Making Do . Thanksgivingmas

Today is New Years Eve and with the last whispers of Christmas being put away I am posting just one more Christmas 'Making Do'. 

About 8 years ago I found these huge wreaths for $16 at Winners on their after Thanksgiving sale.  Stored them in my garage and for the next years loaned them to my church to place on their beautiful windows for the Thanksgiving décor.  We are no longer at that church and with a 46 inch diameter they were too big for my front door so I found a gorgeous spot in my kitchen!



The most easy decorating ever!

When Thanksgiving was over I loved it so much that I could not take it down.  The following year I decided to turn one into a Christmas wreath and make it legit.  Rather than run out and find Christmas accents I chose to keep in the heart of  'making do' and pulled out my green and red paint spray cans.  I'm quite pleased with how it has turned out.  A Win from Winners! 

 

I love the non-traditional green

In context

And now with Christmas tucked away.  It's time to breathe deep and look forward.  Happy New Year everybody.

Making Do . Christmas tree

Today I am celebrating one of my personality gifts.  It's my ability to 'make do' with what I have.  Actually, I have always had the ability and temperament to make the most of my surroundings and circumstances.  So this is what hits my good feelings today.

I love my Christmas tree and have often just had white lights and the bird at the top.  Keeping it simple and beautiful because it is a full (artificial) tree.  We've always had an artificial tree because when we were newly weds and had our little family living in Los Angeles for the first 15 years real trees were waaaayyyyy beyond our budget.  We both had arrived as 'purists' from Beautiful British Columbia Canada, but learned very quickly that supply and demand is quite different in LA and the prices there were beyond our reach.  One of those first years we found a very full and very artificial looking tree at a Goodwill store.  I believe I found it after Christmas so it was an amazing deal.  And so our journey with 'making do' and artificial trees began.  My kids have never had a real live Christmas tree.  They haven't missed too much except for the wonderful smell and learning what it means to water the tree and have the needles drop off after Christmas and then trying to dispose of it.  I've not really missed the real tree.  But in the heart of 'making do' I wanted to do something new on my tree this year.  I scrounged around my boxes and found some old hearts and a few little red glass birds for starters.  I was limited in what I had and saw that my tree looked a bit lack luster.  If you go minimal, like I did with the lights, then stay pure.  It makes a great statement but if you add something, go all the way girl!  So... my making do strategy was to retrieve my thanksgiving wreath with its grapevine leaves and add those.  They have a brown texture and add a new sort of nature feel.  I'm liking the way this has turned out.  And so is my budget.