ivy league decor

I love the Holiday season. The sights, the smells, the parties, the traditions, and the list goes on. When it comes to decor, I really love Christmas. Though I enjoy Thanksgiving and appreciate a national holiday centered around thankfulness (something our country could use a little more of), I'm not super into fall decor. I indulge a little and maybe I'll do more in the future (since I'm aware of my constant evolution of style), but the craving for turning my house upside down comes when I hear the sleigh bells ring. I get giddy when digging out my christmas boxes to reveal all my after-Christmas shopping treasures from last year. Some people freak out about early Christmas decorating because they feel as though those of us who start busting out wreaths in early November are "skipping" Thanksgiving. This is what I have to say about that. Lighten up. I am not skipping Thanksgiving, I am just skipping Thanksgiving decor. I am very THANKFUL for my Savior being born and I want to celebrate as early as possible ;)

Speaking of Christmas decor. I kept seeing these vine-looking Christmas trees in stores and I thought to myself, "Self, you can do that." I love to make things, but rarely think about all the logistics of what it will take. Luckily, this time, all that was needed was sticks, vines, and spray paint. Sweet. I have all of those things on hand, or at least on hand or out by back door. I marched up my backyard hill yesterday and pulled up ivy vines. I grabbed a few sticks and sawed them to equal length. I got out some twine, a hot glue gun, and began. It was soooooo easy! This was my goal.

I started with these beautiful ivy vines. (The pictures are rather bad since they were taken on my phone with an over-the-limit caffeine hand, but you get the point.)

 I stripped the leaves and began wrapping them around three sticks I had put together in a teepee fashion. The top of the"teepee" was secured with hemp twine. (Don't mind my cluttered basement in the background...I've been in project mode.)

 I continued to work my way up the sticks by tucking in a new vine when an previous one ended. I secured the vines in place with hot glue ever so often.

 I made it to the top and decided to saw off the top of the "tee-pee". By this point the vines and hot glue kept everything together and the top twine mess was no longer needed. I took the brown and green non-uniform tree outside and gave it a good coating of gold paint. Almost done. I felt as though the tree was a little sad and needed some sort of embellishment.

 I got out my ornament box and found this bad boy. I removed the metal part that allows it to hang from a tree, hot glued a little stick inside, and attached it to the top of my almost-finished woven tree.

 I love how it turned out. Imperfect. I actually like how it has more texture than its counterpart at the store. I now have to find a Christmas home for my project. The mantle, dining table, built ins? We'll see. As for now, I have to go clean up the mess I made in the basement. No fun.

 Have you done any Christmas projects in the past that turned out beautiful? Do share. Maybe I'll start something else so I don't have to go clean.