by Wendy Scheel | Dec 7, 2015 | Life
What a difference a week makes.
All of our snow melted this weekend. With temperatures in the 40’s, snow doesn’t stand a chance. It looks and feels like late October instead of 18 days before Christmas.
A snow in December is the visual reminder for me that Christmas is coming.
Listening to excited little voices as they run thru a Christmas tree lot is music to my ears. So many little faces filled with excitement and the magic of the season as they search for the perfect Christmas tree.
I have the best job at the tree lot. While the others work in all degrees of weather, lifting, cutting and strapping trees on top of vehicles, I work in the warm hut where everyone comes to pay for their tree. I get to hand out coloring books and candy canes too.
Every family had a story to share with me as they came in to the little red hut to pay for their perfect Christmas tree.
Most customers have been coming to this same location for years and years. Many are now continuing the tree hunt tradition from their childhood with their own families.
My favorite story happened this past weekend when a father and his 3 year-old son were paying for a tree.
I quietly asked the father if I could offer his little boy a candy cane. He nodded his head yes. So I grabbed the full bucket of candy canes and asked his son if he would like a candy cane. Very energetically he yelled, “YES!!!” He instantly threw his hand into the bucket and grabbed one. He was so excited, you would’ve thought I gave him the winning lottery numbers.
His Dad then stopped and asked him, like all parents do, “What do you say?”
A pair of the cutest twinkling blue eyes looked up at his Dad and then turned to me and said,
“Can I have two?”
Best. Answer. Ever.
See you on Wednesday,
Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Dec 5, 2015 | Sidenote Saturday
Happy Saturday!
Do you realize that in only three short weekends, Christmas 2015 will be in the history books. Time flies when you’re having fun!
I am back at the tree lot this weekend helping customers find the perfect tree for their home!
Okay, that’s my perfect tree and it’s fake but yea, it’s perfect for us. 🙂
The real tree lot will be so busy this weekend! The smell of pine never gets old.
The welcomed heat in my little shack office is loved and expressed by all!
There are new trees delivered every night and the little tree elves unload, organize and display all of them for the next round of Perfect Tree Hunters.
Housekeeping Tidbits:
Thank you to all that have subscribed to Old Lake George! It warms my heart that we get to connect!
When you subscribe, you will receive a code for 10% off any orders placed in the Old Lake George shop. If you haven’t seen the code or are not getting a notification when I have a new post, please check your “junk” email box.
Also, I typically post on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. But sometimes I toss in extra posts because I am not good at being patient. 🙂
Happy Tree Hunting!
See you on Monday,
Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Dec 4, 2015 | Home Tour
With so much sad news in the world this week, I would like to just be quiet and share with you some happy, stress free photos.
Sometimes it’s the little things in life that make all the difference.
And on that same train of thought, sometimes it is the little décor items that pull everything together and produce the warm and fuzzy feelings of the holidays.
Among the big Christmas décor items, The Tree and The Stockings, I love to add smaller areas of décor that you might not notice until you come to our house the second or third time.
So let’s look around.
When you walk through the front door, Santa greets you.
A few more feet into the living room and the decorated fireplace mantel welcomes our family and guests.
A little holiday spirit reaches between the big windows and then finds a place to land on our wicker trunk coffee table and the end table by the couch.
The dining room windows also display a little joy, not to be outshined by the quilted table runner held down by some flocked trees.
Besides the smaller Christmas tree in between the dining room and kitchen that holds all of the ornaments we have collected through the years, there is a story of decorations on the granite counter top and a final display of festive cheer on the island.
Today is a day for pictures, not so many words.
See you tomorrow,
Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Dec 2, 2015 | DIY
Thanks to everyone for sharing the love about the blogs new look!
Spencer is the mastermind behind it all. I get to sit back in awe and watch him work his magic and I am thrilled with everything he has created!
Moving on.
The other day I shared a couple of quick little hacks I borrowed from my HGTV magazine. I have one more that I would like to share and it is soooooo cool, soooooo simple and soooooo trendy!
Here is the HGTV magazine I referenced before. And here is the Pier 1 page.
Scroll back up and look a little closer at the base of the Christmas Tree. See the basket? A basket instead of a traditional tree shirt? Hmmmm.
I have a cute tree skirt we have used for years, but I figured, lets try something new this year.
First I roughly measured the width of my tree stand and how far it was from the floor to the lowest branch on the tree.
I needed at least a 17 inch wide basket that was a minimum of 7 inches deep.
I grabbed my 60% off coupon from JoAnn’s and headed into town.
They had a large selection to choose from and after a few minutes I found the perfect basket to use and it was about $9. If my idea failed, no one would go hungry around here. 🙂
I only needed three simple tools to get started.
- Scissors
- Fishing Line
- Needle
Two inches of the center of the bottom of the basket needed to be removed. I made some big looping stitches from about 2 inches out from the center incase the basket were to unravel. I also cut from the top edge of the basket to the bottom center.
Since the basket was so tightly woven, I cut out a pie sliced shape so I could get it around the base of the tree.
Then it was just a matter of slipping the basket under the tree.
A little side by side before and after:
What do you think? Team tree skirt or Team tree basket?
See you Friday,
Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Dec 1, 2015 | Life
Happy December!
We are in the middle of our first snow storm of the season. This is very late into winter for Minnesota not receiving a measurable snowfall. Today will make up for that. 3-7 white flakey inches are forecasted and as it looks right now, I think we will be more in the 7 inch zone.
The first snowfall is always so pretty and clean and festive.
The timing of the storm is not the greatest for those people commuting to work. But the timing of the storm for making memories and cutting down a fresh Christmas Tree, is picture perfect.
Now for those of us that do not particularly like to go out into the freezing cold to cut a fresh tree, we go to tree lots.
Memories can be made at tree lots. Pre-cut trees make good stories too.
In fact, I have a lot of great memories as a child when my sisters and I would run from a perfectly warm car to pick out a tree. We would run to the nearest tree on the lot and run back to the car to explain that that was the tree we wanted. My parents had such good intentions. 🙂
If I were to have selected a tree from a lot or cut it down myself, this past weekend was the time to do it. We had mid to upper 30 degree weather and very little wind.
Stop. Stop. Stop.
Who am I kidding? I still wouldn’t have enjoyed a tree lot or hunting for the perfect fresh cut tree. In the 25 years Wade and I have been married I think we maybe have had 5 real trees.
For Samantha’s first Christmas we bought a live tree and then planted it after the holiday in the yard beside the driveway. It has lived happily ever after at that house. Make a memory about Christmas trees. Check.
Now we have a pretty fake pre-light tree. My Dad actually wrapped all of the branches with white lights. He was so ahead of the times.
Last weekend I got my fill of the Christmas tree lot option.
Jack and I once again worked together (Remember our Minnesota State Fair adventure?) but this time we were helping with Christmas trees sales, not Pronto Pups.
You know when you finally find the perfect tree and get to go into the little “house” to pay and get a candy can? That person inside that snuggly warm house was me!
I ran from my warm car to the warm little house. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
See you tomorrow,
Wendy
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