The Festival of Trees Decorating
Decorating the tree was set to start at 8am. I was up around 5:30 so I could be ready to leave around 7am. I wanted to get going early so I could pick up breakfast on my way (looking back, I am very glad I did this). I wasn't sure I would even get up this morning, as I was up until 2am last night finishing up wrapping the decorative gift boxes that go under the tree. Naturally Ingrid had left her share to me as well. Better yet Ingrid's share had to be essentially wrapped twice because it was white paper with a translucent opalescent gift-wrap over that. It worked well with our theme and colors but was not quick to do.
Anyway back to this morning. I headed out shortly after 7 and stopped by Burger King for breakfast. I really don't like BK for breakfast but it was the closest and the only thing really not out of the way. I picked up some cheese tots and apple slices along with a soda for and headed out (not that I got out quickly, the particular BK I went to thinks that anyone who walks in isn't in a hurry. -_-).
The first stop was Ingrid's place where we loaded up all of the decorations and gift stuff in to the two vehicles. We headed over to the Monticello Hotel around 7:45 where we quickly unloaded everything. I got a good spot near the side door and Ingrid by the front door. This worked out perfectly because they had moved our tree to be one of the two trees right inside the main entrance of the hotel! Everyone who walks in or out sees our tree (and the Vegas tree that was in the paper).
Being up front was both a blessing and a curse. There are three doors (including the revolving door) at the entrance but 80% of people going in or out choose the door right by us. It wasn't too cold but enough that the draft it created moved things around (thankfully only our not yet used items and not the stuff on the tree).
Things started off fine with no real arguments. Ingrid was working on what would be the 3rd of 4 incarnations of our tree top last night when I picked up stuff and found this morning that it was different even still. That was ok because what we ended up with was the best one. Still it didn't have much of a way to secure it to the top of the tree. You will have to see the pictures when I post them but it topper was pointed at the bottom like a bouquet would be and the tree has a unique u-shaped top. Neither worked well for stability. I came up with a tripod-esque support system that included wiring the topper to the tree. I made it out of three pieces belonging to decorations used for the topper that each had clamps on the bottom. It turned out they were all cut at just the right length.
The "fountain" topper looked a little short when we got it on top but that was in part because some of the items Ingrid wanted were not available anymore (she didn't pick them up earlier). It looks good though and we were able to work with it. However, my vision of putting some of the lights on the tree directed to light up the top wasn't going to work now because we needed to use the garland to cover the support system for the topper.
Garland Issues
We finished the top and then continued on to putting the garland on the tree. Chosen for the garland were 1.5 foot wide sections of satin fabric in a deep bold blue color. The satin gave the impression of water and flowed beautifully. So we got started putting in on the tree and realized that what we had for the garland wasn't going to cover the entire tree. The tree skirt is the same fabric and we already found that we would need more for that so we decided to sacrifice the current tree skirt and cut it into similarly wide sections then buy a whole new section of fabric for the new tree skirt in a longer section that would cover the entire bottom of the tree.
Ingrid ran out to get the new section of fabric. She protested saying she wanted to do it later but you have to put the garland on the tree before any ornaments, it just doesn't work otherwise. So she headed out and I took the time to take a break. While I sat down (on a seat conveniently right by our tree) I took the opportunity to wire up as many of the 200 and some odd ornaments we planned to attach to the tree. I got through about 75 before she returned. That was fine though because we had all the wire we would need pre cut.
When she returned she cut the previous tree skirt in to thirds and I went about moving what we had and putting the last lengths on the tree. In true Ingrid fashion nothing I did was good enough. She moved nearly every part of the garland around and to my dismay even attached some sections to the tree without connecting them to the rest. So there are two whole sections of garland that don't connect to the main "flow" of the garland "stream". -_- The idea was a waterfall/stream that flowed from the fountain (the topper) down to the pond (the tree skirt). Well it doesn't flow. -_-
Somewhere in the middle of this I had to call Bo to run to Fred Meyers to pick up iron on webbing to tack down the edges of the garland so it didn't look like we cut it from the bolt and threw it under the tree. He apparently ran into the Black Friday mob as he wasn't able to find a place to park at the store.
