Oh Christmas....Shrubbery

Last year you may remember my attempt at a Christmas tree was a wreath. Now granted, a wreath that got a much better photo shoot than I managed this year. And complete with a very excellent decorating idea that I did (in fact) see in Real Simple this year. I think they are stalking my blog for ideas.


Hm.


Anyhooooo, this year, we're making a bit more progress toward an actual tree. We've graduated to a small bush. A few days before Thanksgiving, Mom mentioned that she could cut me a Christmas tree from their land in Maine and bring it down to hand off at Thanksgiving. I insisted that I would need something small, something that could maybe sit at the end of our entertainment center, as opposed to a real tree on the floor. Well, Mom heard me loud and clear and just in time to pack up the car, she pulled me a "tree" out of a rock in Maine, stuck it in a pot, and lo, I have officially moved up in the world. From wreath to... shrubbery.


I love it so much.

Forgive the fuzzy iPhone photos. I love how random it is. How it swoops weirdly to the side. I'm calling it avantgarde. It's very "artsy". Very non-conformist. Very "doing its own thing". I honestly could not love it more. It's the perfect amount of "tree" for us to manage with our crazy lifestyle. And those shell ornaments sure were just plucked from the beach on a walk with my mom over Thanksgiving and just tied right on with red string. It couldn't look more busted, particularly in these horrible, horrible photos.

I mean it's nothing fancy and legit like this.


But that's even a hair overdone/Martha Stewart-ish for my taste. Though certainly, closer to my actual taste. I mean, honestly my shrubbery looks like something a third grader brings home from school. But when those little white lights come on, all is right with my world.

I think it's heaven. Even if the photos are atrocious.