Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Do you love your fake tree, but miss the smell of a real tree?

I know I love the convenience of all of my artificial trees, but every now and then I miss the smell of the old days when I put up a real tree.

So I found a way to bring in a little of that real smell. Remember those shrub trimmings I put in a bucket of water? Well, this is what I do with them. I wrap a small piece or two in a water-soaked paper towel. Then I cover the wet towel with saran wrap. Like this:




Then I shove a few of these bundles in my fake trees. I put about 6 little bundles in each tree.

They just blend right in and give a little more interesting color/texture. Every now and then if you walk by at just the right moment you will get a whiff of that nostalgic evergreen aroma.


They should last a couple of weeks, depending on how warm the house is and how wet the paper towel remains. If the needles start to drop, it's easy to pull them out and toss them in the garbage.

Today I added 3 more 2ft trees to my little holiday setting. I thought putting a tree with blue lights in the middle of two white-lit trees would be cute.



I was wrong.
I think it needs to be white like the other 6 trees, so as soon as I post this I will go out and remove the blue lights. I haven't yet decided how to decorate these three. I am leaning toward very minimal decorations, maybe just pinecones. What I am really after is just the lighted effect at night.

Does anyone else have any of these little trees that have a very flimsy base? All of mine are like that, they will fall over if you breathe too hard near them. Or I should say they were like that when I bought them.

I needed a way to make them more sturdy and came up with setting the flimsy base into a saucer filled with plaster of Paris. Once the PP set up, they were strong and sturdy. I've been using them for many years and they are still holding strong. They are now heavy enough so that I can fill them full of decorations and not worry that they will topple over.

Well, off to clean up the kitchen and change those lights.

Happy hump day to everyone. (hump day is Wednesday--middle of the week--the hump--just want to make that clear in case someone is wondering what I mean!)

6 comments:

  1. I love the idea of the scented branches in the artificial tree. I may give that a try!
    Bill put a lead weight onto the base of my smaller artificial tree. The bigger one seems sturdy enough on its own.
    :)

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  2. What a wonderful idea to use clippings from a real tree and add them to the artificial tree! I'm going to do that tomorrow!! I've never had a real tree so I want to be able to experience what it would smell like having one in the house:-) Thanks so much for sharing the idea Zoey!!!

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  3. what a lovely blog you have and I am thrilled to see so many christmas trees in the one home. And there I was thinking I was the only person who popped up several trees and not just one like most do.

    I will be back to see more of your lovely christmas trees and decorations. there are many christmas'y! people out there and I am having the best time finding you all.

    see you again.
    lee-ann

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  4. Zoey you are just full of good ideas today. I have 3 of the grapevine trees that I just love they look so good at night. DH is allergic to mold so most of the evergreen trees (real ones) are out for me but I do like to decorate outside with the real.

    Do you decorate outside too.
    Pat

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  5. You have great ideas Zoey! I like your fix for the little flimsy bases a lot.
    I do add real greens around the house if I remember to trim them from outside. We have blue spruces along with the evergreen and they smell like oranges. : )

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  6. No, I do not decorate outside. It's too COLD to be out there decorating! I also live on a dead end road, so there are only about a dozen families who would see it. I like to spend all my decorating energy inside where I can enjoy it.

    ReplyDelete

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