Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

That may not be the most original blog post title in the world but I’m ok with that.

All of my blogger friends are showing off their Christmas trees and that’s a bandwagon I’ll happily jump on!  Although I’m pretty late with it… I’ve had my tree up since the 1st!  This blogger has been busy this Christmas season!

This is the first year that the fella and I have had a full size tree.  We  opted for a faux, pre-lit tree because, well, it was free.  It was a hand-me-down from his cousin and we were happy to take it off of his hands.  But we had an issue with the lights.  See I just prefer white lights on my Christmas tree.  And this year, I’m feeling the whole gold, silver, white combo.  This pre-lit tree had bright candy-colored lights zip tied all over it.  The fella, though, he’s such a trooper.  He spent about four hours cutting each and every last zip tie off of those branches for me.

Sorry ladies, he’s taken.  🙂

Turns out, the colored lights didn’t work anymore anyway so it had to be done.  And I’m really glad my fella spent all that time doing it!  I owe him big time.

Now, since we haven’t had a large tree before, we were lacking in the ornament department.  I was going to make a fancy salt or cornstarch dough a la Pinterest, until I found a big ol’ brick of clay in my craft stash.  Good enough for me!

I just rolled it out and used my Wilton Christmas cookie cutter set to make some fun, festive shapes.

I used a drinking straw to poke holes in them for string (plus some extra holes for fun), and then baked them according to the instructions on the package of clay.  Notice the fella threw in a ninja or two that he made with our Ninja Bread Men cookie cutters….

When they cooled they were ready for a coat of a pretty pearlescent acrylic paint.  The color I used is called champagne and I love it for that.

Some of them got a little “bling” in the form of my Martha Stewart glaze in Medallion.  Then I tied on some twine and these babies were ready to go!

I also hung some charcoal and silver orbs and of course our special ornaments.  The special ones are those with sentimental value, like the ones the fella and I picked up on our last two trips to New Mexico.  This is the one we snagged this year!

I think that state is quite possibly my second favorite in the US, behind the great Lone Star State, which I call home.

My homemade ornaments are a bit more kitschy than I prefer, but I like them all the same.  And I love our first full size faux tree.  I illustrated our tree adventure in this Flipagram which is soundtracked by the always fabulous She & Him.  I seriously LOVE that app.  This is the best picture I could get of the tree, since its in a corner of our living room that gets zero natural light.  I like how it turned out though.  Needs ribbon and a topper, but I seriously haven’t even had time for it!

I’ve been working on all kinds of Holiday projects around here, and I hope to post about them this week!  I’ve been crazy busy preparing gifts around here!

Anyone else get stuck de-lighting a pre-lit tree this year?  The fella would love to know that he’s not the only one who had to suffer.  Do tell…