Getting started on my Michaels Dream Tree Challenge #JustAddMichaels

A couple of weeks ago, my husband calls and asks, “Ummm… Why is there a Christmas tree on our front porch?”  It seems that I forgot to tell him that I’ll be doing the Michaels Dream Tree Challenge this year.

It’s a 7 foot pre-lit tree, so I can understand him being a little freaked out over its arrival.  🙂

For the Dream Tree Challenge, Michaels provides bloggers with a tree and a gift card to purchase ornaments and supplies to decorate it up.

As it is, we put out 4 Christmas trees every year.  Now we’ve got another one to add to our mix!  I think I just became The Crazy Christmas Tree Lady.  Ha!  Seriously, though, decorating Christmas trees just makes me happy.  The possibilities are wide open for theme and color, and each tree ends up with its own personality.

So last night I took a friend with me to Michaels to get my inspiration and buy my first round of decorations.  If I’m The Crazy Christmas Tree Lady, my friend Rhiannon is The Queen of Glitter.  (This summer she actually went to the doctor with a glitter injury.  No kidding!!)

No surprise then, that we ended up oohing and ahhing over all the sparkly, glittery decorations they have at Michaels!!  My plan was to take photos of us in the store, but we got a little high on the sparkle and forgot.  We jumped from one aisle to another, pawing through all the garlands and picks and ornaments that could end up on my Dream Tree.

Here’s a Christmas decoration shopping tip:  If you want an idea of how an ornament, garland, or pick will look when it’s actually on your tree, take it over to the aisle where they sell the trees. You can audition your pieces on the display trees.

I’m waiting until I’ve got it all put together to give you all the detail on my theme.  But here’s a little sneak peek of what I came home with.

This is the first round of decorations for my tree.   I tend to decorate trees in stages because it’s hard to tell exactly how everything is going to look until you get some stuff on the tree.  I start with my inspiration pieces and then fill in around them.  Luckily, my Michaels store is just 10 minutes from my house.  I have a feeling I’ll be making a lot of trips there in the next few weeks as I get my Dream Tree set up.

Disclosure: Michaels provided a Christmas tree and $500 gift card for me to participate in their Dream Tree Challenge.  Any opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.