Happy Happy, Merry Merry, Lovecats!
How is your December treating you? I hope in between all the busyness you are finding some time to relax and give back to yourself a little bit, even though I know the holidays are a trying time for many. I find myself alone with my dogs, mostly, working and building a new life one brick at a time, dreaming of what magic might be to come… which at least also means that I am not running around with my head cut off (so to speak) trying to manage family and gifts and children and work all at once. So… while some nights this sort-of feels like a story of loss and loneliness, I’m mostly grateful that I have peace in my life again, and for that, I will take a little bit of loneliness as a consequence.
I didn’t do much decorating this year, but I did put up my Christmas tree, which made me very happy, even though when I found it smashed upside down in the box where the movers left it a few months ago, I was worried it wouldn’t have much left to give… it is about ten years old at this point, but low and behold, it fluffed right back up and although it does have a few missing lights, from certain angles, the branches lay out in the most perfect way, which makes me smile when I see it while relaxing on the couch with the dogs.
Because I knew I wanted to add tinsel again this year, though not quite as much as last year, AND because I wanted to hop on the bow trend in a classic way, I only pulled out my white and silver Christmas ornaments to decorate the tree with, as a sort of, backdrop of what was to come; the bows and tinsel are the stars of the show, and I wanted them to stand out from the rest. IF I had used any other colors on my tree, the eye would have been pulled all over the place instead of just to the simple red bows and tinsel. Unfortunately, you can’t see the tinsel very well in photos, it’s much more magical in real life… BUT I tried to shoot it and wanted to share it anyway. Hopefully in my Instagram reel, you’ll be able to see it a little better… and I LOVE the way the tinsel flutters when the heat is on or any air hits it and how it sparkles in the daytime like a disco ball when the sun hits it!
I have the 7.5foot flocked, pre-lit Christmas tree, which is bigger in real life than it looks in photos… HOWEVER, this is the first house I’ve used it in that has lower or normal ceiling height. All of my mountain houses had much higher ceilings, and more space for the tree. I sort of have it pushed back into the corner of this space, which makes it appear even smaller than it did in my past houses… I was honestly surprised it fit at all! But I think it’s perfect in this corner. Anyway, it was expensive when I bought it compared to the flocked trees you can get now, and it’s still expensive in comparison to some of the other options, but I do have to say, it has been worth every penny and has held up for ten years now and four moves. It has lost a lot of its flocking over the years, and let me tell you, is often a mess to clean up (but not nearly as messy as a REAL flocked tree) AND some of the bulbs on the lights have died (which I could probably fix), and some years I’ve added more lights to it, but most of the lights it came with are still going strong and again, even after this last move, where the movers had it upside down and all the ends were smashed, it still set up beautifully! What I love about it most is that it looks like a real tree (like out in the forest, covered in snow) in the way that the branches splay out and its imperfectness makes it look perfect to me 😍
* You can see it in all my other houses and in all my past Christmas posts here
I created “droopy bows” so they looked like they were dripping from the “near” ends of the tree. The actual ends were left open for tinsel! I would have liked to have added about two more, but I ran out of ribbon. 🎀
My DIY Starburst Tree Topper has also seen better days, but it’s STILL MY FAVORITE! Also, I originally made two, one for the front and one for the back, so it looked a lot fuller, but someone else is using my other one and has claimed it for themselves, lol, so it might be time to make a new one. I think it still looks fine with one, especially with the look of this year’s tree, but a few of the pipe cleaners are a bit bent and out of shape now. It’s just time for a refresh I think! But this year, it was good enough.
Shop Christmas Trees!
I wanted to wear a red dress to contrast the rest of the living room but to tie in the red bows no pun intended 😋, so I threw on this old red tartan plaid Free People maxi dress and called it a day. You can see it in this post, where I created a glam ’90s grunge vibe with it. I found a few new and reasonably priced options in the shopping widget below… OH BUT THIS DRESS!!! So dreamy! AND THIS ONE!! OMG 😍😍
Shop Similar Dresses!
These are random stills from the video I shot while decorating… they’re silly, but hopefully look better in the reel.
They’re thrilled to be my models 🤣 for the TENTH CHRISTMAS (they’re turning 11 in January and I feel so lucky to have them still!)
And at night… 🤩 which is when it looks the most beautiful of all… just not in photos 🤣
Happy Christmas Lovecats!
* Find all my Christmas posts here
DIY Tinsel Tassels / Upcycled Christmas Tree Ornaments from Tinsel
