Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Cryn Tips : Work With What You've Got




This year I had a few ideas for our tree.  I seem to be steering away from the traditional commercial stuff and going with homemade this time around with decorating as well as gifting.  It has actually been a very rewarding way to go about it.  I haven't had to be stressed about checking all of the ads to see what is on sale or search for... stuff.  As a bonus it is really fun to see what I have created in my mind come to life and actually work...

For our tree I made little gingerbread people and strung them on sewing thread and hung them on the branches.  The other idea I had was to take a bunch of family photographs that make up little memories of our times together and use wooden clothespins to attach them to branches of the tree.  A few white lights and one or two special ornaments (like the egg with the porcupine on it that David made for me for our first Christmas together and our Starbucks cup ornament) and voila!  A simple yet special tree full of fond memories.  I love the look of it.  It almost has an old-fashioned feel going on.

Which reminds me that we borrowed stumbled upon a wonderfully sweet book from our local library that I really think you should check out.  The book is called An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco.  It is actually a true story about a loving family whose father would trek down to Florida every Christmas with his horse and buggy to bring back nine precious oranges to put up on their mantle on Christmas Eve, one for each one of them.  The star of the book is a tender-hearted ten year old named Frankie who, through his generosity, but also through his thoughtlessness, brings his family close together at Christmas time.  It is truly a touching story.  It is definitely a bit more to read than your usual toddler book (more like an 8-12 year old book, but Elliott is 3 and he sat through it), but it is absolutely a must-read down-home classic and I strongly encourage you to read it even if you don't have kids.




Photos courtesy of the talented David Escalante

8 comments:

The Montgomerys said...

Great idea...it looks really awesome. I'm going to see if our library has that book too.

Our tree is bare except for half way up because of tiny little grabby hands and Hazel proceeded to remove most of the candy canes (by the use of chairs, stairs, etc) and hid them (still haven't found her stash) and I keep finding her sucking on them (wrappers still on)...so our tree has been challenging to keep...beautiful...but challenging..

Love you tree!!!

Mon

elisabeth. said...

precious.

Corynne Escalante said...

monica: i know! all of the gingerbread people on the bottom of the tree have been gnawed on, but luckily after a day of telling her no, Caiden hasn't tried to eat anymore of them... that's funny about hazel's little candy stash. haha!

Nina49a said...

I love your tree ideas! You should post a pic of the whole tree so we can get the full affect. or is it effect?

Are you guys coming down for Christmas?

Rachel was like.... said...

i absolutely love your picture idea! it looks so cute with the close pins. when i get my own house..and my own christmas tree..i will definitly be using this idea.

Melissa Ashley said...

Random hug.

:)

Anonymous said...

i LOVE that photo idea. how darling.

bethany actually said...

The photos-with-clothespins as ornaments is a fantastic idea! Also, I have give you props on spelling the word "voila" correctly. ;-)