I have been wanting a metal tree to hang Christmas ornaments on for years. But we have a lot of Christmas stuff and we really try not to add to it, plus the tree itself was rather expensive, but I kept wanting one. I kept my eye on it and every year the price went up. Then I happened upon one that was half the price of the original one I have been coveting. I think it might not be as sturdy, but it has a lot more “branches” and places to hang ornaments. So this was one of my Christmas presents this year.
I thought hanging ornaments on it would be easy, but it is not. I realized that it is good to hang the ornaments that are 360 kind of ornaments. Because the tree is so visible from every side it is nice to have ornaments that look pretty from all sides. I was also a bit cautious because this is the first time we have had it and I didn’t how sturdy it would be and I didn’t know how the cats would react. I don’t think they have even looked at it. It is pretty good they pay it not attention since I move one of their scratching things and put the tree there. They just go to the new spot to scratch.
I also had no idea how to hang the lights. I strung them from “branch” to branch where I think it would be cool to wrap them around each branch. I am not sure. I like it, but it took some getting used to. I hope to get better at it each year.
I like the extra added sparkle in the house.
I had taken videos as I was decorating to document what went where in case I did it the same next year. This is the last one starting about 1/3 of the way down.
As you may have seen in my last post I do have other metal ornament trees, but this one is much larger. Do any of you have a metal tree?
How is your Christmas Season / End of the Year going? I am very late decorating this year and also doing less, but it is still so time consuming. I hope you are able to keep your time as stress free as possible. Here is is with some ornaments. Not quite done, but . . . I will have a picture of that later I am sure. 🙂 Plus some of our new tree.
With our living room as my studio for Nia, yoga, and stretch I’ve had to make some adjustments that have displaced some of my Christmas decorations. I’ve had to move some furniture around and my Zoom backdrop is in the way of a table that I normally put up to display a number of Christmas decorations. So . . . I’ve been rearranging things a bit. I just put the small bottle light up tonight, and I thought that it would be the piece that allowed me to be at peace with this arrangement, but I am not sure about it yet. I will have to sit with it. I have still been up and down (there are two ladders involved) decorating so we will see once I have a chance to actually observe it. My original vision was for multi-colored strings of lights. I didn’t have them, but might be able to scrounge them up. Maybe THAT will do the trick.
Christmas decorations continue for Friday Photos in December.
We do somethings that we think deter the cats from the tree. As with most years we put our tree on a table. This helps keep it out of the cats’ way. With our first cat the weekend we brought the tree in the house she spend two days throwing up. My husband is convinced that she ate a needle and it bothered her stomach so ever since then we are fastidious about needles on the floor. I vacuum often when we have a tree that sheds a lot. One year, when the tree was on the floor, I was vacuuming ALL the time because the cat would walk by with tail up and knock a load of needles off the tree. Another reason why we put our tree on a table. We are fortunate to have a very tall ceiling where we put the tree. We have also experienced cats drinking the tree water. That can’t happen.
BC, as in Before Cat(s), I had purchased some “Tree Saver”. It goes in the tree water and supposedly it helps the tree last longer. Well, can’t put that in the tree water with cats. Don’t know what it is in, but I bet they shouldn’t be drinking it. And so we don’t do that, but also, “they” say that the pesticides and chemicals that the trees are grown with shouldn’t be ingested by cats. So it is not a good idea for cats to drink the water that the tree is in. Plus, even though we replenish the water daily the dish doesn’t get washed and the water is just sitting in there for a month . . . cats don’t need to be drinking that. So my hubby came up with a simple cat deterrent. He just cut some cardboard and put it over the tree’s dish. Normally, it can’t be seen. But this is a different kind of tree, it doesn’t have any low branches, so the dish can be seen. But that is ok. It not THAT noticeable and it keeps the cats out of the water.
The cardboard keeps them out of the water and since they can’t get to the water they don’t jump on the table. That means neither needles nor ornaments get knocked down.
Now this is only the third Christmas that we have had these cats and so far so good. In fact, what I did this year was so out of the ordinary, yet they didn’t bother anything. I was in a rush to get the boxes emptied and put up so I just pulled a bunch of the stuff out of the boxes and left it lying around. And we had boxes in the house for weeks. And to my knowledge, they didn’t bother anything. Nessa liked to jump in and sit in the middle of some garland that took me days to hang.
I do play with them A LOT during Christmas. I make sure I get up early so we have a lot of play time. Also, since I am home, when they ask (and they DO ask) to play, if I can, I stop what I am doing and play with them. I figure if they are not bored then they will not mess with the Christmas tree and decorations.
I also tell them “No!” for just looking. If they LOOK at the tree, I say, “No.” They are really good girls because not only is there a tree in their house it displaces their tower. I figure we have about 30 days. At least we did with Spot. Day 31, she let us know she was done.
