is your 5 year old daughter looks at you like you've lost your mind and incredulously says, "Mommy. . .you bought 2 tree with no leaves??
In deciding how I wanted to decorate our mantle for Christmas I started with Pinterest. Pinterest is a great resource in looking for inspiration - you can search for ANYTHING and chances are it has been pinned. After combing through pin after pin I was determined recreate THIS PICTURE from Centsational Girl's 2012 Holiday Home Tour. I thought the branches would be perfect to anchor the mirror on my mantle and I set about to make it happen.
Did you know branches are the latest trend in wedding centerpieces? Well I did not until I googled "DIY Branch" and came upon a plethora of ideas. My search led me to Blooms & Branches where I found myself purchasing 2 Sandblasted Manzanita Branches.
A big box showed up at my doorstep and the branches were perfectly packed and in great condition.
I will admit that once I saw the branches my first thought was, "What am I going to do with these?
They were huge and leggy - just what you would expect branches to be but they looked NOTHING like THIS PICTURE. The base was also too big for the container I planned to use on the mantle:
At this point I started to think I've made a huge mistake and see if Blooms & Branches has a return policy.
The lesson in all this is you can never recreate exactly what you see on Pinterest and if you try you may just find yourself with 2 large tree branches wondering what to do. I did manage to make it work and you'll have to stay tuned in how I did it. Hint: the branches never made it to the mantle
