DIY Who-ville Christmas Tree

A year ago I found inspiration from a craft project a friend had done. It was a cute little christmas tree that could have been plucked right out of Who-ville from a Dr. Suess book. This year I decided to recreate this absolutely adorable project. I looked to my usual inspiration spot, Pinterest, but did not find much in the way of DIY instructions. So as we set out to make our who-ville tree last night, in a sort of trial and error way, I decided I would document my approach. 

And so here it is, my attempt at the Who-ville Christmas Tree, Grinch Tree, Dr. Seuss Tree or whatever you want to call it! 

Materials Needed

Cedar Branches (available at any local green house)
Styrofoam cones
floral wire
** a base of some sort for the trees (which I will go into detail about later)
glue gun and glue
scissors
one christmas ball ornament
and any sort of crazy fun decorations you wish to decorate with 
Including but not limited to :
- pipe cleaners
- pom poms
- bows
- bells
- garland
- feathers
the sky is the limit so pick your wackiest decorations and have fun with it.

** for a base we used small christmas boxes, wrapped in yarn. You could also use jars, cans or planter pots. Again use some creativity and create a cute base for your tree. 

Step 1
Making Your Tree
Gather your materials for the tree; cedar branches, styrofoam cone & floral wire.

Trim your branches so that you are using the part with the thickest amount of leaves. At the bottom of the branch the leaves are more sparse and the branch is thicker and harder to work with so trim that part off. Cut one piece of floral wire that will fit around the base of your cone. Next wrap your branches around the cone. and secure with the floral wire. (This part is definitely a two person job)

As you can see the leaves are quite sparse at the bottom of the cone so you may want to cut a few leaves from another branch and place them on the naked spots of the cone and wrap another piece of floral wire around to secure them.  Depending on how big the base is that you are using to put your tree into, you may or may not need to add extra leaves. If the base it tall enough you won't see the bottom of your tree thus eliminating the need to add extra leaves. 

Next you will want to start wrapping your floral wire around and around the tree. Starting at the bottom of the cone and securing one end of the wire, work your way up the tree, around and around, until you get to the tip. You want the wire to flatten all of the leaves making it look like a bundled christmas tree that you would buy from the grocery store. Make sure that you have several wire wraps where you want to create the bend in your tree as the wire is what will help you to shape the tree. 

Step 2

Making Your Base

Making your base. We opted to use square christmas boxes that we covered in yarn and garnished with a bow. But like I mentioned above you can most definitely get creative and use any sort of a base. Planters pots, vases, jars, cans, you name it!
Here is a link to a blogger that created truffula trees (from The Lorax) and I absolutely LOVED the base they used. I think it would make the perfect base for our who-ville trees and fits so well with the Dr. Suess theme.

Next you need to insert your tree in your base and secure it so the tree does not tip over. DISCLAIMER, the trees are very top heavy so make sure you have something to weigh your base down with or you will have a toppling tree. We opted to use rocks but I'm sure anything would work as long as it is heavy enough. 

Step 3
Decorating your Tree
This is the most exciting part. My kids loved picking out their feathers and pom poms and gluing them on! We used a hot glue gun to attach all of our trinkets (so I guess adult supervision required). Once you are finished don't forget to add your one dangling christmas ball ornament from the tip of the tree to give it that authentic Dr. Seuss feel!

We love how our trees turned out, they were so much fun to make and they are a wonderful Christmas decoration in our house. We have no idea how long they will last but I will update you once they have "served their purpose". We watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas while we made our lovely little trees and it was a perfect holiday tradition born into our family this year!

Here's to hoping I've inspired you to attempt and little tree of your own, and if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment below!

Blue or Pink?

For Baby #2 we decided on no baby shower as we were spoiled enough with Alexander. We will most likely do some sort of "meet the baby party" but because my friends like to host gatherings and parties so much we decided to do a "Gender Reveal". Once we found out the sex of the baby my friends put together a little party. Guests were to come to the party wearing the colour (blue or pink) of the sex they thought the baby was. To announce the gender I had a cake made (by a wonderful cake maker who always makes the best cakes for us) and the inside of the cake was coloured to correspond with the baby's sex.

