Year-Round Joy

...in tree form? Yes, please!
This amazing tree topper (those hot pink feathers!!) is from Target, of all places! My mother, Andrew and I went to the Christkindlmarket here in Chicago, and saw this EXACT ornament for 3x the price I paid. Pure insanity, my friends.

My love for giraffes & hippos is no secret, so when I saw these guys I freaked out. I bought them a Macy's after-Christmas sale for super cheap and they've been sitting wrapped in tissue paper for years! I was so excited to finally rip their price tags off and hang them :)

These crepe paper cuties have been hanging on a small decorative tree in my studio because I could not stand to not see them daily. Andrew got them for me from World Market earlier this year.



All four of these are from the Christkindlmarket too. Andrew and I went last year and bought the feathered bird and white hedgehog. I usually have the bird clipped onto my bobbin winder and the hedgehog hanging from that same decorative Ikea tree (you know the one). The brown hedgehog and the penguin are new from our visit this year. I die every time I look at that penguin! He was labeled "I'm cold!"




The Christkindlmarket is a very German, very sweet, small annual market downtown. Pegged as "A Traditional German American Holiday Market" with vendors that sell everything from gorgeous glass ornaments, to Bratwurst and Leberkäse. It's so cute. I love going and remembering my Christmas in Fulda when I was 16 years old. These ornaments are from our visit this year. Look at that robot!
I was drawn to the abstract cookie cutter(?) shape after seeing the cupcake. The bells/cherries were too sweet, and for about $1/each (at JoAnn), I had to get them both. I actually got my tree there too for 70% off! It pays to wait till the last minute!

That lollipop was the very first ornament I ever bought. I paid full price because I could not handle the cute. She was like $15 at Macy's. I told myself I would wait on buying more from the collection till after the holidays because I was in college and so, soo broke. When I went back THEY. WERE. SOLD. OUT. The entire sugary-sweet-adorable-candy collection was gone. I died.

This dog is so adorable. One of Andrew's friends from high school had a huge holiday party a few years back, and the price of admission was 1 ornament for his 10-FOOT TREE. It was mind-blowingly beautiful. So, we just happened to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo and stop in the gift shop, where we found these great animal ornaments. We bought two dogs, gave one to his friend and kept one for ourselves. He's been wrapped in tissue since 2007! The pink nutcracker is also a last minute JoAnn find.


Annnnd there's our little 4-foot tree in all its glory. I love it so much. All of the silver pine cones, and gold, silver and blue bulbs are from Dollar Tree. I went crazy last year and spent a whopping $20 on ornaments and decorative ribbon! I used the left over bulbs to make the wreath in my Christmas Photo Explosion post. So much fun.