Copycat Ruffled Plaid Trees + A Special Surprise!

Aren't these just adorable?! I came across a site called Mad In Crafts and saw these cute ruffled plaid trees. I emailed the link to my friend Misty who is a whiz with her sewing machine. I asked her if she would make them for me. I can sew and probably could have made them myself, but that would have involved finding room to start yet another craft. Besides she has tons of material and she could probably ruffle the fabric faster than I could set up my sewing machine. I sent her the Styrofoam cones and she sent me photos of plaid fabric to choose from. Of course I picked the red and green. Since I love black and she had that great black plaid I went with that. I love them and now they've been added to my Christmas Tree collection! 

Misty creates headbands from recycled t-shirts. Check out her Facebook page and her Etsy store.

Now for my surprise!

Misty emailed me and said she included a surprise in my box. She calls it a "Survival Chicken". Here's was she said about it:

"Good for body and mind. If you're starving he's filled with rice, feeling low he's cute enough to make you smile, stressed just squeeze/ring his neck and if you're mad you can throw him and probably not break anything."

He may not look like much to you, but she made him out of one of my husband's shirts! For those of you that don't know, my husband passed away this past July. Since Misty recycles things into awesome craft items I let her go through all of Steve's shirts and t-shirts to see what she might be able to use for her headbands and for stuffed animals and other items she creates.

I have a mini urn of Steve's ashes and I have it sitting on a radio that was on his desk. I'm going to set this chicken right beside the urn. Wasn't that a cool thing for her to make and give me?

I love small Christmas trees. Yesterday I stopped into Goodwill looking for something that I need for a project. Of course I didn't find what I went there for, but I found two trees! They were both brand new and price wise I couldn't resist them. This one cost me $4.99.

This one was only $8.99. I like them both and they will be prefect with the other ones I have. They may be the only decorations besides the two wreaths I made that I put out this year. I haven't decided if I want to pull all the decorations and tree out yet. Every year Steve liked putting the tree up early, sometimes even on Thanksgiving. I just don't know yet if I'm even up to doing this. I was thinking of maybe just getting all my small trees out. We'll see. I've been known to say one thing and turn around and do the opposite.

Thanks for stopping by!