There is little that I like better in winter than a decorated tree. A couple of years, my husband and I bought a really decent fake and I quite enjoy decorating and fussing over the tree. I'd leave it up year-round if I could.

This year we decided to have a decoration theme: the "garden" tree. we are getting feather butterflies and birds and silk flowers from Michael's and gluing them onto clamps for decorations. We're going to bend pipe cleaners into more butterflies and dragonflies. We're going to create our own garland from small silk flowers and we're stringing the tree with both regular and blinking white lights (blinking to simulate fireflies). My cat LOVES to chew on astroturf otherwise I'd use that for a tree skirt.

Is there anything else I could/should add to my tree to have a better garden effect?

Are you decorating a tree this year and how?

you could string ribbon thru seed packets and hang those. i've also seen minature trowels and shovels in the past. of course, when you really want to find them you never can. you also might want to wrap all your presents in paper with flowers or bugs on it to match the tree....

there's this great exhibit at the everson museum in syracuse every year called the festival of trees where each tree is decorated - many with themes. there were cat trees, musical instrument trees, golf trees, etc. my mom really got into it so we always had themed trees. one year we had all plain glass ornaments with white bows, another it was a patriotic, red, white and blue tree, another it was only angel ornaments.....

xo heidi anne-noel

How about adding mushrooms, bird's nests and maybe even small garden tools/gloves? And have you seen some of the novelty lights that are shaped like birds?
And you could always just use a green cloth for the tree skirt. Or what about making a small (maybe only a 12" high?) garden fence around the base of your tree?

Don't know if this would match or not, but every year i make mini tissue flowers from rolls of colorful party streamers. They really brighten up the tree! I use red, purple, yellow and teal and randomly pop them inbetween the branches. You just cut a 6-8-inch strip of streamer, roll it around while pinching the bottom, then wrap floral wire around the bottom when you reach the end of your piece of streamer. Fluff the top. Easy! You can whip out 2-3 dozen or so in about a sitcom and a half (i watch too much tv, sigh...).

i don't know if this would suit your tastes, but faeries are always good for garden decor. maybe some faery ornaments or a faery at the top instead of the standard star or angel...i was going to put a faery on mine (i have lots of ornaments), but i got this killer abominable snowman figure (from rudolph...he's holding a star, so cute) who will be on top if he'll stay up there.

paper flowers and butterflies are good. i'm trying to think of more stuff, but coming up blank. if i do, i'll be sure to post it. good luck!

*Biz*