Friday Finds and a White Christmas Tree

The kids are back in school this week and I'm relieved.
I took down all the Christmas stuff on Monday; however, the majority of my finds are Christmas related.
It is what it is....

Found this white Christmas tree a couple weeks ago in December at one of my local thrift stores for $12.46 on one of their 50% off day sales.  I checked on white trees at our local Menards store and they were selling one the same size for $99 or pre-lit for $149.  Woohoo!!  I'll take my $12.46 tree thank you very much.  It is a 6 footer and although I don't want to use it every year, I want to try it once in awhile--next year for sure--you know, change it up a bit at our house.  And for that price I can store 2 trees and decide what mood I'm in for that particular year.

After bringing it home I discovered that the pre-lit lights we're all blown out.
I didn't really care, because I may be putting colored lights on it anyway.

White lights should not look black.  The entire strands over the entire tree were like this. I'm not opposed to buying replacement bulbs, but with ALL of them blown it was not cost effective.  They had to come off.  I have to say that pre-lit trees are great UNTIL something happens with the lights.  Then they are a royal pain in the backside.  This is the second pre-lit tree that I've taken off the lights and it is a not a quick job. Those workers who attach the lights to pre-lit trees do an A+  job of making sure they won't come off--practically E.V.E.R.

An hour and a half later, and after getting out the wire cutters five minutes into this project, this is what was left of the burnt out lights.  Bye-bye!  So glad that I took care of this now.  That way I can just pull it out and decorate for next season.

A couple other finds that I've scored over the past couple weeks.

Wire chicken basket and wooden eggs for $4.50.


I actually bought this for the cool wooden eggs--thinking to Easter upcoming.  The poor chicken had a broken leg--one leg hanging loose by some wire.  I tried to fix it so she could stand up but couldn't get it quite right.  She still kept falling over, especially when I put the eggs inside her--a little bottom heavy.  So we did a little surgery and both legs came off and now she roosts up on my cornice in the dining room.  I still may just use the eggs come Easter, but for now I like her up there.



8 pack of star cookie cutters, still with tags on them, for 96 cents that I am going to use as ornaments for the white tree.  I may or may not spray paint them a different color.


Various strands of white corded lights for the white tree--all less than $2 each.  One in particular for 96 cents that has colored lights and 16 different lighting combos (i.e. slo-glow, chasers, etc.)  LOVE it!!  I might have to be on the hunt for another one of those somewhere.

PEACE brass stocking holders for $3.

I just saw them before Christmas at Target retailing for $30 for the set of 5.  We've never had a place to hang stockings before, but with our new (Craigslist) entertainment unit (see first pic) we were able to use that this year and the kids were thrilled.  I now may have to make new stockings since the other ones were just whatever stockings that only came out on Christmas Eve.

A wooden stable for one of my nativities for $4.45.



A cool tall (16 inches) wicker pumpkin for $2.47 to go with my other twiggy pumpkin.



And lest you think I'm becoming a hoarder, here's the pile that left my house last week to go to the DAV. (I just love charity/donation pick ups at your home).  And that is besides the couple things we've sold recently on Craigslist.

See, I do like change....along with a good dose of order among the chaos.