And it's going to be a....

First Birthday

Well Alexander is officially a big boy. He turned one last Thursday and we had a super fun Birthday Party for him this weekend with friends and family. As usual I went to town on decorations since that is one of my true loves! I had planned to have the party outside since that is the point of having a summer baby right? But unfortunately the weather did not cooperate so we were forced inside. It still turned out great and the weather smartened up throughout the party so we had some people in and some people out! I wanted to keep it really simple for his first birthday so I stuck with a theme of blue and green. We did a hotdog and hamburger barbecue and had chips, pop, veggies and fruit! It was a big party in terms of the guest list but I think it will only be like that for his first birthday! Anyway here are some photos of the house all done up!

the candy and present table

On this table we had the treat bags, birthday cake, 

candy buffet and birthday presents underneath.

the food table

                                                          Chips, dip, buns and condiments

the drink table

Our drink table with pop, water and ice. 

As well as veggies and fruit

custom water bottles 

I made these water bottles myself and they were super easy! scrapbook paper and labels printed from Avery! I highly suggest making your own if you want to add a special look to your water bottles.

First Birthday Cake

Candy Buffet Sign

No party is complete without a candy buffet. 

As a party favour each guest was given a bag to fill with treats for after the party!

Treat Bags for Al's friends

Fun treat bags for Al's little friends. The bags were actually 

sand pails and included shovels, bubbles, chalk and a mini sun screen!

Ive been told by several mommies that no one likes

the dollar store crap in their loot bags, it just piles up in your house.

We started the party at 3:00 and left it up to everyone to decide when they were ready to leave! We wanted it to be fun and relaxed. Although we had intended on having outdoor games and a fire we didn't quite get to them as the rain and mosquito combination were a bit deadly. Sandy was glued to the BBQ all night and after burgers and weenies were finished we opened presents and followed up with cake. I had a beautiful cake made by Teresa's Custom Cakes (she had done Sandy's cake for his 30th as well) and bought litters of DairyQueen soft serve ice cream to go with the cake. It was delicious, Al definitely thought so as well!

The aunties

Family Picture with our one year old

Grandma

New tractor from Grandma and Grandpa

Al's Friends

Trying out some presents

Carharts from Daddy

Birthday Cake

Al and his Girlfriend

Thanks to all my friends and family for their help with during the party and cleaning up afterward! It was a great first Birthday party and we definitely had fun playing with all his new presents the next day. 

Mud Hero

Mud Hero Obstacle Course Run

6 km course

15 natural and man made obstacles

Clean and beautiful before the race

Some muddy best buddies

Our Mud Hero team

Baby Shower

This weekend was a very exciting event! Myself and a good friend of my sister-in-laws got to host a baby shower for my nephew and sister-in-law. I love to craft, decorate and plan so putting together this baby shower was super fun! I think she was really impressed with the decor, food and games we had planned so I would say it was a total success! Plus now that it is over my craft room is only half full (with Al's birthday party decor and food still piling up). 

The welcome table

Banana guessing game

 Picture frame mat for guests to put their well wishes for baby and mom

Envelopes for each guest to write out their name and address on. Makes it easier for mom to write out thank you cards, with pre-addressed envelopes to each of her guests

Box of favours for each guest to take on the way out

Box of Favors

In keeping with our monkey theme each guest received a bag of candy bananas as a thank you for attending the shower

Shower Game

Each guest put in one guess as to how many bananas were in the jar. And yes I counted every single one of those 1450 bananas.

Gift Table 

We took this picture before any guests had arrived. By the end of the shower this table was heaping with gifts for a very deserving mommy and baby.

