmings

I'm still on my all-things-glitter kick. In fact, yesterday I spent the day with my dear friend Lindsey adding sparkle to all sorts of stuff. I haven't taken pics, but they'll be up here soon. Two years ago, I headed to K-Mart to look at Martha's Everyday Christmas collection the day after Christmas. I fell in love with these green balls. Unfortunately, with such a great 75% off price, nothing was left but these big green balls. I bought the last pack of 18. They were lovely, and went in my box for the following year.


Imagine my delight in 2006 when I found the smaller versions the week before Christmas at 50% off. Yahoo! I bought 4 boxes right away because I wasn't willing to risk losing the beloved glittered balls for a measly $2.50. (Yes - a box of 12 is the full price of $9.99). And... I went back again this year and they have them again. OH BOY! I think I will add the red ones to the tree next year. I hope I don't hate glitter by then!


My big dilemma is that I love so many styles for Christmas and I embrace them all. It is like the North Pole threw up in my tiny apartment living room (and it's leaking into the tiny kitchen) after an all you can eat Christmas decor buffet. I've come up with a (read: sort of) solution. I can have my glitter-ball-only tree, along with my really random assortment of favorites, and my every growing vintage collection in the same room in separate places. We have a weird coat closet directly opposite of our front door, so I hung garland around it and added the collected ornaments, like this fabulous gourd from Jeni Gochnour pictured above. I have a few variations of these.

Also hanging among the gourds is my dear sweet Charlie Brown with this sorry little tree. My brother sent me this while I was on my mission because I can recite the entire movie from memory... so can he! I'm not the only dork in the family.

Also on the garland are the many ornaments collected from family vacations, friends, and other random places. The above bird is the newest ornament added to my collect that was sent to my by my friend Ris, who lives in Canada.

Then on my vase of twigs, I've hung the beginnings of what I know will become a fabulous vintage glass ball ornament collection. (Mike made that 4'x4' painting in the background - great, huh?) Sad story; my mom found a fabulous box last year at Savers for $0.50. YEAH! 12 awesome glass ornaments. I put something on the box and smashed them all. Boooooo! But, this year at Thrift Town, I found a huge bag of great ornaments, 1/2 of which were sweet Ragedy Andy and Ann participating in various winter activities with that silly little dog. You can see more here.


This painted lady is one of my favorite thrift finds. I love the blue and red and this ornament actually inspired the stocking hanger I made last week.This little bird isn't vintage, just a replica. But, she matches the the twig tree better than the door garland, so here she sits.

So anyway, my apartment is decorated and feels all cozy and warm (well... kind of warm. These old single paned windows sure are drafty when the temps drop below 50 degrees). It has been snowing all day. Mike and I made the trek down south to Provo to the Beehive Bazaar. The room was pretty picked over but it sure was a cute overload and the organizers added right to it in their hand stitched shirts and stripey socks. Good work ladies. How can I sign up to be as cool as you?? Now, I am going to make stockings to hang on my new stocking hanger and forget about the mess that I call my living room until later.