DIY All Seasons Tree

It's been another busy week at our house.  I wish I could say that we have a nice relaxing weekend planned, but instead we'll be spending most of tomorrow outside reworking our front landscaping, and on Sunday I'll be up at the crack of dawn to compete in a duathalon race.  The race consists of running 2.4 miles, biking 13.5 miles then running another 2.4 miles.  Yikes!  Joe and I won't get to see our dads on Father's day, but we hope that they and all you other dads have a great day this Sunday!

One thing that I did complete this week was making some little decorations to hang on the "all seasons" tree that I made several months ago.  I made it back in January and so far it has been decorated for Valentine's day, Easter and now for summer.  It was pretty simple to make and I've kept it out on our dining room table when it is decorated.  I'm hoping to keep up with the decorating for various seasons this year and then hanging on to those decorations that I make so I can reuse them next year.  I did snap a few pictures when I made the tree in hopes of putting them on the blog that I hadn't even created yet :)  Here's how to make an "All Seasons" tree.

Start by chopping a few small branches down from a tree in your yard, or your neighbors yard if your trees don't have nice branches.  Then if you want you can give them a quick coat of spray paint.  I lightly coated them with a couple colors of metallic paint, but I didn't try to hard to get them completely covered.

Next you need to get a small box and find something to fill it with to weigh it down.  What I did was put a few handfuls of rocks from under our porch into the box so that it wouldn't tip over once the sticks were attached.  Then I used an x-acto knife to cut slits where I wanted the sticks to go.  I attached the sticks one at a time by wiggling them into the box, then applying some hot glue around the stick where it met the box.  I used A LOT of hot glue.  The hardest part is waiting for the hot glue to dry enough so that the stick stays up on it's own.  At some point I got tired of waiting and used some duct tape to hold them in place while the glue dried.  Yes, I am incredibly impatient.

Once all the sticks are in place and the glue is dried, you're ready to decorate!  I have a couple of large bowls that I like to use for the tree.  The box is small enough to sit below the edge of the bowl, then I use some fabric or Easter grass to fill the bowl and hide the box.  For Valentine's day I made some little heart ornaments in different sizes.  For Easter (sorry, no pictures!), I hung some bright yarn balls from the tree and placed my tie-dyed Easter eggs around the base of the tree in the Easter grass.

The tree sat empty for the last month or so and I finally decided to make something summery for it.  All I could think to make were some origami paper cranes and some polka dot curly cues. It could probably use a few more ornaments, but at least it isn't bare anymore!

There are 4 cranes, but the 2 gray ones seem to be hidden.

After tomorrow I'll be able to show you all another tree project Joe and I are working on.  It's a much bigger tree though :)  Again I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a great Father's day!