I'm A Crafty One

Wow, have I been out of touch! Between the enervating effects of working for a CIDA-funded program at the end of the fiscal year and the sapsucking power of a three-week cold that's playing hide-and-seek with a cure, I've just been too bagged to blog. But craftiness? Somehow I found time and energy for that.

Kelly and I have always decorated our home for Christmas. So for the first 17 years we were together, that meant strings of lights around apartment windows, or porch when our apartment had one. But when we bought our house five years (!) ago, I had to kick it up a notch. Ropes of white pine and sheafs of fragrant cedar to go with the lights; tiny lights sprinkled in dogwood branches. Then I began to covet lawn reindeer. Most them were tacky plastic numbers but every once in a while I saw a very tasteful Rangifer tarandus rendered in willow and vine. I had to find one. And I did, but it cost $150 and try as I might, I couldn't justify the purchase.

I could, however, be inspired to build my own large yet tasteful willow outdoor ornament. I met with some skepticism when I announced my plans to make a tree out of an old willow garden screen.


I'd have to dissemble it, of course:


By the way, don't you dig the seventies-vibe gold carpet in the basement? How the heck would I put these sticks together in any way that might resemble a tree? I had to turn to my skeptic, who also happens to be a spatial genius. She suggested a tomato cage, and half-heartedly accompanied me to buy a glue gun and big ball of sisal twine.


But I don't think she was prepared for my success:


To tell the truth, neither was I. My schemes don't usually work out this well. My only regret is that I didn't need to use the glue gun.

Next: taking it outside!