Charlie Brown Tree.

Have you seen the blog THRIVE? Chances are you have because I'm usually the last one to see the cool new blogs. (at least I thinks it's new...well, it's new to me.) Anyway, the idea behind it is to choose to thrive, regardless of your circumstances. And since the crafty blogger, Nike (pronounced 'Neeka'...so cool) finds herself in a less than ideal economic situation, she has adapted the 'rock-what-you've-got" attitude when it comes to creating beautiful things for her home. Seriously. She is amazing. And I totally love this idea, because we are also finding ourselves in a less than ideal economic situation. And I love to make things, just like Nike. So her blog is a BIG source of inspiration. Like this....



Wow. Can you believe she made that out of an oatmeal carton? She's good. I love this. And I love the branches. But, I didn't have any of the stuff she used, so I had to come up with my own branchy kind of decoration. So here is what I did.

I took this empty spaghetti sauce jar...



and cut a piece of burlap to wrap around it...



then I mod podged that puppy on the jar.



I used a glue gun to add some twine to the top and bottom of the jar. Then some ribbon to cover the very top of the jar, and add some color.





I had an idea of what I wanted to put in the jar. I had seen these lighted stick bundles at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. They were so cool. They were $19.99, which was about $19 out of my price range. I thought 'I can make something like that!'. Turns out, I can't make something like that. I tried though. I had a big bundle of sticks I bought last year at our local craft store. (really? who buys sticks!? me.) So I broke them in half, arranged them in the jar, and attempted to cover them in one of my 5 foot long, 20 count mini light sets that I got on clearance for 75 cents last year. It wasn't pretty. I didn't take a picture, because I was embarrassed. Have you ever had an idea that in your mind is totally fabulous, but when you tried to recreate what you saw in your mind, the two images looked nothing alike? That's what happened here. So I had to come up with something else. I found some mini glittered ball ornaments I got at the dollar store last year, and tied them to the branches.




I didn't totally love the result, but I didn't hate it. In fact, it's growing on me. And I didn't have to spend a dime on it. Just used stuff I already have. That part makes me happy. It's my version of a Charlie Brown tree. Can't get more Charlie Brown that sticks in a jar, right?





At one point, I added some pine tree picks, but I think I like it better without those. What do you think?