Candy Buffet and Diaper Cake

Our candy buffet consisted of candy bananas, marshmallow bananas, yellow and brown reese's pieces, chocolate gummy monkeys, gummy bananas, and yellow and green jelly beans. Yum

Diaper Cake

Treena and I worked on the diaper cake together. We found a tutorial on youtube how to make it. It was very easy, basically roll each diaper and wrap an elastic band around it. When you have several rolled diapers, assemble them in a circle and put another elastic band around the collection of rolled diapers. Continue doing so until you have the desired size of diaper cake tier. No glue required so the diapers are usable afterward. After all that is the purpose of a diaper cake! We attached bows and ribbon using bobby pins to hold them in place. We chose to use size 5 diapers for the base, size 4 diapers for the second tier and size 3 diapers for the top tier. 

Monkey Cake

In keeping with our theme Treena produced a fabulous monkey cake!

Present Time

We also played a few other games but we kept it very simple. We wanted the shower to be relaxing and enjoyable and not have to follow a strict schedule. We played a baby picture guessing game. I had printed baby pictures of twelve guests in attendance at the shower and the game was to try and guess which baby picture belonged to which guest. It was definitely the hit of the shower in terms of games. The other game we played was a trivia game about mommy and daddy. It was fun but definitely challenging. I was hoping to bring together the two sides of the family and help each other get to know the other side of the family better. Hindsight I would make the quiz multiple choice as it was a little tough! We had another game to play but completely forgot about it. We made a tray of ice cubes with each cube containing a toy baby. The game was to see who's baby would break free of the ice cube or "break their water" first! But in all the commotion we totally forgot those poor babies in the freezer. Ah next time!

As usual we had a ton of food and everyone had a great time! Pinterest was definitely the source of a lot of inspiration for our games, food and decor! If you have any questions about our decorations or ideas feel free to send me a message! Now my friends need to hurry up and have babies so I can plan more showers!

Sinister 7

                                             Sinister 7 Ultra Marathon + Relay

148km course 

5,250m elevation gain 

27 hours

7 Wonderz the day before the race

7 Wonderz at the Start Line

7 Wonderz at the Finish Line

Mom and I after I completed leg 1

Mom and I after she completed leg 3

Catching Up

Yikes it has been a while since my last update. We have been ridiculously busy and a lot has happened in the last month. We last left off on our Girls Day Tea Party. The following week I finally got a golf lesson in! After three consecutive weeks of my golf instructor cancelling our lessons I decided to get a refund and go somewhere else. My Father-in-law set me up with a pro at his golf club and my Mother-in-law joined me for a semi private lesson. It was great! He helped me with all the mechanics of my swing and I could see a difference right away. A few days later Aunty Chantelle and Aunty Elyse babysat for us so that Sandy and I could have a quick date at the driving range to test out my newly acquired skills.


That weekend was Sandy's first Father's day which we spent going for brunch with the McLarens. It was a nice day together as a family. Later that week we continued to train hard for the ultra marathon quickly approaching. On Saturday Alexander attended his first Birthday Party for Wyatt, followed by my Dads 50th Birthday Party, followed by Chantelle's Baptism. It was a very full, very fun day. 

Chantelle's Baptism

The last week of June was spent planning my Sister-in-laws baby shower and getting ready for camping on July long weekend. The day before we left the little bundle of joy arrived for my sister-in-law. On Thursday June 28 at 5:00pm weighing exactly the same as Alexander at 5 pounds 11 ounces and 17 inches long, Ejay McLaren was born. It was a very exciting day, especially coming from a perspective other than the mommy! I am definitely a proud Aunty

Baby Ejay with Aunty and Uncle

The day after we got to meet Ejay we set off on our Camping Trip for the Canada Day long weekend. We went to Banff which was a little chilly but we had a fun weekend regardless of the weather.

At the hot springs with Daddy wearing a skirt

Out for a mountain bike ride

10 months later, both of us seem to have changed! 

When we got home it was crunch time. We had three days until Sinister 7.

The week was filled with lots of packing and organizing. Alexander also had his first day at DayHome as I started back to work at Sandy's Company. Just one day a week for about 4 or 5 hours but it is still a big step for me and my little man!