She wore pearls and felt.

These 5” felt trees were meditative to work on. A perfect craft for a chilly winter afternoon.

Scott is becoming a master Cricut user. (It’s a new-to-us tool that I’ll talk more about in the future.) He cut out a bunch of Christmas trees for me. I love using non-traditional Christmas colors. This cool aqua seemed to create just the right cold-weather forest look I wanted. I purchased a few strands of small pearl beads in the jewelry section and was ready to go.

I randomly sewed on the pearl beads. I had to remind myself I wasn’t sewing a button on a coat for a 9-year-old boy; I didn’t need to secure them on for endurance! One good loop through the back would do.

It’s been years, actually, since I’ve used the blanket stitch. But it added just the right rustic finish to these delicate trees. (I like this quick tutorial)

I thought I had polyfill at home but realized at the last moment that I didn’t. Instead, I used some of the snow from one of my first projects and it worked great.

I’m not saying it was a mess-free endeavor, however…

The stuffing should be just enough to add a little 3D effect. You can see below the difference between a stuffed one and the flat one. Just a little, you don’t want to overstuff these.

(I even got a little adventurous and added a ‘g’ to the back of one tree and the year ‘’20’ to another.)

You could string these together to make a garland or add individual strings on the top and use them as ornaments. I considered tucking them into the bottom of a grapevine wreath. Or even simply placing them in a bowl. Many options.

But the more I looked at them, (and maybe this was because it was around lunchtime), the more they looked like those icing-covered animal crackers with sprinkles on top. So I gathered them together and put them in an empty cookie jar, hanging one outside with a string, and adding a bit of faux snow to the bottom.

Magical. Meditative. Mid-century.

Knowing myself, I will forget about all these crafts and be pleasantly surprised when I find them in my Christmas boxes next year! (Which always happens when I buy after-Christmas things and they go straight to storage.) -ha!