tree solution(s)

After seeing The Golden Compass Wednesday morning, I stepped off the streetcar one stop later than usual. I thought I could walk through our local park and see if any branches were lying around. There were two streets I could have walked up; I chose the one furthest away. I wasn't quite to the park when I almost walked past three piles of perfectly shaped, perfectly cut tree branches. I smirked at my luck and started digging through the pile. Finding four great branches among the bounty, I set off with them in my arms. One woman asked me what I was going to do with them and I happily answered, "they are going to be my Christmas tree".

One bucket, eight bricks and a length of jute later, the tree was up. Sadie helped me unpack the ornaments while I told her the story of my cardboard stars. We plugged in the lights and decided this was a good tree. Charlie Brown in style, sure, but a tree that met with the criteria I was given. Jay even likes it. The only downfall? It really doesn't photograph well, especially when there are paint-by-numbers behind it.

The other photo is my smaller tree endeavour. A late night inspiration from this blog had me dreaming of paper possibilities. Mine may not be as colourful, but drawing and cutting it was pretty fun and I think there might be more paper ideas to come. But speaking of inspiration, check out this fantastic advent calendar! It's a great blog and that robin's egg blue wall is awesome.