Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

Since we knew our stay here in Texas would be temporary, we decided not to unpack a lot of the things we would not use. Partly to save ourselves the trouble since we'd be moving again in five months and partly because we are staying in a very small apartment and we just don't have the space here for all of our things. So unfortunately, our traditional Christmas decorations were inaccessible this year. But that only gave us the opportunity to get creative and do something a little different.

I have had Anna Maria Horner's tutorial on how to make a colorful felt garland bookmarked for years, literally years.  We usually do a red tree with all of our memory ornaments, but this year was my chance to get colorful and once again I felt inspired by that felt garland.

 

Only, I didn't have any felt, so I crocheted my own version instead. During our recent trip to FL, we were in the car for five full days, and it took just about that long to crochet 40 feet worth of garland. After seeing it on the tree though, I'd say it was well worth it. I honestly think I'll have a hard time going back to my traditional red tree after embracing bright colors this year. I just love it!

Since our tree skirt was also packed away, I whipped one up a small white one (shown above under our tree) using Teal and Lime's great tutorial for a ruched look.

Here is the Teal and Lime skirt I used as inspiration. She used a round tablecloth, but I decided just to work with some old white flannel I had lying around. It was a quick and easy little project and I think it turned out pretty cute. Isn't hers gorgeous though?

 

The best part about all of the decorating I did this year was that it was FREE. I had all of the yarn already and I also had the flannel for the skirt too. You can't beat free!

If you're interested in trying to make this garland yourself, it was unbelievably easy, just tedious! 

Here's the quick how to:

Round 1: Using a size 5.00mm (H) hook, make a magic ring then dc 12.  Slip stitch together.

Round 2: Chain 3 then dc in same stitch. 2 dc in the next 5 stitches. (After you have finished half of round 2,  you can slip stitch into the edge of your previous circle to join as you go). Then continue adding 2 dc into the remaining six stitches. Slip stitch and finish off! 

Easy peasy. It's much easier to join as you go, but you can of course join the circles together at the end. Each circle measures aprroximately two inches. It took almost 250 circles to complete 40 ft worth of garland.

Merry Christmas, and enjoy!