The Premise...

  • ***Make no craft purchases December 1, 2010 to November 30 2011
  • ***Use and create from existing supplies only
  • ***Small purchases to continue crafting (such as sewing needles) are acceptable
  • ***Trading items with others is legitimate since there's no net gain

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Christmas Tree Massacre



It happened in slo-mo. I was sitting in the kitchen, with a fantastic view of the front room. I saw the tree jiggle-jiggle. Then a little more. The little bell ornaments on the tree started to jingle-jingle. I thought...hmmm....how strange...is the air vent blowing on the tree? Seems like a lot of movement for the that....

Jigglejiggle. Jinglejingle. JiggajiggajiggashimmyshimmyshimmyGAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Oops. There went the tree. And there's a streak of orange fur running through the house to escape the menacing tree. I watched it all, and never did I get the urge to actually TAKE ACTION. More like I watched in interest, an innocent bystander.

Ironically, it was the most beautiful tree ever assembled. For several years, there's been kids that have picked the bottom of the tree clean so by New Year's Day, we've had a tree that was naked on the bottom and ornament laden on the top. Kid takes an ornament off, we say OH HOW PREEEEETTY! and then promptly hang it up high for "everyone to see how pretty!" This year the kids are older, and know once you hang the ornament, there it stays. Save for a few jingly bells. Karma has a way of coming back though, doesn't it?

We've got a cornucopia of ornaments on our tree. The quirkier, the better. We've got rainbow bass and Santa playing golf and Victorian chairs and handmade globes. We've got character ornaments like Yukon Cornelius and Rudolph and all the guys from Toy Story....the first one. Ceramic. Dun-Dun-Dun.....

Leif was enamoured with Rex, who had already had a chip taken out of his tail. And when we were putting ornaments on the tree this year, I felt a bit of panic with how MUCH Leif loved Rex. To the point that I actually said don't take Rex off the tree. He might break.

He might break.

Don't touch MY REX, I thought in my mind. I've had Rex longer than I've had Leif. Or Madi. Rex has almost been around longer than Jerry. Don't play with REX. He might break.

**SNIFF**

So, what can we learn from this? I had a moment of silence for Rex, but then there was a dozen other guys that sustained damage. And I just had to laugh. And change my thinking. Rex went way-high up on the tree, to discourage anyone from taking him off, and I've gotta assume that helped with his demise. I was stingy and covetous of Rex...and why? I dunno. He was MINE but now he was NOBODY'S. So, I did the mature thing, and sent him to his final resting place. But not before I could snap a few photos. These are all done in good humor, so please laugh with me.
I think Rex gets his tail broken off in Toy Story 3, right?

Monarch butterfly. Another ornament with the "Don't Touch THAT!" rule. A former reindeer, turned into amputee dog with a Christmas blanket. :D


















Found Rex's head, with a mangled bead poinsettia. Quadriplegic rapper Santa busts a move. He used to be a golfer.


The hubby laughed that Santa swung right outta his shoes. Circa 1998.
Found the antlers to our "dog"...























When did we buy THIS little guy? I've never had a thing for birds, so it's a mystery. He maybe the only ornament I did a little happy dance to chuck in the trash. He makes me think that I'll start wearing theme sweatshirts or something.

There were many, many others that met perhaps a timely ornament death. But these are the ones that struck me the most funny.

Since this blog is about craft supplies and the people who love (to hoard) them....what if we apply the tree situation to the craft situation? Kinda "insert topic here" style...

Do I covet craft supplies?
Do I get antsy when people "mess with them"?
Do I acquire them and not do anything with them?

Well....kinda. I was more "on the hunt" so to speak instead of using. The thrill was in adding to my stash, or in the case of trying new crafts, of getting all the supplies needed to be a good little quilter, knitter, basketweaver, etc. It's kinda cool to be AWARE of this. And, it's also really cool to know that although the volume (in this case, of fabric) was borderline out of control, that I didn't buy a bunch of random things that could be considered garbage, but quality beautiful fabrics waiting to be transformed. The shift from acquiring to creating is exciting.

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