So we got the entire garland on the tree and Ingrid moves immediately to putting ornaments on. I told her that we had to secure the garland first. She was so dead set on designing the tree she wouldn't even take the time to do it right. -_- I reminded her that we had to secure the garland so that it doesn't fall off the tree when moved. She was reluctant but after a couple more ornaments secured some sections of the garland. In the end I was still securing sections of it through out the day as I found whole lengths she didn't bother with (she only secured the ends apparently).
Origami Fish
Around noon Ingrid headed out to get the rest of the fish from Parris (the 12 year old kid making the origami fish for us). I worked on adding ornaments to the tree while she was gone. It was no surprised that when she returned she only had 2 more fish! She was furious with him because he told her that he had done 15 fish. Instead he made more boats, then told Ingrid that she should have told him she needed only fish. (of course she has done that more than once). Ingrid said that his dad was on him this time to get the fish done before 5pm.
Lunch
It wasn't long after she got back that we discovered that they had set out food for lunch. Yes we discovered it, we were not told. Since we were working on our tree in the lobby and the food was in the banquet hall they often forgot we were out there working. In fact we discovered they had food and even got a plate each before Susan of the FoT committee came out to tell us there was food. -_-
It was weird going to get food anyway. Half the people in the room would stop and look at us as we entered because we were not immediately recognized.
For breakfast they brought muffins, bananas, grapes and whole apples. They also had a table with coffee, water, and an assortment of juices (apple, cranberry, orange, grapefruit and tomato). For lunch they just added a three-tiered plate of wraps (turkey, roast beef and ham) and some candy. The wraps were about 2 inches by 2 inches. So yeah that was "lunch". -_-
I should also mention that one lady who waitresses for the restaurant offered us sodas and brought a refill for us as well (serving us in the lobby which was nice). She also brought us a cart to put our ornaments on so we didn't have to reach for the ground each time.
Visitor #1
Sometime not too long after this Butt-dan arrived to bring Ingrid something from the house and stayed a while. He helped out a little here and there but mostly just kept to himself and watched. He stayed for about an hour or more.
Lights
As we continued working on the tree and I went around putting on more ornaments I started to notice that something wasn't right with the lights. None of the strings of lights were attached to the tree like we were instructed. They were wrapped around the inside but not wrapped properly out to the tips of the branches. It was frustrating because the lights tended to slink back into the three. I worked at wiring them closer to the front as much as I could but I know I didn't get nearly as many as should have been done.
Then Ingrid started to get irritated with the lights and had me turn them off for periods of time during the decorating process. It worked out ok but I got the distinct impression that she doesn't like them. The general public liked them though and we got lots of comments as people walked by.
Ornaments
It was staring to become apparent near the end of the day that we had too many ornaments. That worked out find and I think we ended up ultimately with something like 75 left over. We calculated the best we could based on what we knew going into this (which wasn't much). I decided to start using some of them to fill in gaps back in the tree instead of just putting everything on outer section of the tree. So I filled in spaces near the trunk with larger ornaments and some of the smaller ones. It worked well to give the tree more depth.
Fish
Around 4:15 Parris called to say that he was heading over to the hotel to bring the rest of the fish. We were both surprised because he hadn't taken any interest in why we needed the fish only that we were making them. The best we could hope for was that he actually had more fish.
When Parris arrived he had the fish as promised but about 4 of the 7 or so he brought were folded to be more like paper airplanes than fish (obviously rushed). That wasn't the bad part though. Parris wouldn't let us work. He kept talking, and messing with the tree and…and…and. *Grrr*. I had to ask him to move a couple of times. He wasn't happy when I didn't say please! O_O Some how he figured he had creative right to start adding whatever he wanted. We had to remove things he kept putting on the tree. Then he kept getting in our way when we went to get stuff.
