Fall in Yosemite

I hope that your holidays are happy.  It is such a busy time of year for us all.  

Fall is well under way and winter is not far behind, so I thought I'd post some photos from a recent trip to Yosemite where we saw the Giant Sequoia's and some beautiful leafy colors.

The waterfalls are always gushing in the spring, rarely in the fall.  We were lucky enough to have some flowing streams and a few lightly flowing falls to hike to.

In California most of our trees hold onto their green leaves year-round, so it was special to find sprinkles of yellow, gold and red in the forest.

Many rocks were climbed, paths were hiked and streams were explored.  We are eager to see the wildflowers next year, in the spring.  

Holiday DIY, Wooden Advent Tree

During my nightly sift through the stacks of holiday catalogues that now arrive daily, I came across this great wooden tree from West Elm.  It's clean wooden simplicity appealed to me, garnished with glittering star ornaments.  I decided it would make a great advent tree, with 25 nails, one for an ornament a day. 

For the project I used, contractor shims, wood glue, sandpaper, an xacto knife and 25 finishing nails, all stuff we had laying around the garage as it happens.

I really liked the way the West Elm tree was tapered at the tips to give a more realistic branch-like look. Contractor shims are inexpensive (about $4 for the pack) keep the feel and look of the tree light.  Plus, they hold together well with wood glue and tiny finishing nails and cut away for easy shaping of the squared corners.

The photos for the project didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped but they still give you a good idea of how to create the tree.  It is a pretty free-form project and you can shape the tree's branches any way you'd like.  First I sanded all of the pieces to remove some rough edges.  To get the tapered branch tips, I sliced away the corners at a tapered angle then used more sandpaper to shape them.

I selected about 5 shims and laid them in a line with their ends overlapping  by an inch, then secured them with wood glue to form the trunk of the tree.  Strategically placed finishing nails also added extra security to the trunk and branch joins.  Once the trunk was dry, I began to assemble assorted sized pieces as branches.  I left some shims full legnth then used the xacto knife to cut others into 2 inch and 5 inch pieces.

From there I just played with the pieces until the tree had the look and feel that I was going for.  Finally I gently hammered in the finishing nails, being careful not to nail the tree to the countertop...., secured the branches with a bit of extra wood glue and that's it!  It is really that simple.

We keep a bowl of special (lightweight) ornaments by the tree and add one a day for advent.  I am already planning on spray painting it white for a fresh look next year.  By the way, PaperKarma is a great way to help you stop the catalogue deluge and save paper. Or, maybe that catalogue stack on your kitchen counter will contain your next inspiration.