This year I put a stop to that. It will be our first time with just the two of us on Christmas, and it just wouldn't feel the same without a tree.
My friend had one in her attic that she wasn't using so I happily accepted and began scheming all the different ornaments and garlands and decorations I'd fill it with.
Well, turns out the tree was about 1/3 the size I was visualizing, so I had to scale down my plans a bit.
The tree is little but it's cute, and it's ours. Our very first tree:
For the ornaments, I made a bunch of yarn poms one night. The little ones went on my mantel tree and the big ones I saved for this tree.
I had pinned several more DIY ornaments to make, but the poms filled the tree pretty well, and I just couldn't find the time. So those will be reserved for next year.
To fill in the tree some, I picked up 30 feet of burlap ribbon (50% off at Hobby Lobby) and draped it like so:
It helped it look a little less Charlie Brown-ish.
For the tree topper, what else is more fitting in our house than a starfish?
I grabbed a smaller one I had lying around, applied some hot glue to the back and twisted a paperclip to secure it.
I wanted to give the small tree some height, so I propped it up on a wicker ottoman from Ikea:
And finally, the tree skirt.
After seeing them everywhere on Pinterest, I decided to go with a no-sew ruffle skirt. But first I needed a base. I found a 41" generic felt skirt at the Dollar Tree (for, you guessed it, $1):
Then I headed to Hobby Lobby to pick up some burlap (the same material that I used on the Merry garland on my mantel)
Sadly... they only had 1.25 yards left. Yikes. I took a chance and bought it anyway, because this was yesterday afternoon and I was determined to finish the project that night. I also bought some plain white fabric in case I needed a plan B and had to alternate rows with burlap/white ruffles. I really wanted it to be all burlap though.
I ended up with about 5.25" for the width of each strip (which meant no fabric was wasted)
After cutting everything out and doing a quick test fit, I realized that I was short. Which meant I had to go easy on the ruffle volume, and make them more of a pleat.
Because I had no room for mistakes, I measured and marked my rows on the felt (5 rows total):
I figured this would take a while, but it actually went by super fast. And easy. Here's the first row completed after just a few minutes:
And the finished product:
So there you go... something a little different than your standard ruffle skirt.
Here's the daytime/lights off look:
And with the lights on, different times of day/night:
I have no idea what's up with all the green dots. They are not there in person, it's a weird lens reflection thing. Any smart camera people out there?
And there you have it! Next year I'll step it up a notch and get an adult sized tree, but I really do love this one and the way it transforms our home into a warm & Christmasey happy place.
I'm not sure if I'll be back before the holidays are over—I've been blessed with 15 hour work days this month—so if you don't hear from me, I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of December! And you can always follow me on instagram @jennasuedesign, cause I'm always on there :)
Happy Holidays!
This post is linked up to DIY Showoff!
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