Things are a little tight this Christmas (I'm tempted to add 'as usual' here!) so this year we decided not to buy a traditional fir tree but to look for something a little more alternative. For the last two years we've done the excited trip out in the car to choose a tree and bring it back on the roof with happy little faces watching it through the sun roof.
This year our expedition was a little closer to home...
This tree has been growing behind the old churn cooling shed (this used to be a dairy farm) for - ahem - a year or two and we've been meaning to move it. It has a sort of Christmassy shape, I thought, so why not.
A quick buzz with the chainsaw...
Trying it for size. We have low ceilings so it needs to be about the height of Brian. I grab my secateurs and we take it indoors...
A bit of trimming here and there and it fits. (There then follows a short delay while we hunt down the ball that screws into the bottom of the trunk so it can sit in the tree holder. This takes a few hours so I start my new project which is to scrub the top of my old dresser so it can be brought into the kitchen.)
Finally the ball reappears (it was in the bottom of last year's tree of course, which was on the bottom of the wood pile in the big shed which is why it took Brian all afternoon to find it) and the tree is decorated. I'm rather strict about colour scheme. White and gold for this one...
...red for the dining room tree (which is ancient and artificial but no trees were harmed in the making of this tree. If I find a cheap potted tree in the next few weeks this one might head back into the loft.)
Very magical and an even better option than the traditional trip out (especially for being free.) You've ended up with a beautiful tree, creatively decorated in stunning colour schemes, well done.
ReplyDeletePS. Have a look at Lidl for a potted Christmas tree.
Absolutely love it . . . :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent! You're what a rather pretentious friend of mine would call a Frugalista.....
ReplyDeleteBeautiful - I think I like that better almost.
ReplyDeleteThought about planting a few Christmas Trees to tide you over? Maybe sell a few too and make it self financing?
xx
I remember well the year when my father felled a giant apple boy, painted it snow white and sprinkled it with silver. As an adult I can see its beauty as children we all wept and my mother made him go and get a real one!!!
ReplyDeleteWe have a small twisted and lichen covered branch on the kitchen table decorated with baubles and delights but when eldest is back from uni we shall go and find a real christmas tree to decorate for teh salle. I love your avant guarde tree!
Your frugal tree is beautiful. We baulked at £45 being asked for trees outside Morrisons which we normally have. So this year the old artificial one has been dragged out of the loft. I'm trying not to sulk about it & it now smells lovely with my handmade cinnamon decorations on it.
ReplyDeleteI love it.
ReplyDeleteAmazing!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely has «je ne sais quoi» about it. But delightful, nonetheless.
When I was little, we couldn't afford "proper" trees and often had a branch from "out the back" which we decorated with flour and water paste ("snow") and then sprinkled with silver glitter. One year it was a big gorse branch, treated the same way, and dinky enough to sit in a pot on the sideboard. Still looked pretty all dressed up though.
ReplyDeleteYours looks splendid!