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Posted by on Jan 3, 2016 in DIY, Featured, The House | 2 comments

A New Year

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year!  As usual, the end of the year was busy for us.  I procrastinated on putting up our Christmas decorations, but scheduling a long overdue surgery got me moving.  I wanted to get it done for The Kid since I wasn’t sure how soon I’d be up to it after the surgery.  (Turns out, it went really well and I probably could have done most of it a week later).

Anyway, I had came across this Christmas tree and really wanted to replicate it.

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

I went back and forth on whether I could pull it off and finally decided to go for it.  I also wanted to replace our fiber optic tree with a white or flocked one.  I found one I loved at Home Depot, but the 9′ one was more than I wanted to spend.  I got the idea from my parents to build a stand for a 7.5′ tree.  This had the added bonus of keeping it high enough that the dogs can’t walk under it and rub the flocking and glitter off.  I bought a 24″ butcher block round when I went to buy the tree.  I used some waste 2x4s to build a cube, then screwed the table top onto it.  The tree stand fit perfectly.  It was discussed whether to anchor the tree stand to the base I made, but I decided just to try just sitting it on top.  So far, we haven’t had a problem with it moving.

DIY Christmas Tree Stand

I found the polar bears from the original inspiration tree on Amazon, but, unfortunately, they weren’t cheap.  So, I only ordered a set of the 12″ ones.  If I ever find the larger ones marked down, I’d love to get them.

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

I ran several places, but ended up buying all the decorations at Hobby Lobby and our local Design World.  It turned out better than I imagined!

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

I later picked up some sparkly “snow” to fill in under the tree skirt.

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

The red and white ribbon came from Sam’s Club last year.  The black chalkboard ribbon I picked up there this year.

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

The white snowball deco mesh, large white “bottle brush” ornaments and the red glitter/white fuzzy striped ornaments came from Design World.  Everything else, including the picks, came from Hobby Lobby.

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

One of the reminders of The Reason for the season.

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

I also decorated the staircase to match.  The small ornaments were extra from my backyard decorations.  I dug out my collection of stuffed polar bears and placed them around.

Polar Bear Christmas Tree

For the past 9 years, I’ve taken pictures of The Kid and custom designed our Christmas Card.  It didn’t get done this year, but I made a handful of paper cards using my Silhouette Cameo machine.  They took almost 4 days to make, but they turned out pretty cute!  They can stand up and rock side to side.

DIY Polar Bear Rocker Cards

And one more picture of a warm rainy night around Christmas. . .

Merry Christmas!

I’m not sure what 2016 has in store, but I guess we’ll see!  In the meantime, I want to get some painting done around the house – the bonus (theater) bathroom, the second floor doors and some other random areas.  I’m also looking into building a headboard like The Kid’s to sell.  If it goes quickly, I may make others to sell as well.  I also plan to finally post the final pictures of the theater.

2 Comments

  1. Beautiful pictures! What color is the piano/dining room? The gorgeous blue……..

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