Creative Surge

A good night's sleep gets the creativity flowing!

Not, that I'd know personally.

Shhhhhhh!

It's rough being an elf.

I wonder if I could tape a sign on myself...

Buddy Crochets

It's not maybe his number one elf skill...

Perhaps if his hands were not attached?

Buddy Bungees

Buddy's feeling adventurous.  

Home-made bungee jump.

Yikes.

Buddy Returns

Buddy made his come back today.  

I can't wait to see what trouble he'll get into.

Elf on a Shelf

Buddy will be coming to visit us in early December.  We'll be skipping the first week due to some travel, but if you need ideas, check back on the 9th.

In the meantime, my elf, the one I had growing up, has been up to a bit of mischief himself.  

He gets to sit out as decor, unlike Buddy who only arrives in December.

The other day when I walked into the kitchen, I found him hanging out with some Barbies.

It was only Cate and I at home that day.

She laughed and laughed and was quite proud of her trick on Mama.

The best part?  

When she cleaned up she used a spoon to carry him.

Cause every kid knows you don't want to touch an elf and make him lose his magic.

Christmas Tree Decorating 101

 I thought it might be fun to discuss the organization of tree decor.

To start, let me say, in the real/artificial debate, real wins for me every time.

However, circumstances have dictated that we go with artificial for the past few years.  I miss the real tree very much. 

Okay, let's dig in.

If you ignore everything I say for the rest of the post, please, please at least follow step 1.

Fluff

It was really tricky to get a shot of squished vs fluffed branch but basically, after your tree emerges from storage you need to take the time to go through every branch and straighten and fluff out the wires.
Yes, I did say every branch.

Before

After

Once you have your tree all prepared,

move on to step 2.

Layer

Sort your ornaments into categories.  

For Cate and I, it was easy...we just did one type of ornament at a time.  Start with one category and space them out evenly. 

Red balls.

White snowflakes.

Mirrored ornaments.

You may have to sort by colour of ball or by size of ornament.  The key is to layer everything evenly all the way around the tree and from top to bottom.  Stand back and check it out every so often.

I chose to go easy on the decorations this year, but even if your tree is loaded, just make sure you're spacing things evenly.

Step 3

Tinsel

My favourite part is tinsel which looks like this in daylight,

and gets all glittery fabulous at night.

Have fun!

And remember, there's never too much tinsel.

White Christmas