I didn't have a plan when decorating my Christmas tree this year, however I knew that I wanted to use chandelier crystals.

My search for where to purchase chandelier crystals started at one of my favorite places - online auctions.

Unfortunately, my first attempt to purchase vintage chandelier crystals went well above my budget.  I'm not sure what the final sale price ended up being, but I stopped checking when it reached several hundred dollars.

My next place to look for chandelier crystals was online.

Glass crystals can be very pricey, especially since I have a 10 foot tall Christmas tree and needed a lot of crystals. 

I found a source for very inexpensive acrylic chandelier "crystals" and decided to place an order to check the quality.

The acrylic chandelier crystals were better than expected and almost fooled me into thinking they were glass.

Unfortunately, they don't give off a rainbow sparkle, but they do put off a clear white sparkle that is not nearly as pronounced as real crystals.  Their weight is also only a fraction of the weight of glass crystals (which could be a good or bad thing).

I decided to use the acrylic crystals on the very bottom and very top of my Christmas tree and to purchase glass crystals for the eye level portion of my tree.

Another order was placed for glass crystals of different shapes and sizes to fill my Christmas tree before I started decorating.

 

(Disclaimer - This website contains affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission for purchases made through the links that offsets the fees associated with publishing this blog, however you will not pay any additional cost) 

 

The decorating process.........

The Lights
As always, I started decorating my Christmas tree by adding Christmas lights. 

Yes, my Christmas tree is pre-lit, however I added more lights.

Additional lights are necessary since I add so much decor to my tree that it hides many of the lights.

As I do every year, I added traditional Christmas string lights and some lights with a larger bulb.

This year I also added some smart string lights that have a slow and gentle twinkle instead of traditional blinking lights that have a harsh flashing effect like a street light.

For more information on putting lights on your Christmas tree, see the article Designer Secrets for How to Put Lights on a Christmas Tree.

 

The Ribbons
I knew that I wanted the chandelier crystals to be the star of the show, but I wanted more than just crystals on my Christmas tree.

A green color scheme was selected to somewhat blend into the color of my Christmas tree and not stand out.  A touch of white and gold was also added, but only a tiny drop here and there.

I tried my best to use as much of my existing Christmas decor as possible when decorating my Christmas tree.

The dark green velvet ribbon and olive green woven ribbon were reused.

Since my color scheme is only green, I needed to add a lot of texture so it didn't look boring.

I purchased a thinner celery green satin ribbon for a third texture, width, and color of ribbon.

I also purchased a 4 inch wide ribbon that is sparkly green (wider ribbon looks best on taller Christmas trees).  The sparkly green ribbon added a 4th texture.

 

The Greenery Picks
As I was decorating, I decided to skip the conventional Christmas ornaments this year.  I wanted to make my Christmas tree more of a floral arrangement instead of a tree covered in colorful spheres.

My artificial Christmas tree is of average quality, so there are a lot of open spaces between the branches where you could see through my tree (I prefer a more full Christmas tree). 

For the really big gaps in the branches, I found a lesser quality very thin garland that I already owned and cut it into 1 foot strips, shaped it into a circle, and shoved the circles into the holes.

To add interest to my tree and to fill the smaller gaps, I needed a lot of different greenery floral picks.  Luckily, I already owned a lot, but wanted to purchase a few more.

I believe that I have 12 different types of greenery picks.  I typically buy around 10 of each type, however I might have 20 of some.

Greenery picks can get expensive.  One way to save on cost is to purchase a more expensive multi-stem pick and disconnect the stems to create multiple picks.

Most of my greenery picks look like different types of greenery in different shapes and shades of green.  Some look like berries.  One type looks like snow.

I also added many pine cones courtesy of the pine trees in my yard and some grapevine spheres that are dusted with a bit of gold to add a touch of rustic to contrast with my elegant crystals.

As an extra flourish, I added 8 little brown birds for a woodland effect.

 

The Crystals
I started adding the glass crystals to my Christmas tree at eye level.  Not just my eye level, but taller and shorter people's eye level.  Basically from 2 foot to 7 foot off the floor.

Then I added the acrylic crystals to the top of the tree and towards the floor since they are less visible.

I thought my decorating was nearly complete, but then more chandelier crystals came up for auction.  The auction lot contained around 100 vintage and/or antique chandelier crystals and I was able to purchase them for a very reasonable price.

