In deciding to do the pink Christmas tree this year I thought I'd do a pictorial of actually putting it up from the very beginning. As you know, this is only an 1800 sq.ft. house with 5,000 sq.ft. of furniture! No, we really sold most of our furniture when we moved here and then promptly went to Thomasville and bought more. Duh! But here is the living room after we shifted the furniture around to accommodate the tree. Plus now you're seeing my secrets......shhhhh....don't tell anyone the curtains are hung too high. They are disguised when the couch is there. But I am NOT putting holes in my white woodwork so the curtains are hung above it and, thus, a tad short. See what you can do when you have to?
Cleaning out the space for the tree. This leaves us little room to walk around in there.
The tree is up!
Here it is, but the picture was very hard to get. It was so difficult to get a good photo of this tree in this light that I had a very sweet chick from church, Stacy, come over and photograph it with her professional camera. She took dozens of photos and I've got the flash drive from her tonight to put the photos on here but there are so many I think you'd be bored by the time I finished so I'll just include a few of hers and mine.
Lights on. The boxes under the tree are what I usually have under my coffee table. They are not presents. They hold storage items: tea light candles, pencils, special papers, etc. Except for one or two of the boxes, they are all hand made by me and covered with special wrapping papers purchased back in the early 1980s. I also am going to purchase more tulle to go around the base soon.
Now, I had no topper that I thought would be appropriate for this little beauty so I had to make one.
Closer view for you. To make this topper, watch for a tutorial on 12/26. Easy and you'll love it!
Okay, here's another topper I made after this was posted. I just couldn't pass up the chance to do another one even blingy-er. I fell in love with the candle wreath at Michaels since it looks like a diamond crown with the queen's pearls. ;-)
You just cannot imagine how spectacular this tree topper looks in reality.
I started with 24 yards of tulle netting and cut it in long strips to tuck into the tree weaving it from top to bottom and tucking delicately as I went. It wasn't enough but it's all I had and I made do. I could have used another 5 to 8 yards but I was on a roll and it was snowing and no way would I go out driving in the snow, chicks. So I filled the little holes with white organza ribbon in pink and white. Worked just fine. I stuck in bits of cards, things given to me by Katie, Stephanie, Bertie, Sharon, Lynn, Shirl, Ele, Karen, Jennifer, Judy, Vickie and Lorena. Most of the decorations I used were gifts to me from friends. I did use some things I bought at the stores but I wanted the tree to reflect my love for all the women in my group.
Pink painted, glittered and roses pine cones were all over the tree. Little tussie mussies I've made over the years. Feathers. Glittered snowflakes in silver and white with ribbon and ribbon roses on their centers. Roses are stuck into the tulle lace. Pink polka dot glass ornaments.
Painted cones and birds. Little cards and tags sent to me, even some from sellers I've bought from whose cards are so lovely I save them to put on the walls and tree. A fringed froufrou dress hanger Bertie made that is so exquisite that I had to hang it on here. I can't possibly just stick it in a closet with a dress on it!
White poinsettias with their white leaves inked with pink. Bottom right is a little ballerina dancing in a box that my friend, Rhea, made me. It has a place of honor in my home.
Of course, my hand painted wooden ornaments are on there also. The little yellow bag is a silk ribbon embroidery Shirl sent me last year. Gorgeous!!!!
Katie's silk ribbon embroidered mitten and Stephanie's cross stitch hangs on the tree too. Looking closely just to the left of the bright pink mitten is a spoon just under the pink organza ribbon.
Pink cones stuffed with curly pink paper and a little chick in each of them.
Several little strawberry sachets scented with plumeria hang there to fragrance up my home. It is always nicely fragranced, usually with gardenia oil.
Closer look at all the frills on there.
Even two fans given to me by Bertie are nested on there.
From here on down my friend, Stacy, took these one snowy morning. Much, much better than I could have done with my little $400.00 camera. Her's was a professional one with all the doo-dads. I'm the only chick I know that doesn't lust after dresses and jewelry; I lust after hi-tech gizmos and anything with roses! This is true.
Snowflakes I froufrou-ed up.
Little tussie mussie I made several years ago. Wood ornaments I hand painted and a little sachet from Bertie.
Birds, pink painted pine cones with roses and yards and yards of tulle and organza ribbon.
A little mitten embroidered by Katie, a vintage spoon hung with care and a lovingly cross stitch Santa from Stephanie.
More pine cones, painted cones with chicks in them, pink polka dot purchased ornaments and sequin sparklies.
An absolutely stunning dress hanger from Bertie adoringly made in the Victorian style with lace and fringe. Just gorgeous!
Yards and yards of white organza and glittery greenery. Roses in abundance, I can assure you.
A gorgeous ornament I found at the Dollar Store. Squeeeeeeeeeeal!!!!
A silk ribbon embroidery from Shirl. Her work is also exquisite.
Another ornament from the Dollar Store. I only found two I liked and that they had left.
Poinsettias I inked with pink on the edges. They are also in abundance on the tree.
Closeup of polka dot pink balls and glittery sequins adornment.
A hand made heart from Rhea who does lovely work. And snippets of left over tulle from projects I just stuck in among the branches.
More birds and roses.
Another adornment gifted to me from Bertie a couple of years ago.
End of Stacy's wonderful photos.This is a special bracelet my friend, Katie, made for me.
And this little bauble came from Judy. Isn't it just darrrrrling?! A pink and rhinestone glittery watch.
And 8 little teapots that were gifted to me by my friend, Rhea. They are gorgeous!
You'll find many cards and tags among the branches of the tree. I save the pretty ones knowing I'll stick them somewhere in my home—in this case, the Christmas tree.
This ends the photos taken by Stacy. These I took after purchasing more tulle for the base of the tree so it isn't showing in all the previous photos. I'll be getting much more tulle for this tree next year—probably 20-25 more yards to do it even fuller next year.
The photos were taken at different times of the day and on different days even. And if you knew how long it took to put this post together you'd stand and applaud! I'm sick of it already. :-) And although I've read and reread and proofed it many times there may be misspellings and grammatical errors since it's taken a week to put this together. Forgive me. Hope you've enjoyed the pictorial.
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