How does your cat handle a tree inside the house for a month?
Some of you may still think, I’ve got nothing. You may or may not know I spend a lot of time decorating for Christmas. I LOVE all the decorations. It is the one time of year where you can have glitter and sparkle everywhere and people don’t judge you even though you have your hand on the doorknob of 50! My friend always laughs at me and says, “Everywhere you look there is Christmas.” And that is truly my goal. I don’t have a beautiful Sunset Magazine set up, I just have CHRISTMAS EVERYWHERE. I want your gaze to land on decorations. So that’s what I do. This is the one time of year where my house is always clean. I don’t like the dull of dust to damping the sparkle. The rest of the year — MEH! But during the Holidays the house is always “picked up”. And by “house” I mean the downstairs. The upstairs is a disaster . . . . where do you think everything goes? Anyway . . . with the house all decked out I like people to see it. But we don’t usually have people over. But this past week we did have two friends over. It was just a quick visit. I knew they wouldn’t stay long because they have family obligations to tend to. Since it was just going to be the four of us I didn’t plan on serving more than a few cookies for dessert. But when I started looking at all of my serving stuff, I decided I wanted to use both of my three tired servers. But I was determined NOT to have more sweets. So I decided to use two of the tiers as decoration holders. YAY. Decorations instead of desserts. A treat for the eyes not the belly.
Ok, many of you might be looking at this and thinking it is no big deal. And it REALLY isn’t, but I totally love it. Ha! It makes me happy. When I love something and it makes me happy, I wanna share it. And, that my friends, is the “power” of having your own blog. You can do whatever you want.
The heart ornaments in the dish are actually something I already have sitting on a table. I LOVE those ornaments. They were one of those coveted things that were part of an office “steal present game”. Ya know, where you chose a gift and there is “stealing” involved? I no longer remember how I came to be the owner of them, but they are one of my favorite sets of ornaments. One of the things that make me “Consider decorations and ornaments gifts” as I posted in More Sparkle, More Shine, More Fun! Since I love them so much I decided to add them to my “Treat” display.
Then the other arrangement is what I really love. I was scrounging around for something to make a display with and I found the purple sparkly berry things in a cabinet. I decided to pair them with the pine cone flowers from last year’s Cookie Swap I attended. Then I added the homemade card from one of my Nia Teacher/friends. Her cards always end up as decorations in the house. They are so gorgeous!!!
After my company left, I did not dismantle that portion of the display. I might just keep it up. As a non-creative, I am very happy with it. It makes me super happy. I think the sparkly blueish-purple, with the “flowers”, and the gorgeousness of the card just make me really happy. So why not keep it.
Again, I imagine some of you thinking this is silly, but (fist pump) more power to me! I am just going with what I love. I am sure this is not one of the displays that you would find on Pinterest, but I like it. I think I might like it so much because normally I would have just put out more food, but this time I was determined not to. So this is like a double treat to me!
So . . . I know many of you are very creative, so share! What have you come up with for your Christmas and/or Holiday decorating?
Do you move fast? Do you do five things at once? Do you have more than one project going on? Are you doing one thing while your mind is thinking about another? It is hard to slow down, huh? I think part of it is technology. We have cell phones that can do so many things we get instant gratification so we don’t have to wait for anything. We can call someone while we are doing something else. We can look up something on the internet while we are talking to someone all the while doing something else. Multi-tasking is expected. We must be productive and in order to do so we have to do more than one thing. I posted about multi-tasking in September 2009. I actually attempted to stop and only do one thing at a time. It proved to not be possible for me. As an example, when cooking dinner I have to do more than one thing at a time. It is not feasible to cook the pasta, then the meat, then make the salad — or any order of that. More than one thing has to be going on at a time. So I realized that multi-tasking is necessary, but there are ways I can be more aware of what I am doing. There are some tasks that I can do without doing something else. Part of this for me is just slowing down. I need to have patience to get through one task before I move onto the next.
I have been thinking about this a lot this week as I have been decorating the house for Christmas. I love to have it look like Christmas every where you look. It doesn’t have to be Griswald-y, but an ornament here, a candle there—just SOMETHING. While I have been doing this I have been using a ladder. In our garage it is a bit tricky. We park both of our cars in the garage so the “edges” tend to get a little cluttered. We also have bicycles hanging from the rafters near where the Christmas boxes are stored. All this week I have been having to tell myself, “Slow down.” Literally. I want to get it done quickly — plus I am excited because I just love all this stuff. So I would bolt up the ladder and realize once I was up there that I couldn’t move freely, I had to think about the fact that I was on a ladder, the fact that I was wearing floppy shoes, that there was a bike an inch from my head, back, butt (depending on where I was on the ladder). I had to think about how I was going to move once I got the box in my hands. I had to think how I was going to climb down the ladder with a box in my hand and a handle bar at my shoulder.
