Willow House Wednesday: A Tree for Every Occasion!

Today will be the first installment of "Willow House Wednesday".


These posts will be my attempt to share some simple ideas for decorating your home and using fun Willow House products (or those that you already own) to create traditions and memories with your family.  I am by no means an expert or a professional decorator... just someone who loves making my house a home!  I hope you might find some inspiration for your own home through these ideas!

And so without further ado, may I introduce you to A Tree for Every Occasion!

One of the big trends right now is to use items that are very natural for filling containers.  Items such as greens from the yard, river rock, and of course, tree branches.  At the beginning of the Fall, I purchased this big bunch of dried willow branches from Hobby Lobby.  I plopped and dropped them into the Royal Street Urn and wrapped the base of the bunch with some burlap (another big trend).  It looked simple, yet had a dramatic effect due to the height of the arrangement.


And then Fall came.  And I decided to turn my simple arrangement into a Thankful Tree.  The children and I came up with things that we were thankful for, wrote them on Fall-themed scrapbook paper, and tied them to the branches with some twine (another big trend).  It looked colorful and became the centerpiece of my Fall table scape.

And then it was time to take down the Fall decor and put up the Christmas decor.  As I removed the Fall thankful "leaves" from the tree, I decided to continue the tradition for the Christmas season.  And so each night at dinner, I laid a little gift tag next to our plates.  At the end of the meal, we went around the table and shared something that we were thankful for.  We wrote it on the gift tag and added the tags to our Christmas Thankful Tree.  On Christmas Day, we had a whole tree full of things to be thankful for.  This was such a wonderful tradition and the children STILL ask to put a tag on the tree at dinner!

After the Christmas decor came down, my arrangement returned to its simple and natural state.  And then, this month, I decided to dress it up again!  With Love Notes!  I found some sweet printable Love Notes that are numbered 1-14 and printed a set for both children.  Each morning, one of the "love notes" is placed next to the children's breakfast plate and tells them of a reason that we love them.  We then tie these little lovely notes to the tree branches.  

And now I've grown to love this little tree of branches so much, that I think it will remain on my table after Valentines Day is over.  I can already envision sweet little Easter eggs or bird nests in it for the Easter and Spring seasons.  Or maybe I'll get out the good ol' glue gun and glue some gorgeous "permanent" blooms to the branches like this...

I might retire the "tree" for the summer, but I have no doubt it will return in some form next Fall... it's branches waiting to be adorned with leaves proclaiming all that we have to be thankful for!  


So there you have it... a simple way to celebrate even the smallest of holidays while adding an element of design and trend to any table in your home!  


Enjoy!