Forest of magazine trees

As promised we folded trees... and glittered trees... creating a forest

Gretchen loved hanging out in the forest.

Thanksgiving table

My mom purchased a ton of mini pumpkins to use as place cards for Thanksgiving dinner. I used card stock, decorative scissors, a hole punch, regular scissors, a calligraphy pen and autumn colored yarn to create the tags.

A bowl of squash and indian corn created the centerpiece

The table with all the fixings

Window dressings

I love the city decorated for Christmas, but this being my fourth season in the city I've noticed many of the big decorations don't change from year to year. Still pretty, but not as magical. Solution? Window Displays. The window displays change every year and are always elaborate. My favorites every year include Bergdorf's, Saks', Bloomingdale's and of course Macy's. Today I noticed Saks still had their's covered, but not Bergdorf.

Bergdorf is always good for a little quirk and a lot of style.

I loved the bright colors, lights, and type style

Along fifth the seemed to be Unusual trips using unusual forms of transportation...

this one is nautical

"Merry Happy" to all

How do you decorate your tree?

Pull out the scaffolding? Ladders? 5 miles of lights? Swarovski crystal star?

Rockefeller tree putting on the glitz

Let there be light

Remember this scene from Sex and the City? They are smelling perfumes in a fancy department store. The store? Takashimaya. An upscale Japanese department store that had been located on 5th avenue since 1958. Well the store shut down this year and what should replace a fancy, expensive, elegant department store on 5th Avenue?

image via

It has been replaced by:

Story is they only have a 6 month lease for now...

Magazine trees

It has become a tradition in my family to do a craft project at holiday gatherings. After we chow down on delicious food and clean the table we pull out the supplies and make a simple craft, for example:

Christmas sock snowmen

Thanksgiving tree limb reindeer

Easter painted flower pots

I suggested that for this year for Thanksgiving we make magazine trees. I've seen these all around throughout the years, but most recently I saw them on Martha. And that is where I got the instructions for mine.

I decided to do a test run. I decided this the day after I did a great magazine purge so the only magazine I had handy was Elle. Now for those of you that don't read Elle, it is a rather thick magazine (300+ pages). So lesson learned- start with a thinner magazine if you want to finish sometime this year.

It took me a week or too of stopping and starting, but I finally finished... I wasn't the neatest and will try to be more consistent next time around. I adapted the instructions a little. On the third fold I didn't tuck and you can't tell. I don't have spray paint or glitter here either (or anywhere to spray paint) so I'm keeping this tree au naturale.

Check back after Thanksgiving... we might make a forest.

TOMS

I admit I was a bit of a TOMS holdout. I would see and admire them on other people's feet on the subway and I liked the company's mission (in short- buy a pair of shoes and they give a pair to a child in need), but I thought they were a little pricey for canvas shoes (even two pairs).

That was until I saw these:

Five days later they arrived at my door. A little tight at first they quickly loosened up and they (and my feet) survived my trip to Target in Harlem. They came with a flag (to take a picture with and post on their website) and a sticker.

PS- TOMS is short for tomorrows (buy a pair today they give a pair tomorrow)