christmas time 2

One of the things i have been doing all month was to ruthlessly pack up items to donate to salvation army.  Clothing, household, decorations, books, you name it and i dropped it off at the shop for them to resell.  I have been trying not to bring anything new into the house unless i have gotten rid of something that i have and have not used in a long time. I have been somewhat successful too.  Let's face it, we like to change our inventory of things periodically, and for most of us, the old stuff is perfectly fine, we are just tired of it, or our taste has changed, or something more interesting has arrived on the scene. The idea of a lawn sale in the spring/summer is always enticing, but the reality is that it is too much work, and yields too little cash considering the initial  value of what is being sold.

In between drives to salvation army i made my way to the back of the storage area and considered what to decorate the tree with.  I could easily decorate 10 trees. all the soft things from when the kids were little, the houses, the birds, the toys, the rocking horses, the india type decorations, the nut crackers, the star fish, the Santa's, the snowmen, the barbies, the star trek, then there are all the old fashioned Christmas ball.

As far as garland... i have pearl beads and clear beads, wood beads, and beads that look like cranberries. Garland that is shaped like candy (one of my favorites), gold beads, silver beads, and the tinsel garland from 40 years ago. i also have the newer  strands of garland wired with different colors, and themes, music, trees, hearts... maybe i could do more than 10 trees??

Trees i have recently done: the barbie tree, the santa tree, the snowman tree, and the star fish tree. looking through boxes, i am just not ready to let any of the tree decorations go.  I decided on the rocking horses for this year. all the things that are not really tree ornaments are in a box to go to salvation army when it next opens, Monday. and i am not going to go through that box again... what ever is in it is going. the end!

Tree with candy garland, and rocking horse ornaments..