Our Search for the Perfect Imperfect Tree

Last Year's Tree

I have always been an advocate of the artificial tree. I always put up the tree the weekend before Thanksgiving, and I always assumed a real tree wouldn't last that long. However, this year, the thought of putting up our 17 year old tree (pictured above) did not interest me. I was tired of the decorations and tired of the tree. If it weren't the kids, I would not even have put up this "pretty mom tree". Ba humbug! (There is still an artificial one in the basement that the children decorate. )

My "real tree" friends kept telling me that a fresh cut tree will definitely last until Christmas even if we cut it around Thanksgiving. OK. So, because I was so late to the party, a few days before Thanksgiving, I had to drive up to the forest service to pick up a permit to cut a tree down for the day after Thanksgiving. Here are a few pictures of our memorable tree cutting day:

 This one below loooves this hat. She wears it every where she goes. I finally had to ask her to take it off once in a while because it's getting weird.

 This was after about an hour and a half of searching. My son is antsy and needs to torture his sister by throwing a snowball:

 FINALLY, after about 2 hours. You'd think with a forest full of trees it wouldn't be that hard. A lot of these trees have one side since they grow so close to each other. I think we went around in circles. We are newbies to this; and you would've laughed in our faces at some of the trees we were considering in the beginning. Here's the tree:

Our tree this year. I ended up using about 10% of our decorations. They are mostly framed pictures I do of the kids each year. The other decorations were way too heavy.

I will post better pictures soon. I didn't bring out the tripod for this. Was our tree-cutting outing worth it? Definitely! It is an event I would love to make into tradition. And, I love our "Charlie Brown" tree. I love being able to see through to the trunk of the tree, and all the imperfections and character of a "right out of the forest tree".

CYBER MONDAY SALE

"Celebration" for sale. Click HERE to view.

I have decided at the last minute to have a cyber Monday sale! Everything in the shop is 25% off. It will last until Tuesday, November 29th midnight pst. Just use coupon code CYBER25 at checkout.

The Art Nook is Coming Along

The basement art nook is coming along. I have the frames up, and I just need to fill some of them.

Hopefully I can complete this project before the holidays begin!

In weekend news, we took our family to watch some of this:

It was a great game to take the family to, since our team actually won.

I thought this was cool:

I know these players were being genuine, and not doing this in a mocking spirit.

Sneak Peek-My Basement Art Nook

I have been working on a family art nook. This area in our basement has been a storage area for some time. I never got around to putting anything on the walls like I intended 7 years ago when we had the basement finished. This nook has 5 walls to fill. This particular wall on the left is filled with a mixture of my children's art, my art, and meaningful photographs. I had most of the frames sitting around for years. See that office chair? It's actually quite comfortable. My husband has wanted me to give it away for years, but I intend to slipcover it. I will show you the other walls when(if) I complete it. 

Whimsical

We had a day off of school the other day because of snow, so I painted this abstract family portrait:

My husband thinks I should use this painting as the image for our Christmas cards. What do you think? (I know, it's a little blurry. I didn't use my tri-pod to take this picture. )

This is how crazy we soccer parents are. We did this the day after our  snow day:

Blurry here too - I am not a sports photographer! I have to sit down and learn some of the features of my new camera.

Have a great weekend everyone!