Oh Christmas Tree

Since this is our first Christmas in our new house it was a little stressful when it came to decorating for Christmas this year.  After I got up all the decorations I realized there wasn't a single Christmas item in our dining room.  We can't have that now can we?  So I was able to talk the hubs into letting me buy a small skinny tree to go in the corner of the room to help cheer it up a bit.  I found a 4 ft slim tree at Wally World but there wasn't a sign on it.  There was a UPC taped to it with a hand written $20.  I had the kind folks there find the box that matched the tree and went to check out.  Low and behold it rang up $25, not cool, I told Hubs I'd keep the entire mini tree budget under $40.  I told the cashier and we both walked over to the display together.  Sure enough she took the $5 off!  Whew!  I also pick up 2 gold poinsettia clips for 97 cents each while I was there.

When I got home I opened the box and it was super easy to put together.  I was not a fan at how short the tree really was so I ended up cleaning out a big urn I had in the back yard, priming (had), and spray painting it with some ORB (oil rubbed bronze) spray paint ($6-Hobby Lobby).  I had some issues getting the base of the tree to fit and ended up having to remove the legs.  Then I kind of rigged it with some leftover styrafoam I had out in the garage. 

I found some sparkly burgandy remnant fabric (50 cents) at my local fabric store along with 12ft of white and sparkly gold ribbon ($2.50). 

I had some left over wreath picks and gold ornaments that I bought on clearence after Christmas last year (we'll say free since I didn't spend $$ this year on them) and I also wanted to put my new leopard ornaments to use! 

(with flash)

Total cost
Tree: $20
Poinsettia clips: $2
Ribbon: $2.50
Gold sparkly swirl picks: $2
ORB spray paint: $6
"Tree skirt":  50 cents
Leopard ornaments: roughly $3 (taking into account supplies used)

...drum roll please...
$36!

Yay for coming in under budget...$4 left...do I see a Starbucks in my future?  j/k Hubs ;)