O Christmas Tree

What kind of Christmas tree do you get? Growing up we always had a real tree. I love the smell, the feel, and the look of a real tree. I have fond memories of going to the Christmas tree farm and cutting our own tree. The joy of decorating the tree was glorious.

Thankfully, we have had several opportunities in Little Bear's lifetime to go cut down our own tree. When we lived farther north it was wonderful at Christmas time. The tree farms were like magic. Living here the soil is sandy and the very few tree farms are different. The type of trees is just not the same. They consider juniper's to be Christmas trees and some other strange varieties as Christmas trees.

I had my first fake tree as an adult. I was newly married to my first husband and he wanted a fake tree. Not gonna lie having a fake tree broke my heart a little.

Now, with Popeye, we have decorated fake trees more often than I would like, but sometimes it has been out of necessity. We have celebrated Christmas with extended family at Thanksgiving several times and put up the fake tree before tree farms were even opened. Then, there have been a couple of times that we have had an extremely early Christmas before deployments. A fake tree works for that and I still find joy in decorating it. Honestly, some of my most memorable Christmas decorating memories have been with fake trees.

First, there were several years my grandparents had a small fiber optic Christmas tree. This little tree was in style when they bought it. My grandparents thought it was so neat. The rest of us liked it the first couple of years and then the tree started making a high pitched noise. The noise was terrible. We mentioned it to my grandparents for a couple of years and they could never hear it. They finally agreed that it must be true since we all complained about it two Christmas seasons in a row. That was the last of the fiber optic tree.

This year and last year we had a small fake tree. We decorated well before Thanksgiving last year. Decorating that small fake tree as a family knowing we would not actually be celebrating gathered around it together on Christmas morning was a mix of sadness and joy on my part. The best part was in the several months we left the Christmas tree up Little Bear and I laughed about decorating with Popeye. We wore our Santa hats and decorated. We laughed and made memories.

This year we decorated that same little fake tree before Thanksgiving. We celebrated Christmas at Thanksgiving with Popeye's parents. I won't let the fake tree stop me from joy at Christmas, but I won't lie and say I don't miss a real tree.

The Christmas Bell

My grandma and grandpa always loved decorating for Christmas. They would start decorating soon after Thanksgiving. I remember going to visit them in the weeks before Christmas and they would pull out all the Christmas stuff and my brother and I would help them decorate. They had a fake Christmas tree, lights for the house, wreaths, mistletoe, and an adorable Christmas village. 

As we decorated my grandma would talk about where she got each piece. Many of their decorations had some kind of sentimental value. She treasured each one of them no matter what they looked like. 

The quaint Christmas village buildings were gifts from my cousin over the years. He started giving them to her long before I can remember. By the time I was in college it had become almost a city instead of a village. 

There was a fuzzy bell shaped ornament that had been a gift from some old friends. This bell was old and faded as long as I could remember. Every year as I helped hang ornaments on Grandma and Grandpa's tree, I tried to hide this tattered looking bell
out of sight.

The unsightly bell still makes an appearance for Christmas. When my family went through Grandma's things they sent me several of her ornaments and decorations. I somehow got this ratty old bell. This year when I pulled it out one of the Santa's on it had broken off. I lovingly glued Santa back on and hung the bell on my Christmas tree. I see it and want to laugh and cry all at the same time. I find my eyes misting with tears because I miss decorating with Grandma. Then, I laugh since this ugly bell, that I tried to hide each year, is now something I faithfully put on my own tree now. 

Vintage World Map Canvas

I love old maps. I think they are really interesting. I think it's the history buff inside of me that brings my love for old maps. The Vintage World Map Canvas by ArtKisser is wonderful. I received the 24"x35" canvas print. This is a great size. It is not too big or too small.

This canvas print is stretched neatly over its frame. The back has two brackets for hanging it. They are mounted well and make mounting the canvas on the wall sturdy. The problem with using two hooks make it difficult to level, but you don't have to worry about it falling down once you get it hung level on the wall. 

The canvas print is beautiful. It has a vintage style map. The colors are varying shades of brown and black. The vintage map is really nice looking. The print is crisp, clean and easy to read. 

We had a large empty space on the wall in our bedroom and this canvas was the perfect thing for that space. It fits nicely in our room. We really enjoy this canvas print. 

You can buy this canvas print here. 

I received this product free. All opinions expressed are 100% my own. 

Pine Cone Turkeys & A Lovely Centerpiece

I am the worst about decorating for each holiday and season. The last couple of years we have decorated more than ever. By decorating I mean I bought some window clings at the dollar store and Little Bear put them on the windows.

This year for Thanksgiving my in-laws are coming. I am sure you all know how it is, you have company coming, especially in-laws and you want your house to look its absolute best. We have been working on remodeling and some other odds and ends that needed to be done, but I wanted to have at least a couple of cute decorations, too.

The first thing I did was run to Pinterest. It's my go to for craft ideas. I found several things I liked but none were exactly what I wanted so I took the bit and pieces I liked and I added my own spin on them. It helps that Little Bear has an amazing collection of pine cones that he has collected over the last 3 years.

I made a centerpiece with a wooden bowl I found at Marshall's, a bunch of Little Bear's pine cones, a candle in a glass holder that I found at the dollar store, and some little pumpkins and squash that I found at the dollar store. I started by putting the candle where I wanted it then I dumped pine cones in and artfully arranged the
little pumpkins and squash for a bit of color. I love the way the centerpiece came out.


Our other Thanksgiving craft is pine cone turkeys. Little Bear helped with this craft. It has googly eyes and he cannot resist playing with googly eyes. This craft used the hot glue gun, which is now my nemesis since it gave me a blister today. For this you need pine cones, fabric fall leaves, googly eyes, and orange foam or felt. When you pick out your pine cones try to pick some that will stand up on their own.

The first task I gave Little Bear was to cut me triangles for our turkey's beaks. Then, with my help we hot glued the little beaks and googly eyes on. Then, we took our fabric leaves and figured out what order Little Bear wanted them in. His favorite color is red so most of our turkeys have red leaf tails. The leaves get glued to the back of the pine cone and you have cute little turkeys.

Family Tree Wall Decal

This family tree wall decal by Delma is beautiful. It is also huge. It takes up an entire wall, which is great. Don't plan to put this in a small area. It really does take up an entire large wall. 

The decal comes on a long roll of paper. Each section is numbered so you know where it goes. You have to cut out the sections as you go. The leaves are not numbered. We put the leaves and the words on last. Putting it up is a long and tedious process. There are tons of parts. You will need a step stool or step ladder to put this on the wall. Even Popeye at 6'3" tall needed a step ladder to get the uppermost parts up. 

The frames are the most difficult part because they need to be level or they look awkward. We had an issue with one because we had to take it off because it was not level. We ripped one of the corners when we removed it. You cannot tell that it is ripped now. 

The smaller frames fit 4x6 photos perfectly. The larger frames are an odd size. They are too big for a 5x7 photo and too small for an 8x10 photo. Popeye has a plan for using smaller photos in them and sticking them up with some kind of sticky tack stuff. 

I really love this wall decal even without photos in it. The tree is really nice against our white walls. the contrast between the wall and the black vinyl is really nice. I have finally added photos to this piece, but it took me forever to find pictures I loved enough to put in it. It was up on my wall without pictures for about a month.

You can buy the family tree decal here.

I received this product at no cost. All opinions expressed here are 100% my own.