Our handmade Christmas tree

One of the things I do in the morning with my coffee is peruse Pinterest, what a wealth of great ideas! Some projects are quick and some take time, this is one of those. I've been collecting driftwood all year and recently realized if I was going to make this for THIS year, I'd better find a welder. This picture is the inspiration I've been drooling over all year.

Below, is my version.

I'm not going to tell you how much I spent, because I'd like to offer them for sale, but know this, it was ridiculously cheap, but mucho time consuming. We ordered our "tree" form on Wednesday and Thursday morning it was delivered. I measured the rebar, went to Joffres and bought two drill bits, Mike got started drilling and we layed the pieces out.

We realized we didn't have enough pieces, and had to go out to scavenge more. (Mostly because so many of my sticks were too small to be drilled thru but I can use them for something) A little trial and error, and at times it seemed it was a big puzzle, but in the end I'm extremely happy with it. 

Lights were tricky, my first attempt really made it look like Charlie Browns tree, but then Mike saved the day and redid them, less is more in this instance. I'll be making more ornaments today, as Mike didn't want some of my painted shell ornaments to be outside (we think we'll get to Bahia some time soon and buy a small artificial tree for the inside).

I also need to work on some sort of tree topper, starfish maybe? So stay tuned...the adventure continues!