Orlando's Festival of Trees Part 2: Mini-Trees, Wreaths, & THAT'S NOT DAVID BOWIE

I thought it might be awkward to bounce back and forth from our Labyrinth Christmas party stuff to Festival of Trees again, but lucky for me I found the perfect segue in the Festival gift shop:

I can hear the marketing director now: "We need an ornament that is almost, but not entirely, exactly unlike David Bowie."

Also now I want to start a Holiday Wrecks blog. The mascot would be a T-rex in a Santa hat, and this would be my first post. 

Quick, someone slap some sense into me.

Plus I'm happy to report there are no more wrecks in THIS post, because I have so many more Festival favorites to show you:

Starting with some frosted Frozen vibes in Arendelle Aqua!

I liked the wreath behind it even more than the tree:

This has a subtle nautical touch, and I loooove the copper patina ship wheels and creamy gray foliage:

GORGEOUS.

Because we're in Florida, of course we had a Jimmy Buffet inspired tree, ha:

So fun! Flip-flops on the tree skirt, and then Santa in a grass skirt:

The ornaments were all drinks and parrots and cute turtles, including a few from Margaritaville. just fabulous, happy stuff.

The topper on this mini tree reminds me of tentacles - anyone else see it?

I'm sure that's not what they were going for, but if you had an undersea theme going it would be perfect!

Another interesting topper: they set a wreath down in the top of the tree so it looked like a holiday nest for the owl!

Isn't that clever? I want to experiment with using small wreaths for tree toppers now.

The name for this wreath was just "Shoes for the Holidays" - but you KNOW what song it was inspired by, right?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Dang that's a pretty wreath, though.

(If you're lost, this will explain everything. And probably make you laugh.)

More pretty tree close-ups incoming!

This ballerina-themed mini-tree had some of my favorite details:

The little watercolor paintings!

And this mouse cookie!

Then there was a pirate themed tree with the prettiest "treasure" ornaments;

You can click any of these to embiggen, btw.

Here comes the Science themed one I mentioned last time - the topper is a pom-pom atom!!

I think I could have looked at this for 10 minutes and still found more fun things inside. There are test-tubes, periodic table elements, planets, grown crystals, dino skeletons, and even a bird's nest tucked inside the branches:

I really hope a teacher bought this one for their classroom!

Next a subject I'm something of an expert in:

DESSERT.

I want to repaint my wooden nutcrackers in these colors!

You probably noticed I've moved on to the mini tree gallery, btw. Told you these tend to have more personality than the bigger trees!

Which isn't to say they can't be over-the-top stunning:

These gilded magnolias blew my mind. So pretty!

And I like how the extra greenery in this one makes it star-shaped:

Or how about classic cardinals?

Back to sweets with this snowy pink number:

The topper is fascinating, it reminds me of a spiky crown.

This last mini tree was hard to photograph against the bright window, but I had to show you:

I'm loving that metal banding used as garland! That with the vintage alphabet blocks and rocking horse gives it a lovely antique and homey feel. 

I also like the giant bow at the base - gotta try that myself sometime.

But wait, there's more! We still have to cover the rest of my favorite wreaths!

I have no idea what this one is made of - maybe dried leaves?

It looks super cool, though, and you know I like wreaths used as frames. The layered paper cutting in the middle is a fantastic idea - especially for us Cricut owners, eh?

I'm also baffled by how they made this horse wreath - unless it's manufactured?

I mean, I supposed you could cut your shape out of pink foam, then poke in the branches one by one. Hmmm. Now to brainstorm some geeky shapes! Maybe a Dalek, with embedded ornaments for the balls?

Here's a Victorian style stocking and lace doily wreath:

I can't read the card for this next one, but I've named it "The Spinning Vortex Of Moosey Doom".

It looks like I caught it in motion, right?

Nothing too unusual about this next one; I just really like it:

Such a great combination of textures: frosted berries, shredded ribbon, and glittery poinsettias.

You KNOW I have to include any and all food pun based wreaths, right?

"Avo-Lovely Christmas"

Also there are apparently glass ornaments of avocado toast. That's a thing you know now.

Here's a semi-messy woodland number - but I like how "imperfect" it is:

And the off-center deer! Yes!

It's always refreshing to see PURPLE this time of year:

Actually all these colors are fantastic together. I wouldn't think to combine wine and lavender!

Here's a neat twist on the classic beach-combers' design:

The poinsettias are made of heavy felt! And then the garland is furry - such a cool contrast to all the sticks and dried pinecones.

One of the reasons I struggle with decorating wreaths is they're just so FIDDLY. I can never get the branches or greenery to stay where I want them - which is why I have all the heart eyes for this:

Those are all metal leaves! So gorgeous, and I imagine much easier to bend into place than the usual evergreen branches. I like the touches of softer silk leaves (flowers?) woven in, too.

And finally, my favorite favorite wreath I actually spotted in the gift shop:

Not super Chistmassy, but hey, that just means you can leave it up year 'round! It's so cheery with the little lemons, and the minty green leaves are perfect with all the pink and orange. I imagine you could make something like this yourself, but WOW does that look like a lot of work. 

(I just looked it up online; the wreath is by Glitterville Studios and sells for $500. The gift shop was selling it for $450, so I guess that was a bargain? o.0)

Last thing, and another Festival gift shop find, are these phenomenal headbands straight out of Who-ville:

I think they ranged from around $30 to $50, and would be PERFECT to wear to the Grinch show at Universal. :D I can't seem to find "Fascinators by Diana" online, so let me know if you find a page for her!

K, gang, that does it for this year's Festival of Trees! I hope you found some new decorating and crafting ideas for your holidays, or that you at least had fun geeking out over sparkly stuff with me. :)

As always I have more photos, so head over to my Flickr gallery to see the rest! You're welcome to download any you like to use on your phone, computer, etc. You can even print them for personal use, I promise I don't mind. Just give me a shout-out if you post them somewhere, or drop me a few bucks through our Paypal link if you really REALLY like them, ha.

*****

I stumbled across these while looking for mini teddy bears for a craft, and omigosh, you guys. OMIGOSH:

 The "actually works!" line makes me laugh - maybe they're posable? Anyway, they're $7 prime and would make adorable stocking stuffers.  You're welcome/I'm sorry.  ;-)