Ingrid got irritated with him when he started telling his dad and other people he knew that the tree was "his" tree. I wasn't so bothered by this because people know what he is talking about. He meant it as in it was the tree with is origami on it. Not the tree that Parris sponsored or created or designed.
One thing I should mention is that only two of all of these fish were presentable for the tree upon receipt. Ingrid worked to make the others fit better into the three after we received them. This was particularly hard with Parris looking over her shoulder and when she tried to spray paint one orange (because some weren't even the right color) Parris darted out the door after her like a rocket. O_O My favorite part of all this came when Parris was asked by a family friend which fish was his favorite. That happened to be one that Ingrid modified and we were both amused. ^_^
My Daughter
Sometime before Parris arrived, my daughter showed up at the hotel to visit. Apparently she was supposed to meet her friends at the library (just across the way) and it was closed for the holiday. So she called her friends to meet her at the hotel instead. She was good about staying out of the way and happy to get to see me work. She was also not impressed with Parris. ^_^
Emily showed up first with her mom. I talked with her briefly and promised she would be at my house or the hotel whenever they wanted to pick her up. Danielle didn't show up until right around the time we finished decorating.
Finishing for the Day
Parris left sometime around 5pm and we were free to finish up the tree. Ingrid left some of the fish off so she could fix them and attach them tomorrow. It looked good and so I got the vacuum from the hotel staff and cleaned up the floor around the tree before putting down the tree skirt. Picture time for the slide show was 5pm so we needed to get it cleaned up and the fake gifts under the tree. I started to realize that we really did need some kind of stand for the three but it was to late and we made do.
Final Arguments
You might think that after making it through most of the day without problems we could finish up that way but all problems were left to the last. First were the decorative gift boxes. I specifically told Ingrid I wanted my share where they were (specifically the largest box behind the waterfall). She didn't listen to me and kept moving things. I was very irritated with her blatant snubbing of my ideas at the end.
Then as we were cleaning up she handed me the power strip. I asked why it wasn't on the tree. She told me that they gave her an extension cord instead. I told her that the power strip needed to be on the tree because it had to go with the tree when sold (the extension cord would not). She wouldn't even listen to me about it until she looked at the two other trees in the area and saw that everyone was doing the same thing. -_- I told her more than once that the power strip needed to be attached to the trunk of the tree. _~_
I was so tired from all the work that I just let the present box thing go but insisted about the power strip because it is important to the overall tree. She removed the extension cord and added the power strip as the last thing. We finished up around 5:30 and I ended up taking most of the left over ornaments with me. Clean up was fast and we were out in no time. We didn't leave the actual gifts under the tree because we didn't want to leave them in the lobby over night. Ingrid also needed to get a few things to make them presentable. With that I headed home.
I hope things go well tomorrow. We got LOTS of comments about the tree and a lot of people were hopeful that we would do well. I love that our tree was placed where everyone had to see it and that people commented well even when they didn't know I was one of the decorators. ^_^
Anyway back to this morning. I headed out shortly after 7 and stopped by Burger King for breakfast. I really don't like BK for breakfast but it was the closest and the only thing really not out of the way. I picked up some cheese tots and apple slices along with a soda for and headed out (not that I got out quickly, the particular BK I went to thinks that anyone who walks in isn't in a hurry. -_-).
The first stop was Ingrid's place where we loaded up all of the decorations and gift stuff in to the two vehicles. We headed over to the Monticello Hotel around 7:45 where we quickly unloaded everything. I got a good spot near the side door and Ingrid by the front door. This worked out perfectly because they had moved our tree to be one of the two trees right inside the main entrance of the hotel! Everyone who walks in or out sees our tree (and the Vegas tree that was in the paper).
Being up front was both a blessing and a curse. There are three doors (including the revolving door) at the entrance but 80% of people going in or out choose the door right by us. It wasn't too cold but enough that the draft it created moved things around (thankfully only our not yet used items and not the stuff on the tree).
