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Suess Tree

HOLIDAYS· OUR 2nd HOUSE

This year has been a bundle of chaos. 

It’s been fun. 

It’s been filled with dreaming and imagination and fantasy. 

For us, this year has been like a Dr. Seuss book.  So why not make our tree like one too?!  This Christmas season, I just wanted our ‘house tree’ (as Will calls it) to be whimsical and kid-friendly…and the MANY Dr. Seuss books that we read every day struck my fancy as a perfect jumping off point. 

Warning: your husbands swagger-factor will take a hit when he tells overtly masculine friends he has a Cat in the Hat christmas tree.  just sayin.  

I scavanged my scrap fabrics till I found red or turquoise quarter yards that all looked fun together. 

Last year I used my plethora of hoops to make kid friendly ornaments.  This year I took it one step farther and wrapped the hoops to make the outsides look like candy canes.  It’s a really easy process.

My little assistant fell asleep on the job…

This year I didn’t buy a single ornament.   I didn’t buy anything new for the tree.  I just walked around the house throwing stuff into a plastic Kroger bag that I could use as decoration and then threw it up on the branches.  I didn’t ‘throw up’…just to clarify…because that sentence sounded weirdly.  Saying weirdly also sounded weirdly.  you catch my drift though.

The tree topper was also out of recycled Christmas stuff.  I love the crazy dotted poofy-hair-do.  It’s a total Who-ville move.  I figured the decoupaged B was still appropriate…since we had another Bower Boy join our family this year.

The overall look is what Jeremy described as ‘busy’.  I told him that it was ‘crazy and full’…just like my life…he didn’t disagree. 

At least Will liked it.  He helped me decorate it so he better approve 🙂 

Yup.  All of the ornaments are plastic or fabric so he was my helper for all the pom-pom trim and he actually put on all the ornaments on the lower third of the tree.  It was so fun to tell him all about the paper pom-poms too…since those were actually decorations from his first birthday party (yes I threw them in a closet and forgot about them…SEE JER, there is a reason to save everything including what you and most of the population deem trash!)

The tree with the lights on…

My crafty hoops getting it’s close up…

And since this year was already so chaotic, I didn’t pull out even half of the Christmas stuff…but I did want our tree to have some sentimental ornaments….like our white ceramic ‘W’ ornament (which now represents both my darling littles)…

Will also has his first ornament…the white snowflake (which is fitting because it snowed on his first christmas!)…

And his second ornament from last year…

We still don’t have the photos for this years ornaments (mommyfail!)…so you don’t get to see those.  Sorry.

I do have the old photos of our trees-gone-past.  Let’s call it the parade of trees, shall we?!  Starting in 2007…

The following years we went from red and silver to gold and silver…

In 2010, we had another silver & gold tree…this time with WAY more ribbon….followed by the blue & green tree of last year…

 

And the parade is rounded out with this years tree.  Overall, I dig it.  It puts a gigantic smile on my face everytime I look at it.  And every time I look at it, it reminds me of my favorite Grinch quote…. 

“I’m all toasty inside. And I’m leaking.” 

Haha!  No but seriously…my OTHER favorite Grinch quote is this…

“It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags.  The the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas…he thought…means a little bit more.”

Speaking of more….here’s my little more’s this holiday season…

I got their photos with all that yummy bokeh before mommy-brain took over and I forgot.  Why is it that we don’t have twinkle lights up all year round?  Seriously.  It would make for such great photo ops.  I might be revolting this year and tryin to figure out where I can add them. 

Oh and I have lots more Christmas posts to come….just be warned.  My family isn’t celebrating our Christmas till New Year so this might be ‘Christmas Week’ here at Bower Power.  Bring on baby Jesus!

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Comments

  2. I love everything you do, but honestly this tree is one of my favorites. You did such a beautiful job, it’s kid friendly, but gorgeous!

