"Oh Xmas time oh Xmas time"

I can't believe it's really here!  Now it's time to bring out the festive cheer!  With 21 days left, I thought I'd share my little Xmas tree and some fun decorating ideas.

This is the closest we've gotten to a full-sized tree in New York.  It's very exciting! 

 

So much so, I had to put it in front of our windows so every night when I get home and plug it in hopefully our neighbors can enjoy it too :).

I love the star!  I found it at one of the floral supply stores in the flower district I frequent for $4.99!  It's made out of twigs and glitter.   I was worried that I was going to have to wrap wire around it to get it to stay but we literally just slid it between two branches on the top and it's super secure!

I didn't have a tree skirt but always have tons of fabric scraps laying around so I took some old burlap feed bags and cut them up and draped around the stand. 

My favorite part is that I found these little glitter acorns in the flower district too, a whole box for $5.  I sat some on branches here and there and then sprinkled the rest on the burlap.  James came home that night and said, "Babe, all your acorns fell off the tree!"  hahaha, hello- intentional!

Recently five famous interior designers: Jonathan Adler, Thom Filicia, Laura Kirar (who I met this summer!), Kelly Wearstler and Vincent Wolf were asked by The NY Times to choose 10 photos each from the Times' archive for which the public can purchase at The NY Times store.

Let me share some of the photos with you.  Now that I'm becoming more familiar with these designers it was so neat to see how each collection of 10 photos really did embody the aesthetic and design-style of each particular designer.

Kelly Wearstler's all had a feeling of art deco, with gold metal shavings and strong structured lines, lots of geometric shapes.  Each time I see her work I am in awe.  She chose two different photos of the outer facade of this super modern building in Chelsea that I drool over every time we are driving on the West Side Highway.  It is so awesome!

Thom Filicia is all about brighter colors and contrast and incorporates a lot of nature in his designs.  The pictures he chose of trees and a yellow taxi cab did just that.  Every picture was an outdoor scene too.

Laura Kirar has a love of antiques, probably just as much as me.  This summer I volunteered for her and her team during a chairty event and I helped sell the items in a space she decorated, most of which were vintage pieces.  Here all of her photos were black & white and extremely whimsical.  She

chose one of a dismantled dinosaur and a bulldog, even a great shot of the parachute jump, a ride at Coney Island.  

You can check out the rest at The NY Times store.

Now for my idea and how this relates to our tree.  So I want to cut these photos out from the newspaper because they are all small, around 2"x3", rectangles and then I want to clip them onto our tree using festive clothes pins which I'll show you below.  I think it's really important you make your tree yours and not copy straight off the page of a magazine.  Any little things that embody you and your family are important and could be used...baby's first pair of shoes, old black & white photos, funny photobooth pics, feathers or shells from a beach trip.

And to make it easy on you around this busy time, if you'd rather just buy the festive clothespins instead of making your own, Etsy has a great selection.  I loved these.

 

Happy decorating to you & yours!!