Sources quite ordinary

As you might have guessed, I don't do ordinary Christmas decorating...can't even remember the last time I did any sort of traditional tree...I like to pride myself on the antithesis of retail Christmas...what can I create that uses ordinary elements with nothing that I have to buy...(to think that I work at one of the big box stores...a girl's gotta pay the mortgage...)

Step One - round up all of my spools of string and twine...
whittled down the numbers by concentrating just on cream colors...
and ones that looked relatively clean...

Step Two - round up a bunch of finials and door knobs...

I thought that marrying a spool with a finial might look like a modernist junk christmas tree...

Since I was keeping the vibe for decorating simple, I decided to have essentially a deconstructed tree...the germ for this idea was something I spied in a Ballard Design catalog and adapted it accordingly...

A large branch that had fallen off of a tree down the street from a recent wind storm was dragged home...trimmed up a little...and hung suspended from the ceiling...initially I was a little hesitant to put two holes in the ceiling...but as I was climbing down from the ladder, the Southern Man commented to me that I must have gotten over it...they're small holes...

A little bit of tulle...a string of white lights...a  few vintage shiny brite ornaments...

Just for a little divergence, I added in one spool of copper wire...as a perch for a stone bird...

Since I have no mantel, this trio of bookshelves in my dining room steps in to fill the role...
and this vignette brings a soft glow to the room...and helps fill the house with warmth during this festive but cold month...

joining the Junk Party over at Funky Junk Interiors...plenty more holiday ideas...