Oh Christmas Tree

There's something so soothing and relaxing about a lighted Christmas tree.

We put ours up and immediately felt this "aaahhh" escape from me.

I've had the tree lit all the time while we're home.  It's been easy to do because the sun has decided to HIDE this past week.  What is that?!

 
I told you all my plans for Christmas decorations/goodies last week and I wanted to share them with you now.  Most of them are done, some aren't being completed, and others are in desperate need of advice.

First off, we don't have a mantle, but if we did it would probably include these goodies:

Christmas ball tree, quote from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, violin playing snowman - thank you grandma, vintage horn [that still works! Yes we have played it many times :)], and my Scensty. 

You've already met these two cuties, who still don't have any names.  If you think of some, send them to me!


This project was actually quite frustrating and I'm probably going to fix it for next year, but let me tell you...

I started out with four square blocks that I sanded down.  I didn't want them to be plain, bright, and unfinished wood-like.  Did you follow me there?
So, I decided to stain the wood.  Being the cheap frugal person that I am I wanted to try out this homemade wood stain.  I followed it completely, even did less coffee grounds than said, and this is what happened.

It turned into this dark, evil, gothic wood block.  Not very Christmas-y if you ask me.  Nick said I should just paint it one color, but I didn't want to have just colored blocks.  Maybe that would look good, but I'm just not sold on it.  Instead of sanding down the wood again to get the original color (that would've taken a LONG time), I just painted the letters a different color.  It's not bad, but I'm not sold on it.  I'll probably change it for next year or use an ACTUAL wood stain.

Sometimes Pinterest isn't the greatest thing invented.

BUT, sometimes it is.  This project came from this pin.  I'll share my take on it later this week, but here's a sneak peek at it in all it's glory.

Last, but not least, I put a beautiful green yarn around a wreath and now I'm stuck.  I have no idea what to add to it to make it more Christmas/wintery and I don't want to go overboard.  I thought about ribbon, but that's too much.  I want more green to show.  So for now, this is a very sad wreath until I can decide what to do with him.

Any ideas to make him happy?