Design Rocket: A Tree Grows in Needham for a Very Vegas Holiday!

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VINTAGE EYEWEAR
Well, you can go get glasses at the local Lenscrafters, OR you can hunt down some spectacular vintage hand cut frames at your local antique shop and have them fitted with your prescription lenses. Or maybe---do both. I have some very normal, "don'-t-cause trouble" frames, and some "in-your-face" frames I like to wear when I am feeling "con cohones" and have had a drink or two. Better to buy "new old stock", if you are going to invest much in the lenses. It is not good to throw money into old frames in bad shape that will fall off your head or lose an arm and need that proverbial piece of masking tape to keep them together. Unless that is the look you crave--the look of half the boys in my nerdy seventh grade class circa 1965. If so, I have an old briefcase and a pocket pen holder I would like to sell you. I'll throw in the slide rule.
Lawn art and ashtrays
Back when guys stayed home more, listened to the radio and do other things at the same time, they probably labored over homemade lawn art, standing ashtray holders, and door stops. Usually they were made out of plywood, then painted. Look for slightly crackled paint. Many of the best of these were old comic strip characters like Jiggs and Maggie, or the ocasional Disney character. Black cats are plentiful. Also Butlers. You do not have to smoke to appreciate them.
old silhouettes
Many of these come from the 20's and 30's. You can often guess the age of the piece by the dress of the person whose portrait it is. Hung together on a wall, they have a wonderful impact.
Old cookbooks by local groups: i.e. Grange cookbooks, church cookbooks, college cookbooks, etc.
Tacky Souvenirs from old site seeing locales

A Tree Grows in Needham for a Very Vegas Holiday!

Well, it was not easy (it never is), but I have finally built and decorated my yearly effort to create a holiday tree that evokes both Hannukah and Christmas and Good Tidings and Winter. For the past several years I have gone down this road, starting out with large tree branches (or even an entire small birch tree) and adding piece after piece of painted, sparkling, and glittered tree branches, until I come up with something that says, "Done. Now decorate me." The effect I look for is as though I come upon a leafless tree in a wetland somewhere, which has been caught in a combination of an ice and snow storm--white and silver and icy looking. I end each season determined to make the task not quite so precarious in years to come, but each year the trees have been wired together and anchored in sand, and, well, you know all about those "shifting sands of time." We always had to end up wiring the trees to the wall, lest they come crashing down.

This year, when I was in NYC in January, I came upon something in ABCCarpet and Home that I figured would give me a head start. And so, this year's tree was built very differently. First I had to order a wooden planter, 20 inches square. Here it is being painted in my kitchen. I think I did originally mean to use more subdued colors, but...well, give me paints and hear me roar. Bright turquoise blue!

When I was done getting carried away with the paints, I put my pre-built tree in the box. It had it's own base, so that was a good start--no sand!

Here are the materials--all the treated branches, gathered up from last year:

A day or so, lots of duct tape and wire, lights and my odd assortment of decorations, and the tree is done! I used floral foam to hold the branches. It worked well. Ta Dah!

Closer up:

I'm not a big fan of the standard glass ball ornaments, so over the years I have collected a number of small objects and items that are not the average fair. Some, like those I showed during the Holiday Blog Hop a few posts back, I have made. Many I have purchased and continue to find. I did have some great plans this year to make new ones, but time did not allow it. I made this one in 1981:

All in all I favor the smaller ornaments-- those that cry out to be looked at very closely. I love this sleeping baby.

This little pine cone elf goes back to when I was a small child. At one point there were a whole troop of these little guys. I wonder where they all are today:

Even the Ficus tree in the family room gets into the act. Remember those globes from Crate and Barrel?

All in all the room takes on a VERY VEGAS look! With the two Elvis lamps flanking the red couch, and all the colored lights strung around a room lit by jukeboxes, the overall ambience is much closer to Caesar's Palace than to Little House on the Prairie. That's perfectly OK since Dean Martin will be leading the Rat Pack in holiday music on the stereo while Louis Prima does a few numbers himself. For the quieter moments we'll enjoy Nat King Cole and Mel Torme.

Happy Holiday to everyone! Have a Very Vegas Christmas! And make it your New Year's resolution to be more creative for the coming year.

December 24, 2009 at 01:00 AM in Color!, Decorating, Entertaining, Holidays, Imaginations Running Wild, Interior Spaces, Made in America | Permalink

Comments

HOLY CRAP, Barbara. This is seriously AWESOME!! You, my dear, are a genius!

Posted by: Mary Pierce | December 24, 2009 at 12:22 PM

Love it, Barbara! I've used branches in the past for my "tree" so this gives me ideas on just how cool it can be done! Thanks for sharing!

Posted by: paula | December 24, 2009 at 01:27 PM

WOW! Need I say more. I love it!

Posted by: Julia the farmer | December 24, 2009 at 04:15 PM

GORGEOUS, Barb!!! I think it looks so much prettier and more original than the boring old fir we've got. Maybe I'll try this after the boys have flown the nest. (No way they'd stand for it now. Kids can be such traditionalists!)

A belated happy Hanukkah and a merry Christmas to you!

Kim

Posted by: Kim Norman | December 24, 2009 at 09:42 PM