Time for the second half of my Festival of Trees tour!
First up, the wreath I most wanted to take home with me:
Look at those glorious owls.
(Who is selling those adorable owls? HOO? All I can find are ones made with sticks!)
And that combination of silver mercury glass with rustic branches & twine balls? So good.
Of course I have to take pictures of a seahorse wreath. HAVE TO.
Feel like it could have used a little white "greenery" to soften it up, though.
This next owl is less glorious, but I'm digging the feathery flowers:
And I never get tired of lime green, red, and black & white:
Although lime green and turquoise is up there, too:
It didn't photograph too well, but I thought this was a neat idea:
It's not exactly my style, but there's a lot of kitschy faux taxidermy you could use like this, too, like a cute plush or a cardboard version, like this:
I bet you could leave this rose-and-apple (and pomegranate) design up year-round - and I totally would:
SO PRETTY.
Here's another hole-less wreath:
I like the idea of building a wreath around a special figurine or knick-knack in the middle. You can wire almost anything in there: toys, statues, a framed piece of art, etc, so don't be afraid to think outside the wreath... for inside the wreath. :)
You'd never know it at first glance - or even the 3rd or 4th - but this one had some neat little treasures tucked in its branches:
The ribbon swag in the middle spells "believe" in typewriter keys, and there are tiny bits of jewelry and old keys sprinkled around:
It's a cool idea, but completely lost from more than a foot or two away. As with trees, sometimes you've got to go BIG to get a theme across.
Like this next one, which almost looks like one giant piece of jewelry:
Love the idea of hanging one show-stopper ornament in the middle, so the wreath acts like a frame. That bottom dangle by the bow was my favorite, though:
Spaaaarkly.
This one used fiber fill in the branches to simulate snow:
I'm not sure it worked, exactly; a little too fluffy. But not bad!
I like the tufts of straw in this Western-themed one:
If you look closely you'll see some itty-bitty saddles in there, plus real belt buckles.
I think this is a teardrop swag, hung upside down to look like a mini wall-tree:
I've never seen anyone do that before, and it's pretty clever! If you added a little tree topper and let more greenery show, this would be an AWESOME space saver vs a table top tree. All you need is a wall to hang it on! (Oh! And then you could add a little shelf under it for mini-presents! Eh? EH??)
These little straw deer are adorable:
And if you got close enough, you could see some equally adorable ornaments:
Did you spot the mini Coleman lantern?
The Festival hosts a gingerbread house room each year, but my day job has prevented me from ever being terribly impressed. However, this gear-filled clock tower caught my eye:
Great design! I like it.
There are also a few rooms of tablescapes and miscellaneous decor pieces to check out. I'm digging this simple driftwood centerpiece with burlap cone trees:
Those trees would be a snap for you DIYers out there.
And I know this is pretty basic, but now I want to dress up some decorative lanterns at home:
Plus, have you seen these new flickering flame LED candles? The ones with the "flame" that moves? They're freaking amazing, but sooo expensive. (They were selling them there for like $50 each. Ouch.)
A sparkly silver table for a December birthday, perhaps?
And this one was... interesting:
I know it looks like a tree fell on it - followed by a bucket of salt - but I kind of love it.
More specifically, I love the part with the spotlight on it, which was hardest to photograph:
Sparkly icy spriggy goodness in a pretty silver box!
Reminds me of the white witch of Narnia.
But seriously. There are logs on the table. LOGS.
(And a random seahorse, which I just spotted in the first pic. Whuuut.)
Here's a fun scrapbooky Advent calendar:
Or does it count as an Advent calendar if you don't have to open anything?
Anyway, I like all the little vintage treasures:
And finally, there were these two mannequin torsos there, and...
Before you ask: I don't know. But I like it.
Although not as much as I like THIS one:
It's like a scarf of festive spikey sea urchins!
K, that does it for this year's Festival of Trees! Hope you had fun, and maybe picked up a few ideas. (And if any of you make a sea urchin scarf, I want pictures.)
