Book Bargains, Saving Cordayline & a Peek at the Hydrangea Christmas Tree

I bought a bunch of books at Saturday's VFW bazaar.  Can you believe I bought "The Help" for just 50 cents? I did not see the movie, so it will all be new to me. The other books were just a quarter each. Once I get my decorating done, I can sit beside the burlap lamp (which gives off a lot more light) and read some Christmas stories.

It was quite the day for bargains. At various sources, I also got all that fabric in back of the books.


Saturday I  removed the last three big containers from the garage sides and the front porch. They still looked good, but I wanted to have it all done before the snow flies.  I could not bring myself to yank this big cordayline out.  A couple of you told me it would survive down to 10 degrees, so I thought perhaps I could overwinter it in the garage beside this window where it will get a bit of light.

The garage never gets below 30 degrees. Do you think it will live through the winter?  It's worth a try as I would sure love to be able to start this container with it as the centerpiece next spring.

 Here is a sneak peek of the hydrangea Christmas tree :

I find the muted colors very hard to work with. I spent two hours after work (not my high energy time!) on this little tree. Yesterday I had put some pink balls on. Today I felt they were too pink. I had to haul out at least a dozen boxes before I found these muted pink glass balls which work nicely.  I originally had  white pearls hanging from the branches, but they were way too pure white.  So back down to my very own Christmas ornament store (the basement) I went in search of something else. I found one strand of light blue beads.

 I thought the color worked, so I just cut them off and laid them over the branches.  I cut up some light pink beads and did the same. Then I quit for the night.  I thought this little tree would be easy peasy, but with all the changes I have already made, it is beginning to take more time than I want to give it.   Most of the time involves lugging up boxes from the basement and then hauling them back down.  Hate that part!!