  3. Wonderful tree – I love it! Merry Christmas and thank you for all the laughs over the last year; I enjoy your blog no end.

  5. Pretty tree! & Thanks for always making me laugh!
    P.S. I just ordered the ShootFlyShoot tutorial so make sure
    you get the credit from them. I hope I did it right:)
    Have a great day

  7. I LOVE the tree!! I’m usually so traditional with ours, and whites, silvers, golds, and reds are usually all that make the grade. This year, it was burlap and golds, but WOW… you’re tree looks fabulous. Every time I saw a picture of it in this post, it slapped a huge smile on my face. Funny that after reading through, you say it does the same for you. Very sweet and festive Christmas tree Katie! Well done 🙂

  8. Love, Love, Love your Christmas tree!! So cute, so appropriate, and so you! So neat that you made the ornaments out of the hoops and used the things you already had. It is amazing how it all came together so perfectly! The pom=pom garland is a cute effect and the “B” topper couldn’t be “topped!” Great job, and hope your Merry Christmas continues! Looking forward to the rest of your Christmas posts!

  12. But you DO have twinkle lights up year-round, on your patio! How about making a playroom full of twinkle lights and glow in the dark stars on the ceiling?

  14. looks great – so fun! although i totally thought the blue poofs were shower poofs. maybe next year?

  15. Hi, Katie! I found you via YHL and have just started reading your blog! Congratulations on your newest addition….. your boys are adorable…your home is lovely…your tree, so creative and fun! Merry Christmas to the Bower family! I look forward to continued reading in 2013!

  17. Katie –

    I love the tree. Really. It’s definitely busy, but that’s not to say it’s a bad thing. I think Christmas trees should be dripping with sparkles and color!

    Is Will leaving the tree alone? My 2 year old is all over the tree.

  18. I love the colors of your tree this year… so cute. Don’t know how you do it with 2 lil ones!!

    xo

  19. Another beautiful post Katie. I love that you change up your every year and just on a whim it always looks fantastic and at no cost!! Love it, when others stress so much about these things you just really enjoy it all! Good for you!! Your boys are just beautiful and I can’t believe how will is really starting to look like a little boy now.

  21. Merry Christmas, Bower family! Love, love, love the toddler friendly tree! I grew up an only child with a tree full of beautiful and breakable ornaments, but I”m a mama in a house with three teen-tween boys and a 9 month old baby girl, and a big furry indoor dog. I sooo need to rethink our Christmas decor:) Love your ideas, your humor, your blog. Thanks for putting a smile on my face or a laugh in my heart almost daily–ha,ha! I look forward to seeing what’s going on at the Bower and the Petersik households:)

  22. Looks amazing, Katie! I don’t think it looks too busy and the colors are totally Dr. Suess… as is the tree topper. We did similar colors this year with our decorating for my two year old to keep it fun!

  25. I absolutely LOVE the two last pictures in this post of Weston and Will! They look so perfect! Weston is such a cute baby!

  26. Love, love, love the last photo of Will. (Weston’s a baby, so his photos are always gonna be adorable, so no disrespect meant!) The hoop ornaments turned out wonderfully – love the color combination.

  28. That is a wonderfully creative tree. I am amazed by your ability to pull that together with a newborn and preschooler on hand. Bravo!

  29. What a fun tree! I love it! I’m always so impressed with people who create a whole new look for their tree each year – and even more awesome that you didn’t even buy anything new for it. Merry Christmas to you & your fam!

  30. I have pondered the same thing this year about the lack of twinkle lights all year round, and I’ll be watching for your ideas of adding it into everyday life. I have been brainstorming, b/c they’re just too fabulous especially for yummy bokeh photos!

    Also, I love love the idea of the initial as a tree topper! I my have to borrow that idea next year!

