Craft Day

Last night we had our weekly dinner with our dearest friends, Jason and Gretchen. Gretchen surprised me with my Christmas present, EARLY! She knew we were going out to cut our Christmas Tree this weekend, and she schemed this up with Kellen :) She handmade me a tree skirt. I was so in shock, I didn't know what to say. It was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes. Let me give you a bit of history: Kel and I haven't had a tree skirt on our tree since our married lives. We always just used a blanket. I could never justify spending the money for the really nice ones I wanted (don't you feel me- they are way too $ for what they really are!), and never had any luck with the sales after Christmas. This was one of the sweetest gifts I have ever been given. I am so in love with it. It is totally me, too! I will think of Gretchen every time I see it.

Classic white and silver poinsettias.
It is HUGE!

I couldn't get a photo that gave it justice; it has so much detailing

So after talking to her a little bit about how she made it, this inspiration carried over to another project I have been working on before even receiving this. I got the idea from Crate & Barrel's holiday catalog....I had an old red pillow (I almost threw it out- so glad I didn't!) that I spruced up for the holidays. I then added a 'touch of gretch' to make the pillow coordinate with my tree skirt.

Total cost: $1.25 for the felt
Step One: Cut out the felt in different sized circles. They don't have to be perfectly round.

Step two: Lay out your shape and hot glue around the parameter, overlapping the pieces so they get ruffled.

Continue filling it in. I added some variations in color and cut out a white dove on top :)

Tada! I added the tree skirt to match my real one! In person it is soft and feminine because of the ruffles, but the textures and colors keep it from being overly girley. I think it looks pretty close to the 'real' one, don't you (below)?!