You know those Martha Stewart shows where Martha is all "you just need a little imagination and a glue gun and you too can make a beautiful coverlet out of belly button lint"? I never liked those; I am not a craft-oriented person. I can't draw a straight line, let alone paint. I don't knit and I definitely do not sew. Macrame is out of the question. Crochet? Yeah right.
Imagine my surprise then, when yesterday--after bartering for a Christmas tree and watching the nice man who agreed to our lowball price saw off the lower branches so it would fit in our stand--I found myself carting said branches home, proclaiming that I was going to make a garland of some form for our mantle. The boyfriend gave me a look that questioned my sanity, and the nice tree man chuckled under his breath. "That'll be the day," was the general consensus.
Well, all I can say now is MARTHA BETTER WATCH HERSELF. I may have gotten needles all over the house and sap all over myself, but the garland that resulted is--amazingly--far from an eyesore. Featuring an old strand of Christmas lights and a random starfish I had lying around from my last trip down south, it's homey and perfect and totally mine.
I can't tell you how many tree stands I passed in my Sunday travels that were just piling up and throwing out the discarded lower branches. Why not stop by one and see if you can't take some of the branches off their hands for free? After that, all you need is some sturdy twine, sharp scissors (you're going to want to trim the greenery off the too-rigid main branches), and patience. I mean, if I can do it...
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