It is not easy for me to do some things slowly and I have been pondering that this week. I think that being more patient is part of it. If I were more patient with getting some of the things done I want to get done then I wouldn’t be rushing through what I have to do. Part of it is also because there is going to be some work done involving the house at the end of this week and I was rushing to get things done before that deadline. Also, I wanted it all done before I my Nia Class on Thursday evening! But still . . . . it is not easy to slow down.
I want to say that I HAVE been JUST brushing my teeth. I have made a conscious effort. But it wasn’t since September 2009, it has been more recent!
Do you find rushing to be the case? Do you rush through things just to get to another thing to rush through?
I first want to say that Nia in San Jose is on it’s regular schedule even with the surrounding Holidays. Next, I want to say with so much holiday stuff around me it is more fun to post about decorations, cards sent, cards received, gifts given and received, Christmas Trees, ornaments, lights, and the cheer, than about how to exercise “off” those extra calories you might be consuming. It is better to avoid eating too much than to try to work it off. Many websites give you advice on how to avoid over indulging at parties, I posted one myself last year. They are articles of advice on how to keep motivated during the holidays everywhere you turn. As you know I like to post about other things. I love Christmas and all of its decorations and cheer that it brings. I love how people get creative with gifts and decorations. When I first saw this I wanted to post about it. But I often hesitate because I do also want to post about exercises and working out, but this kept popping into my head. I love it that much.
I have a friend I know through blogging. I believe I “met” him on another friend’s blog. I forget exactly how the timeline went but we started following eachother on Twitter and we are friends on Facebook. He is one of those people that seems to be everywhere. I don’t know how he does it, but he comments or “likes” my posts and my photos on several sites. He is one of those people that is very supportive. He is always there to support me in my internet dabblings.
He takes great pictures. I am always amazed at the shots he gets on his morning walks. But the latest photo that had me clapping with glee and I just can’t get out of my head is the photo of his book tree. I keep thinking, “Who would think of that?” Well, the answer is a man that works in a bookstore, but still, I love it. It is so cute and so imaginative. Really why can’t you decorate anything, right. I also kind of think of it as a bit of a joint effort. He, of course, came up with the biggest part, putting it together and stringing it with garland. I just make a tiny suggestion of using paper clips (or a strong wire) to hang the ornaments.
This is one of those things that just makes me happy. Do you have simple things in your life that make you happy and make you smile? This is one of them. Simon is often making me laugh and smile, but I really loved this one and wanted to share. I received permission to post his picture here. You can see it here (click) on one of his blogs.
A note to Simon:Simon, my friend, you are a constant source of smiles and laughter to me. I appreciate how you are always so supportive with your “likes” and comments. I think you are a great photographer and look forward to the pictures of your morning walks and all your pictures. Thank you for this lovely book tree, it makes me giggle when I think about it.
_____________
I hope you all enjoyed his little book tree. I hope that no matter what holiday you celebrate at this time of year you are having a happy and peaceful time. Thanks for being here!
As I was putting Christmas Ornaments away (yes, I am still putting “Christmas” away) I was reminded of Nia. My thoughts then morphed to working out and exercise. Ya see, I was trying to put an ornament in its box. I have trouble with this ornament every year. Do you have any of those ornaments where you store them in the box they came in? I have a lot of those ornaments and every year there are some that give me trouble. I try putting it in this way, then I have to take it out and turn it, then try again, and try again, and after a few tries finally get it in the right way with a resulting “Ahhh . . . . . .”
That is what made me think of Nia. Nia is made for everyBODY. The exercises we perform, the movements we do, the entire workout is designed around the design of the body. Often times people are not accustomed to moving their body in the way it was designed. Some people don’t turn their heads which can loosen the spine and muscles in the back or gyrate their hips which can loosen the hips and possible allow you to stand up taller. It might not be for everyONE, because in Nia participants are not told exactly how to move. It IS one of those things that you have to ACTUALLY try. It also helps to try it more than once. Try going to classes when they have different routines. Try it with different teachers. Try treating it differently; treat it as a cardio workout, treat it like an exercise, or treat it like a dance. Try all different ways. If you don’t love it instantly, then don’t give up, try again. You could find that when you keep trying and do it a different way you’ll be saying, “Ahhhh . . . ”
If not, Nia, there are so many other things that you can try. Find something you like. Keep trying. Don’t give up and think you don’t like exercise or working out because it comes in so many different forms, I am sure you can find something you would like. You can always contact me and we can talk about it.
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