In the Sticks

A local antique store had this amazing Halloween set-up that I had to copy! It was a great branchy tree with crows and spiders, etc. I wanted to buy the "tree" but it wasn't for sale. The decorator at the store told me exactly how to do it. And that it is "very easy" to make. So I enlisted my good friend Heather because 1. she is very fun 2. she is much more talented at crafty, home projects than I am and will ever be) and 3. who wants to go into the woods with a hand saw alone? :)

So we picked up some Starbucks (for extra energy) and headed off into the woods. Did I mention that Heather is pregnant? And it was hot? And the branches required a little bit of effort to cut down with a hand saw...I feel kind of bad now that I made her come with me!

But it was a good thing I did because eagle-eye Heather spotted the bushes right away and we were able to get some branches. Just a few...

I trashed Geoff's trunk though--sorry!

Here is a look after my first trimming attempt:

Using some smaller branches for practice:

Seeing what it would like on the table:

I was being very conservative when I trimmed becauseI was afraid I would take too much off.

So I kept trimming...and trimming...even while the boys were "trimming" the tree with the fun decorations we found.

Crows!

And bats!

And skeletons...spooky....

The braver I get the more branches I remove. The "model" tree in the store was very bare so I know it will look OK!

We had fun with our first Halloween decorating project! So excited that it is October already!