The pattern for these ornaments came from Artsy Crafty Babe:
The tree itself was a bit of an adventure. Two Sundays ago we stood in a muddy field in the rain and picked what I thought was a perfectly modest tree and brought it home. We arrived exhausted and too late to put it up that night, so we left it on the floor. The next night Mr. Beadgirl came home very late, and woke me up in the middle of the night to help put the tree in its stand. And that's when we noticed how enormous it was, now that it was in a living room and not the great outdoors. It was so big we could not put it where we normally do, and so left it in the middle of the room.
Two days later I reconfigured the furniture to find a spot for it and Mr. Beadgirl moved it into place. Only it was tilted in its stand -- every time Mr. Beadgirl adjusted it, it slowly shifted back. The last straw was Friday, when I spent the morning putting the lights on in anticipation of the tree-trimming party we were having the next day. The tree began leaning quite dramatically, making me nervous. And then the stand broke, and water started leaking out all over our wooden floors. I unplugged the lights and mopped up as best I could, then went out to find a new tree stand. I came home in time to watch the tree slowly fall over. The top came to rest on a radiator, which managed to keep the trunk parallel to the floor, so with a little grunting and swearing I got the old stand off and the new one on. Then with a great deal of grunting and swearing I managed to get the tree upright. I don't know how, given it was almost twice my height and incredibly heavy, but I have the scratches to prove it, all over my arms and torso. I spent the rest of the day smelling like pine sap.
The tree is now stable and secure in its new stand, and nicely decorated with all my childhood and handmade ornaments. It is also still crooked, but screw it -- I'm not going near it again.
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