Oh, Tannenbaum!

I haven't had a Christmas tree in years. When I lived on my own, it seemed like too much hassle for me and a couple of cats who didn't care and as long as Eric and I have lived together we've had a puppy and/or young dogs at this time of year.  I'm not all that worried about how the dogs would deal with a tree, but trees are made of sticks, so anything could happen.  Our place in Montana doesn't have a great place for a Christmas tree and when I was in Portland at Ikea with a dear friend last April, I spotted this fabric.

OK, not this fabric exactly, but this is what's on their US website now.  This one glows in the dang dark!

I decided that making it into our Christmas tree might give us both a place to hang ornaments and hopefully something the Beatie Grrrlz won't see as "sticks."

I love the little tree stand. I made a 1x4 frame that I cut and attached Homasote board to.  

It's not small, let me tell you. It's 6' tall and 4'6" wide, but it isn't nearly as 3D as a real or traditional imitation tree. It wasn't a super money-saver, either. It cost about 2 years' worth of lot-bought trees would cost which is probably 25-35% of the cost of a full-priced, realistic, traditional, fake tree.  Hopefully this will last years and years and become a treasured tradition rather than a poor substitute.

This is our first "tree" together and we need some "us" ornaments. Most of these are mine or paw print ones I made with pets past as presents for Eric.  We also need a topper, so I'm going to be searching out inspiration for making one!

There is one (big) ornament I made for us, though. A diorama representing our little family in vintage Fisher Price Little People.  The exterior is covered with pine cone scales harvested from cones on the property.  That part took hours and hours which means months, because I got fed up (and tender-fingered) after several hours and let it sit for 8-10 months before finishing that and starting the inside.

It turns out that this ornament is torture for Betty... it's both a ball AND a pine cone!  The perfect toy!  She has whined and barked and caterwauled asking to have it, but has not tried to snatch it. Yet.

I had an epiphany for a topper after I wrote this post: Bigfoot, of course!

I happened to have those wings in my stash and of course, Bigfoot is always hanging out our place.  

The Beastie Grrrlz haven't paid the tree or the ornaments any attention, but they do like to nose around in the gifts sitting on the sled at the base of the tree.  Kids, they get so excited this time of year.

Jolly holidays to all and to all a long, winter's nap!