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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

A Day of Trimming the Trees

I may not have all my trees and decorations up but wanted to share the Day of Trimming the Trees at the Senior Center.  It was decided this year to have a  Tree Decorating Contest so yesterday we started early to do our chosen trees. I had been asked to do the one at the main door as you come in. I was excited to be asked to take part in the contest and wanted to do a very special tree. Our logo at the center is done on a white background using teal, lime green, and purple as the colors in the picture and wording. My thought for the tree was use the logo colors. I started shopping in October to find these colors. I had thought I would be doing a 8' green tree using white lights. After dragging my tree up to decorate here at home I held up the ornaments I bought for the center tree and thought no way are these colors going to look good on their green tree even with white lights.

Last year after the Christmas sales started I had found a white tree. It was just 6 1/2 foot tall but I wanted it for my snowman tree. Got it for a whopping $8.00. George had decided to put up the snowman tree in the living room on our 8 foot slim line tree so I had thought well I will just use the white one in my computer room.

The more I thought about the color combination of lime green, purple, and teal the more I thought white tree with white lights. Those would really pop on  my white tree. I talked to them at the center and explained my thoughts and told them what I had planned on doing. They were very understanding , so my white tree is decorated at our Adrian Senior Center. Here is a tour of our day .


I am starting the tree in this picture.I got several of the glass balls on and had a thought. Better get that garland on first. That was a challenge in itself. I had found 28 foot bead garland, small beading to be exact and thought well now you can just braid them or twist them together and then you will have the three colors you need in the garland. It took me longer to do the garland than the rest of the tree . I had to wire it on to make sure it would stay put.

The final tree. The tree skirt was an after thought. I sure was glad I had some teal felt. I cut a square, folded it in half then folded that in half. I then just marked off from opposite corners a circular pattern and cut. Then cut small circular pattern out from the top folded area and cut  from the edge to the center. Then I used white glittered felt and cut out 7 ornament shapes and sprayed with liquid adhesive and glued them down.
 


For the topper I was not sure what I wanted to do and had bought several different things to work with once I got the tree up and decorated. What I liked the best were a large bow, a spray of line colored glittered leaves and 2 what I call firework sprays. I then had two teal clip on wires with beads I added to the front. 


It was a long day and I was more than ready to come home and put up my feet but just had to go and check out the other trees after having my picture done with the finished tree. 

So on with the trees. 

The first one is the tree done in the library by the ladies that do the book organization and help to keep track of who have borrowed books . When you see the first picture notice the long dangle ornaments and try to figure out what they are before going on with the post. You will be very surprised at what was used. 


I loved how they did the tree. Simple ornaments of various items. It sort of reminds me of the tree my grandmother might have done when I was a child.  Have you figured out what was used for the dangle ornaments yet? 


Now here is a closer look. I am sure if you have children you will be very familiar with the item.; Yes they are "Gummy Worms". 
Never ever in my wildest dreams would have thought of gummy worms on a Christmas tree. I kept looking and looking from a distance trying to figure them out. When I walked closer my mind thought " Those can not be Gummy Worms" I had to really touch one to see if they were real or an ornament. 

The next room I visited was the pool room. And yes mostly men decorated this tree. Our pool players and one member of the advisory board did this one. Karen's father used to come to our center daily to shoot pool with the men. After he passed away almost two years ago Karen redecorated the pool room in memory of her dad. He was also quite a golfer and Karen organizes the golf league at the center and sponsors a large golf tournament in the summer to honor her father. 


I thought they did a beautiful job on this tree. 

The next room  I went to was the cafeteria. The center director and assistant director were working on this tree. It is the largest of the trees. It is twelve foot and takes a lot of ornaments. 




Placing each ornament just right. 


And the final results. I loved how traditional it is. 

Now I checked out the last tree today that was in the contest. It is the most unique of the trees and is located in our computer lab just opened this fall. It is a full sized tree and was decorated by staff members of the County Department on Aging main office. When they found out what tree they were going to do the really swung into action and all pitched in and what a treat it is. 



Full fledged Computerized tree. Every single thing on the tree has to do with or came off a computer . 



All boxes under the tree are computer , i-pod, mouse, software notebook etc . Every single one somehow related to a computer. 



Here are some close ups of the ornaments. A computer disk, CD roms and look at the garland.  Edges from the old fan fold computer paper.  And at the end of that cord is a mouse.


Remember all the free internet for so many hours. Well here is 1099 hours of aol free for 50 days. And peaking from behind that is the mouse. 

What fun was had yesterday in preparing for the Christmas Holiday Season. 

Judging for the trees started today and will continue through Friday at 10. The winner will be announced at  lunch time on Friday. They are all so special and a lot of fun putting them up. I am sure it will be a close race for the first place winner. 

Now to get my last two trees up at home and the village set up. I am hoping to do that tomorrow. I promised myself I would be done by Saturday night. Wish me luck. 

I will be posting my decorations  over the week end. 

We may be snowed in by morning so it will at least keep me home and working on what I need to finish. I need to get done so I can start my Christmas candies and cookies. And today started the handchime group Christmas performances that I direct so the next three weeks will be very busy. I cut back this year as last year from December 1st to December 22 we did 21 performances . And it took a lot out of all the ladies many of whom are in their 80's and 90's. We will be doing just 12 this year. 

Wishing each of you a Merry Christmas Season.















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7 comments:

  1. Hey Karan - I didn't know if you got my message... and perhaps you are just super busy :) so I'm sorry to keep bothering you... just wanted to remind you that you WON on my Giveaway #3 - I just need your address.... SO, if you don't mind sending it over when you have a spare minute... I'll get your prize in the mail!!! And... I love the purple & green tree!!!! Well all your trees are gorgeous!!! But I really like the way the colors "POP" on the white tree!!!

    email me at ladybugz4bry at yahoo dot com :)

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  2. KARAN!!!

    A whote tree for $8.00!! WHERE did you find that??? I would love a white tree!!

    Now on to the Senior Center trees!!
    I love all the trees but OMG!! I love your tree and you were so right in using the white tree!! It came out stunning!!
    All the other trees are so cute and I think it is such a great idea for the Senior Center to do something like this.
    There is a decorating contest at work and it involves all the hospitals and offices in my area in my Health system. I used to always be the one to decorate our department but after some snide remarks and stolen items, I quit decorating at work.
    I have a new boss and they want to decorate the department but we have nothing and they asked if I would do the decorating....
    I am still doing my house and talk about being stressed to the max!!!

    LOL!!

    Thanks so very much for all of your kind comments and your visits!!
    Looking forward to seeing your home all decked out and PLEASE let me know where you got that white tree?????

    Hugs,
    Deb

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  3. What a lovely tree celebration! Thank you for sharing this with us :)

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  4. You look like you are right in your element. Enjoy your favorite time of the year.
    Merry Christmas! ...Marsha

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  5. The trees are beautiful! I especially like the white one! I have a white tree decorated with pink and gold.

    Sherry @ A Happy Valentine

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  6. You did a great job on all those trees, Karan! Thanks for stopping by earlier!
    xoxo
    Joy

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  7. Fun to see all these Christmas tree ideas. In recent years I find myself doing several small trees rather than one large one as I did for over 3 years. Just not enough room for a large tree without totally disrupting things

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