New York Interior Design: Christmas Tree Garland

I hope that you all had a blessed Thanksgiving yesterday. I am so thankful to all you of my readers who humble me by your visits. Thank you!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving although it started with the house filling with smoke {from an unattended toaster that forgot to shut off} and ended with a trip to the ER for my precious niece who fell of the couch and hit her head on the coffee table. These events served as powerful reminders of all we do have and in whose hand they are held. I have a precious family and it was a blessing to be with them yesterday.

Today I want to share with you a simple garland that I made this year for our Christmas tree and another version for our mantle. In years past I feel like I went way overboard on the Christmas decor to the point that things were in the way and I was so sick of it all by the day Christmas came. This year, I'm keeping it simple and this simple garland is a great touch.

It was made to go along with this year's tree skirt and last years PB knock off pillow.

I started by gathering my leftover felt leaves from the tree skirt. If you want to start from scratch, simply cut leaf shapes out of felt. I found it easier to cut 1-1/2 inch strips of felt to cut my leaves from {I just did these free hand and I like the little bit of randomness that results} so they were all relatively the same height.

You will also need little poms and silver thread. I was saved by a kind cashier at Jo-Ann's from buying the super expensive thread that I had mistakenly picked up. Believe me there is a huge price difference. This is the brand I found and with Jo-Ann's 40% off coupon it was only around $1.70.

With this thread you can use a regular needle to stitch it all together. I found with the poms that it was better not to go directly through their center otherwise they were on the thread really tight and didn't slide as well down my thread. {Poke them slightly off-center}.

Start by weaving in and out through one of your leaves and then just start adding leaves and berries in whatever pattern you wish. I did two different gray colors for some variation. As you add leaves and berries you just keep sliding them down your thread {that you don't cut from your spool until you're done}. If you find it getting long and cumbersome go ahead and tie it off and cut it from your spool leaving a little bit of thread at that end to tie it to the next section you make.

For my mantle I added an aqua leaf. I love the color in this one.

To add a little more color to my tree this year I did a simple crotchet knot to make this one out of yarn in my aqua color. This was simple to do following any of the crocheting tutorials out there and adds a little homey touch to our tree.