it's the beginning...

...of my festive decorating...i won't say this is especially original - i'm pretty sure you've all seen the scrap wood christmas trees hanging around the t'internet of late. i really wanted to do something cool for the kid's new(ish) playroom and so roped sam in to do the heavy work (because girls just can't use screwdrivers, can they?) and set off around the farm yard looking for scrap wood. bearing in mind it was blowing a gale yesterday, and it was just beginning to get dark, i dragged home some likely looking suspects and think i did a fair job of sizing up the right pieces of wood for the job by eye in the freezing cold and gathering dusk.

anyway, it doesn't take a genius to work out how we did it: a long piece of wood for the trunk (we used an old fence post all covered in spray paint) and a variety of scraps for the branches. screwed the branches to the trunk using a variety of random screws (we're so organised and technical) or in some cases we nailed them because sam's workbox was a bit lacking in the right gear. i'd actually had the forethought to buy some hooks, but they were deemed by everyone as 'too shiny' so i dulled them down with black spray paint (more trudging out into the dark so i didn't kill us all with fumes.)

the boxes are from a floral wholesalers - i think they're wedding favour boxes, or maybe balloon weight thingies? anyway, they were the right colour and roughly the right size for treats and about a quid for 10. i stuck on some pretty white and red lace tape (although afterwards realised my own bloomsbury tape would've looked way cooler) and stamped the numbers 1 through 24 onto stickers. because i'm a lazy cow, i threw some chocolate coins in the boxes when the kids weren't looking and voila. easy as pie, the whole family got involved and we did it all while watching strictly. i even found some little LED lights to pop in the bucket at the bottom, and as luck would have it, found some batteries that were still alive. so at night it lights up. awesomeness. next year i'll do something other than the boxes because i think they're a bit big and well, boxy. glassine envelopes might be nice. or little bundles of sweets in fabric. whatever. this'll do for now.

oh, and arth wanted to let you know it isn't quite finished because it hasn't got a star on top. no angels allowed, too girly.