Now I have a problem finding enough branches to hold all of my crystals!

My best guess is that I used around 300 crystal ornaments.

 

The Result
The photos of this Christmas tree do not do it justice. 

It is gorgeous. 

It sparkles 

It glimmers. 

It is my favorite Christmas tree that I have ever decorated.

 

Where to find the decor........
After searching online and only finding chandelier crystals that were well outside my budget, I ended up finding the acrylic crystals at an online store that does not have the best reputation - Temu. 

I was very hesitant to shop from Temu because I had heard horror stories from friends, who heard from someone else, who heard from someone else, who had something bad happen, but it seems that none of my actual friends have had any problems. 

Surprisingly, every time I mentioned to someone that I just started shopping at Temu, it seems like there are a lot of "closet" Temu shoppers that regularly shop on Temu without ever having any problems.

I have a friend of a friend who uses a prepaid Visa card to shop on Temu for extra protection.  Others shop using PayPal as their payment method because they don't want to use their credit card.

My experience with Temu has been very good.

In many ways, shopping Temu is just like shopping Amazon.  Many of the products are identical, but they have much lower prices because you cut out the middle man.

I purchased some landscape lighting from Temu that was twice the price on Amazon for the exact same lighting (actually more than twice the price because I used a Temu coupon).

So far, I have placed several orders that have been delivered to my house within 7-10 days.  The landscape lighting I purchased was from a local seller that arrived in 2 days.  One order I chose to ship by sea for an additional discount, however it takes 1-2 months to arrive (I am still waiting on that package).

I have returned a few items in a similar way as Amazon - I packaged them up and brought them to the UPS Store and they were mailed back for free.  About a week later they were received and I was credited for the return.

One caution - make sure to read the dimensions online of every item you want to purchase.  Often the photos make an item seem much larger than it actually is.

 

You can click on the images below if you want to learn more or purchase.

 

Glass Crystals That I Purchased

 

The 3 tiered crystals above seem to be the most sparkly

 

 

Acrylic Crystals That I Purchased

 

(sorry, not linked because it is out of stock)

I have started putting a little more time and effort into my holiday dining table decor recently.

Beautifully decoated dining tables have always attracted me, however I tend to spent more time thinking about what food to serve than my dining room tablescape.

After studying other beautiful tablescapes for inspiration, I decided to have a little fun using AI (artificial intelligence) to create some holiday tablescapes for me to share with you.

I am very impressed with the quality of the images that AI programs are able to produce, however AI is not perfect and often shows odd things.

Many people feel that AI images are bad, evil, or cheating in some way, however they are just another tool that can be very inspirational if used respectfully.  By respectfully, I mean that the creator of the AI image should not attempt to convince people that the image is an original photograph of their work.  Just as digital photography and Photoshop were hated by some people when first introduced, AI has amazing potential and I anticipate it being very widely used in the near future.

Now for the pretty stuff.

Here are a few of the AI images that I was able to create to inspire us to create our next beautiful tablescape.........

In most cases, ceiling fans are not very pretty, so selecting the best one for your home can be quite a challenge. 

Even if a ceiling fan is selected to be a similar style to your decor, it can look completely different when the blades are spinning. 

Faux wood blades are not especially attractive and draw attention from the beautiful parts of a room that you want to highlight.

Ceiling fan blades that contrast with the ceiling color make ceilings feel shorter. 

Light bulbs are not very attractive, so they should not be visible (unless your home has an industrial style and you use Edison bulbs #ad).

photo by Curtis Adams pexels.com/photo/a-wooden-table-near-the-couch-inside-the-living-room-7168014/

I get most of my blog post ideas from questions that I repeatedly receive, and this blog post is no different.

One of the most popular questions that I receive is about how to make a home more organized and tidy.

Since home organization is at the top of many people's new year's resolutions, I decided to write about the actual products that I use to help organize my home, as well as some interior designer organization tips and tricks.

I have used many different storage containers over the years successfully and unsuccessfully, however I am very happy with the ones I am currently using.

Many of my clients own good quality dark wood office furniture.

Their office furniture tends to look very masculine and heavy, which does not always complement their home's aesthetic.

Most clients wish to keep their home office furniture, but give it a lighter and brighter feel.

Here are a few ways that you can style your dark wood home office furniture to better complement your home.