We put up the Christmas tree this weekend. We had to go in a new direction for the decorating this year. New puppy, you know. Real trees were the way to go in the first 10 years of our marriage. I love real trees and had a bad aesthetic experience as a kid with artificial trees. (artificial tree's in the 60's and 70's were NOT good) Lorelei had grown up with artificial trees and a real tree was a great luxury. When she was in college, we would wait to decorate the tree until she could be home with us to do it. Which brings me to this. Our Martha Stewart cast iron Christmas tree stand - for a real tree.
I bought this stand online when we first got a computer. It was my first online purchase. Oh, the novelty of that. "Who would buy things online", on a regular basis, I thought. Hah! Anyways.....I bought this on Martha Stewarts's online store, before she was associated with Macy's and before she was associated with K-Mart. It was on sale for $19.95 (down from around $100.00) and had free shipping. A week later it arrived with a huffing and puffing UPS man carrying it. It was HEAVY. Obscenely heavy. Imagine what you think a solid cast iron Christmas tree stand would weigh and triple it. What metal is heavier than cast iron? Plutonium, maybe? I'm sure whoever had the idea at Martha Stewart Living to offer free shipping on sale items was quickly on the unemployment line. I love this stand, but it hasn't been used in a few years. I would offer it for sale on Ebay - but then the shipping costs would bankrupt the purchaser. So, it stays on.
Next was the vintage Christmas tree stand and the vintage white artificial tree. I love this one too. It came about when I found the stand at an antique store and had to find the perfect tree and perfect ornaments to go with it. It started my Shiny-Brite collecting. We have had this one up for the last 5 years or so. Last year, you may remember I blogged about the lights. Some of our white lights had died during storage and I asked Bill to pick up 2 strings of white lights on his way home from Hockey. He did. He bought "Industrial" white lights - whatever they are. What they were was BRIGHT. It took awhile to get used to, but we liked it. The lights were so bright I could sew by them.
Both a real tree and this large white tree seemed to much of a temptation for a new puppy. I have a nifty aluminum tree that we used as a prop in our booth at Quilt Market a couple years ago. It is sparse and shorter than the white tree and could be placed on the window sill in the bay window. Aluminum means that we couldn't string lights. I covered it with icicles and all my silver and gold Shiny-Brites and then flipped on the overhead spotlights. It worked. It really looks better from the street than it does from inside. Here it is in front of the window.
Let me back up a few steps and you can see the whole tree.
Yes, I loaded all the ornaments where they could be seen from the street. I planned on getting a ladder and decorating the top of the tree later, but this tree amuses me and I think it will stay this way. It is badly in need of a tree skirt. I will put that on my list.
Laurie
