Mother Nature Deserves Sparkle-Day Two

Day two of our handmade Christmas was solely dedicated to secrets. I love pine cones. And this time of year they smell so good soaked in cinnamon...so I picked up a bag at our local craft store and brought them home. I was going to pour them into my wooden bowl, add a few cranberries, and some tree sprigs and make a nice center piece for our coffee table. But my youngest daughter said "our Christmas tree is a pine tree right Mom", "Yes dear it is", "Well then it needs pine cones" And I am happy to report she was right.

We took some ornament hooks and hot glued them to the bottom of the pine cones. I wanted the pointy end down. The fun thing with a bag of pine cones is that they come with 2-3 varieties of pine tree cones, which adds some whimsy and fun to your tree.
Once the glue had dried and the hooks were secure we reached way back into the branches and hung the cones. You can't see them unless you really look for them, but it's fun to have the surprise of seeing them at different angles and lights. We played spot the pine cone 2-3 times and tried to count them all. I know I had 30 pine cones that went on the tree but I still haven't found them all yet.

The pine cones were an added bonus to our day two because my "planned" ornament was all thanks to Pinterest. I seized on the idea of 1 inch mirror tiles for ornaments. One to help reflect the lights and two to add just a surprise hint of sparkle. I didn't photograph this because I was gone when my sweet oldest daughter decided to glue them together but it is rather simple. Lay one tile with the mirror face down, put a dollop of hot glue on the back, enough glue that your ornament hook and another mirror will stick together. Layer back of mirror tile, ornament hook, back of another mirror tile. Let dry. Simple, easy, and sparkleific!

Now reach back into the tree, behind the lights, and hang them up. You may not see a big difference but sit back and have someone wiggle the tree slightly. All of sudden lights will move and if you are anything like me, your heart will skip a beat.