  31. I LOVE this year’s tree!!! I actually love all of them. Also, I love that the past few are centered between two cute chairs with cute pillows. 🙂

  32. What a great tree! I can’t believe you found the time to pull that together with a newborn and toddler at home. Seriously impressive. Looking through all your trees that you posted, this is my favorite – the topper is spectacular! Merry Christmas!

  33. Yeah…he’s leaving it alone now. At first he wanted to be IN it…like crawled under and stood up inside it to turn on the lights…but we had to snip that in the bud (err, cut that in the trunk?)
    xo – kb

  37. The last two photos of your boys are the best .I agree I wish I had a wall of fairy lights up all year long so I could get lots of bokeh photos love them merry Christmas and happy new year from Australia
    Janine

  42. I love this tree. Those colors are absolutely beautiful together. I’m usually not a fan of “non-traditional” toppers (or trees) but I love this. Love Love LOVE this 🙂 just saying.

    Merry Christmas Bower Family!!

  43. I must be hormonal!!!! I’m all teary-eyed after today’s pictures. You’ve been so blessed – not only with beautiful boys, but with such a talent in decorating and photography. Thanks for sharing.

  44. This is the best Christmas tree I’ve seen anywhere this season! I love it! The colors are so perfect. And I’m with you, I love a tree that is loaded full of decorations. On a side note: regarding your “throw up” reference, when my siblings and I were little every time we heard the Twas the Night Before Christmas poem when it got to the “tore open the shutters and threw up the sash” part we would start making barfing sound effects. I’m sure that just made my parents holiday extra jolly! 😉

  46. I love your tree! (all of the past ones too!) And your two boys are so adorable.
    Now onto my request…. I am begging here….. PLEASE show us how you put the ribbon on your tree. I can never get mine to look right and yours looks perfect. Or you can always come to my house and do it for me next year… 🙂

  47. I love the way turquoise and red look together – those are actually the colours on my blog!

    And I just tried doing bokeh for the first time on Christmas. Little heart bokeh… it was so cute! Next time I’ll take a photo of person and have the bokeh in the background like you did. The lighting looks awesome behind Will and Weston in your last two photos – and they look very sweet too! Happy Holidays!

  51. Hi Katie. Merry Christmas from Oz! 🙂 Agree with J…your tree is busy, but it’s also beautiful and Bowerful, and one of the best out there this year. I love it, creative girl! Enjoy new years. heather x

  52. Dear God, woman, you are amazing. I’m lucky that my tree is up with lights this year and I DON’T have a newborn and a toddler, and here you are making handmade themed ornaments. I hope I have half your energy when my first little one arrives in April! Merry Christmas Bowers!

  53. Clearly there is a trend here……this is my favorite “blogoshpere tree” I have seen in the 2012 year. Cool, funky, colorful, AWESOME! How did you round up that much cool stuff from around your house? Happy New Year!

  54. I never do my own theme tree, but I love looking at other people’s — especially yours! This tree is one of my faves. When you posted the ornaments on facebook a couple of weeks ago, Dr. Seuss was the first thing that came to mind! Good work, Lady!

  55. I saw your tree a few days ago and have been thinking about it ever since. It is seriously the cutest most creative tree I’ve ever seen! Well done! It makes me want to rethink how I decorate Christmas trees! Happy New Year!

  56. Gorgeous tree! I’m not a huge Cat in the Hat fan, but I do love any red & turquoise decor. Your topper is excellent and I think when it comes to Christmas tree decorations, more is more. The busier the better, right?!?

  57. I am in absolute love with this tree. It’s so fun and unique. I adore the “crazy and full” style. I tend to like my tree crammed full, as well, though I’ve never had a themed tree. I just fill ‘er up with everything I have and and continue to buy more every year. 😀

    Love the portraits of your adorable kiddos, as well. So cute!

  59. Hi! What were you using as a tree skirt under your 2009 tree? It looks like a great solution to cover the fake tree trunk on an artificial tree.

  60. I love the gold tree a few years back. Please tell me where you got these ornaments??? It is gorgeous!!!

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