I wasn't feeling very festive when December first began, even though I had already started purchasing presents. Christmas shopping was festive activity #1.
Festive Activity #2 was brought on after visiting with a friend where they celebrated Christmas early (day before Thanksgiving) as that was the only time until 2016 that my friend (& his new wife) and his brother would be home. We helped decorate a beautiful Christmas tree with some Christmas Pandora in the background. This led me to start searching around for a tree. As much as I like real trees I wanted an artificial tree because it is reusable and can be pre lit! Even though it is pre lit I didn't want to sacrifice allll authenticity. I scoured the internet for realistic looking artificial trees that weren't too big, but I couldn't bring myself to purchase any of them because I couldn't see them in person and I wasn't convinced they'd look as real as I'd hope for. One evening, wandering Menards with the boy as he was looking for some home improvement related things I stumbled upon this tree and just knew it was it. It's the 5' pre lit Carson Pine tree. I sought it out because it looked the most real, yet I don't think a Carson Pine is an actual type of pine tree... heh. Festive Activity #3 Accomplished!
I was rummaging through my craft-closet and found some remnant of some buffalo plaid flannel that I originally purchased to sew a dog-bed cover for the puppy dog.
Festive Activity #4:
I drew out a star and cut out pieces of the flannel and sewed them inside out (with one small section not sewn), flipped them right side out ... stuffed the stars with pieces of fleece, inserted some tied up red yarn to hang the stars with, and sewed it up! I was on such a roll because I could hand sew these on the couch and still be able to watch some Netflix (Highly recommend the show "The time in between" which is based on a novel of the same name. It's in Spanish with english subtitles, but it is such a good show once you get about 2 episodes in...a seamstress...espionage... what's not to love?).
Once I covered the tree in the red/black stars I wanted to continue with a cozy theme, like sitting by a fireplace. I had trouble finding copper/rose-gold tinsel/garland as gold and silver just weren't "warm" enough for my taste. I found some great tinsel roping on Etsy from the shop : AllTheMakings.
It may not look very wintery outside, but I can still make the inside of my home all ready for winter and Christmas!
