Orlando's Festival Of Trees 2022, Part 2

Happy post-Thanksgiving work week, gang, how ya hanging in?

John and I just sat down to go through all our planned December activities and posts, so I already need a nap, heh. The month fills up fast when you want to do ALL THE THINGS, right?

First things first, though, let's get our holiday sparkle on with the rest of my favorites from Festival of Trees! (Click here if you missed Part 1.)

Beginning with the last thing I expected at this swanky Festival: a Dollar Tree DIY.


A really GOOD Dollar Tree DIY, though.

Look closely; those are all DT plastic bowls stacked and glued together, with fairy lights tucked inside.


SO COOL. They made different designs by switching up the combinations of bowls!

The only parts not from DT are the trees on top, but maybe we could make a cone from clear DT cutting mats? Hmmm. Or really, some of these would made great stands without the tree: you could put candles or greenery on top instead.

Moving on to the slightly more realistic trees with a deliciously over-the-top Elvis theme:

The action figure topper wouldn't be my choice (too small!) but the rest of this "Blue Christmas" is perfection:

Toy guitars, records, gold sunglasses, and even tiny blue suede shoes:

Yesss. I'm not the biggest Elvis fan, but I'm all about committing to a theme.

Which brings me to my favorite Festival tree this year. That's right, you're getting it early this post, no need to scroll to the end!

Now at first glance, this tree isn't the most spectacular... but wait for it.

The dolls caught my eye right away, but it wasn't 'til I got closer that I noticed the writing on the ribbon garland. Say, what's this?

There are kittens, roses, bells....

Have you cracked the code?

If not, here, I'll help you out:

Y'all. Y'ALL. John and I had so much fun hunting through this tree that we (again) drew curious looks. When we explained to some of the more friendly onlookers they even jumped in to help! So now "scavenger hunt in a Christmas tree" is on my list for future builds. It's friggin' GENIUS, and would be a great ice-breaker or activity for parties.

ONWARD. We have more pretties ahead!



Automatically love this for the butterflies, but also how gorgeous are they against the all-white baubles and ribbon?



Still not sold on these new-fangled pencil trees that are more of a column than a triangle, but I do like these colors:


Plus if I don't show you the bottom we can just pretend it's tree-shaped, right?

::SPOILER::


Womp WOMP.

Let's recover with a retro aluminum tree - can't get more old-school than that, right?


Aluminum trees are SO PRETTY in person, but darn hard to photograph.

The close-up gives a better idea of how shiny:



Let's move on to the Wreath Gallery, which got a sweet upgrade this year:

The museum added hand-painted house & window outlines in black-and-white to frame the wreaths, and it looks SO COOL:

This style reminds me of Animator's Palette on the Disney cruise ships. BIG FAN.



Love love love.

A frozen berry mini tree:

See the golden birds?

Vivid greens and gold leafy goodness:

Lime, fuschia, and sparkly dragonflies:




 Here's an Orange Bird wreath, minus the actual Orange Bird:

HEART EYES. Just needs my vintage Orange Bird bank in the middle!

Here's some actual Disney representing:


The Donald ornament in the middle is calling my name... in a sputtery, duck-like fashion.

Speaking of my feathery boi, this reminds me of Three Cabelleros:

:D

Apparently I still had Halloween on the brain, because I was convinced this was a Haunted Mansion wreath - and quite excited about it:


... then I got closer and saw the wings. Aw, poo. (C'mon, how perfect would she be as a glowing bride?? In fact, anyone know where this angel is from? Maybe I'll have to make a Bride wreath.)


I like the idea of incorporating a big envelope for kids' letters! This is a felt one, so easy to DIY.

Another cute craft idea:


That berry crown is SO SWEET - and I like the more simple approach,.

I thought the Orange Bird wreath would be my favorite, but it's tied with this one:


Something about this Scottish green tartan and purple thistle is tugging at my heartstrings, y'all:

SO PRETTY.

This pair reminds me of those fancy carved watermelons, where you can just see the pinky red coming through the design:

Then Frosty was reppin' Hanukkah:

I'm glad Hanukkah is later this year; starting it in November last year felt less festive, so I like that this year we'll get to celebrate right alongside Christmas. (We're newbies, btw; just celebrated Hanukkah for the first time last year, and loved it.)

Amazingly this was the ONLY Grinch themed decor in the whole Festival:

So I'm glad it's a good one! So cute and cartoony, the perfect Seussical look. John and I are working on a Grinch-and-Max 'bound this week for a party, so fingers crossed we look half as fun as this wreath. (And just to be clear, I'M GRINCH. In his lederhosen outfit. Because the heart wants what it wants, bahahaa.)

I did save one favorite for last: my favorite mini tree!

Ok, so no surprises here. But really, why don't more people use orange and white on their trees? They're so cheerful and lovely together.

One more from the other side:

And if I get it done in time, here's a little video recap of some of these. I'm working on my Reel skills - rather begrudgingly - and it's SO not my area, but I'm starting to like the results sometimes.

::video here::

 I'll leave you with a couple wallpapers for your desktop and/or phone:

Desktop:

Click to embiggen, then right-click to save.

Phone:

Tap to embiggin, then long-press to save.

I hope you enjoyed this year's tour of eye candy, my friend! Mark your calendar, because next post I'll have the grand reveal of our finished - and many-times repaired, hoo boy - giant Gingerbread House!

We've had a STEEP learning curve on that project, so I can't wait to show you how we learned absolutely everything the hard way, ha. I'll also share all our repairs, solutions, and work-arounds so you can DIY your own giant icing & candy decor that WON'T fall down or disintegrate.

Plus you'll get hair-raising photos like this:


Come with me

and you'll be

in a woooorld

of OSHA violations!

Ahem.

I post every Tuesday and Friday, btw, so if the AI has been hiding my posts, just know I'm still here.

'Til next time!

*****


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