Must be something it the air! I have three hosta this season that are doing this. Wonder if it was the crazy different winter we had ! Pieter .Thanks for the information Sounds kind of exciting to have something different and never had to buy it

Sheesharee said: I'm trying to grasp putting the ornaments in the middle section. If you don't have enough to fill wouldn't it look like the color is just in the middle? I don't think I'm explaining this right. I don't think your trees look like there's vertical color in the middle. It's all well balanced. Back to Me: I will try to explain it better, sorry, so much easier to show someone in person LOL. OK, what I ment was you would put a large amount of the plain gold balls (in this case) in the internal part of the tree. You can place them sporadically inside the tree making sure though you start at the inside (where the trunk is) with the plain gold balls. Let me make this part more clear with what I deal with. Primary decorative ornaments I want to be able to see easily: Primary tree decorations. The pretty red decorative balls. The crystal drops. The glass icicles. The silk flowers,in this case red(this is something I choose to use) Secondary: The plain inexpensive gold balls. These are ment primarily for the inside "stuffing of the tree", BUT, some are used in a much smaller amount on the outside areas of the tree (parts you can see) for bringing in the gold ball as a SMALL ACCENT. So in answer to your question you would be treating your plain balls as a filler and tiny accent, NOT as the primary decoration. You would be using the PRIMAIRY balls on the outside, icicles, crystal drops, silk flowers. So that means you would buy 100 or so of the cheap balls for the inside and small outside accents. You would then be buying the PRIMARY balls, crystals, icicles in much larger amounts (I use at least a total of 300-500 of these primary items) Now my DD doesn't like as much as an over kill tree as me (although anyone coming to her home and seeing her tree is just in awe of it) So she uses the same items as I do basicly, but cuts the amount of ornament down to about HALF of what I do, and I think her tree is very beautiful. Now, I am just explaining how I decorate a tree, it doesn't mean that it is everyone elses taste. In the evolution of your tree you will come to the realization of what is best for you. My tree that I am doing this year was an evolving process, it took me quite a few years to get where I am, that is because since I am not wealthy, I have to do it a little bit at a time every year. I am happy to say, that I don't think I have to buy any more for the cream, crystal, and gold tree. Thank goodness! LOL Oh, yes, and as a bonus I can used the glass icicles and crystals with any color theme of tree, they fit right on in, so that saves me money too. This is an example of my cream color theme on some stacking plates. Does that make more sense?

Thank you, thank you so much for all the wonderful comments. They are truly appreciated! I was at the mall yesterday and was looking at some of the ornaments and was very happy for the bargain I was able to get at the dollar stores. I just dollar store hop. LOL Some of my coworkers were talking about tree decorations and I suggested the dollar stores and they laughed. That is until they saw the tree. LOL The livingroom was a long process due to stupid furniture stores. I am very happy with the way it turned out though. Well worth the aggrevation. I got some great ideas on placement over in the Home Decorating forum. It is very comfy and cozy. I saw those curtains and just had to have them. I started off with just the dark brown panels but then went back for the lighter color. The beads really help it tie in with the furniture.

Lara - I made the giant peppermints last year. They were very fun & easy to make. Here's how: I purchased several round/flat styrofoam disks and printed off the attached template and I might have enlarged it (can't remember). Place template over the styrofoam and trace pattern onto the styrofoam with an ink pen - making sure to press through so the marks are on the styrofoam. I used red fabric paint in a bottle and followed the lines and filled in with the red making sure to alternate the red with the white from the styrofoam to give it the peppermint effect. I also came down the sides with the paint. Optional - you can sprinkle glitter in the wet paint. Depending on how you are going to use them, you might also want to paint the backside as well. You have to play around with the placement of the template so that the two sides match up. Once the paint is dry, cut clear cellophane and leave enough on the ends to "tie" like candy. Some of mine, I made to look like lollipops by sticking a wooden dowel in one end. For the red stripe on the dowel, I used red shiny curling ribbon and glued it to the dowel. Hope that makes sense - I do not do well with giving instructions..... Dawn