Small Christmas tree

This year we bought a wee (artificial) tree, just 2 feet tall which is the perfect size for our little home. I waited until the beginning of December to decorate it, since November just seemed too early. And I decided in a madcap flash of inspiration that the colour scheme would be red and white.

In previous years I've bought little potted trees, but I never did seem to be able to plant them, so they would linger along for a few months (which is actually quite nice in the wintertime) but then start to look sadder and sadder and eventually die. So it seemed perfect when I found this little artificial one in a Queen West furniture shop (and for only $11.50). It looks quite real, and the branches have wire inside so you can adjust them.

When it comes to miniature trees I like the ornaments to be proportional in size. The first thing I found was a box of red glass balls. Then I gathered up all the little red and white ornaments I had from previous years and added the red bird for the top. At that point I found some little pinecones I had gathered up sometime last year (where? when?) and knew I had found the perfect finishing touch. So this is my Christmas decorating "how to" for this year.

I've been doing a lot of painting lately so I had this little container of white paint. Debbie Travis sells them at Canadian Tire so you can try out her paint colours. Such a great idea, and even better they have little brushes attached to the lid. So the first step is to just brush paint along the outside of the cone so that it looks like snow.
Then the second step is to hot glue gold thread to the top so that you can hang the ornament.
Here's a close-up. I even think the hot glue looks a bit like sap so it doesn't look bad at all!
And that's it! I love our tree this year.