Holiday messes

Oh how I love making messes....those that are for a productive end of course. My latest mess is my project on decorations for a team Christmas party coming up this Thursday. Realizing that the location did not give me much to work with (empty gym) on making the room feel warm and cozy, I thought I would do the best with what I did have...tables to dress up.

After a couple weekends of scouring the markets in search of a centerpiece. The prettiest one I found was a simple short bough of garland with some fake snow, pine cones, and berries. Yet the cheapest price for one was 70 kuai....I was determined to do better, since I do have about 8 tables to decorate. I decided to join the Martha Stewart bunch. I went out and bought my own long piece of garland, pine cones, berries, fake snow and hot glue and got to work! A couple hours later, and my house looked like a woodland winter wonderland. Snow covering the floor and garland strewn over every surface. Who needs to go outside now? The scenic view is right in my living room!

Here are some of my documented efforts:

After the garland was cut (thanks to Dave's muscles) all six centerpieces were done! If you can see in the background, I was testing one out with the red tablecloths.

This longer bough is for the food table, so I decided to keep it all in one piece :)

See how my hair is all gross and matted? Thats because I continued my project right when I woke up at 6:00 this morning....determination is a great motivater.

The coolest thing about this whole project is that by doing it this way, I saved SO much money. Normally one centerpiece would have costed 70 kuai, but I made 6 centerpieces and one long bough for less than 100 kuai! I say from now on, putting the work in is worth it...if you have the time.