Things started off fine with no real arguments. Ingrid was working on what would be the 3rd of 4 incarnations of our tree top last night when I picked up stuff and found this morning that it was different even still. That was ok because what we ended up with was the best one. Still it didn't have much of a way to secure it to the top of the tree. You will have to see the pictures when I post them but it topper was pointed at the bottom like a bouquet would be and the tree has a unique u-shaped top. Neither worked well for stability. I came up with a tripod-esque support system that included wiring the topper to the tree. I made it out of three pieces belonging to decorations used for the topper that each had clamps on the bottom. It turned out they were all cut at just the right length.
The "fountain" topper looked a little short when we got it on top but that was in part because some of the items Ingrid wanted were not available anymore (she didn't pick them up earlier). It looks good though and we were able to work with it. However, my vision of putting some of the lights on the tree directed to light up the top wasn't going to work now because we needed to use the garland to cover the support system for the topper.
Garland Issues
We finished the top and then continued on to putting the garland on the tree. Chosen for the garland were 1.5 foot wide sections of satin fabric in a deep bold blue color. The satin gave the impression of water and flowed beautifully. So we got started putting in on the tree and realized that what we had for the garland wasn't going to cover the entire tree. The tree skirt is the same fabric and we already found that we would need more for that so we decided to sacrifice the current tree skirt and cut it into similarly wide sections then buy a whole new section of fabric for the new tree skirt in a longer section that would cover the entire bottom of the tree.
Ingrid ran out to get the new section of fabric. She protested saying she wanted to do it later but you have to put the garland on the tree before any ornaments, it just doesn't work otherwise. So she headed out and I took the time to take a break. While I sat down (on a seat conveniently right by our tree) I took the opportunity to wire up as many of the 200 and some odd ornaments we planned to attach to the tree. I got through about 75 before she returned. That was fine though because we had all the wire we would need pre cut.
When she returned she cut the previous tree skirt in to thirds and I went about moving what we had and putting the last lengths on the tree. In true Ingrid fashion nothing I did was good enough. She moved nearly every part of the garland around and to my dismay even attached some sections to the tree without connecting them to the rest. So there are two whole sections of garland that don't connect to the main "flow" of the garland "stream". -_- The idea was a waterfall/stream that flowed from the fountain (the topper) down to the pond (the tree skirt). Well it doesn't flow. -_-
Somewhere in the middle of this I had to call Bo to run to Fred Meyers to pick up iron on webbing to tack down the edges of the garland so it didn't look like we cut it from the bolt and threw it under the tree. He apparently ran into the Black Friday mob as he wasn't able to find a place to park at the store.
So we got the entire garland on the tree and Ingrid moves immediately to putting ornaments on. I told her that we had to secure the garland first. She was so dead set on designing the tree she wouldn't even take the time to do it right. -_- I reminded her that we had to secure the garland so that it doesn't fall off the tree when moved. She was reluctant but after a couple more ornaments secured some sections of the garland. In the end I was still securing sections of it through out the day as I found whole lengths she didn't bother with (she only secured the ends apparently).
Origami Fish
Around noon Ingrid headed out to get the rest of the fish from Parris (the 12 year old kid making the origami fish for us). I worked on adding ornaments to the tree while she was gone. It was no surprised that when she returned she only had 2 more fish! She was furious with him because he told her that he had done 15 fish. Instead he made more boats, then told Ingrid that she should have told him she needed only fish. (of course she has done that more than once). Ingrid said that his dad was on him this time to get the fish done before 5pm.
Lunch
It wasn't long after she got back that we discovered that they had set out food for lunch. Yes we discovered it, we were not told. Since we were working on our tree in the lobby and the food was in the banquet hall they often forgot we were out there working. In fact we discovered they had food and even got a plate each before Susan of the FoT committee came out to tell us there was food. -_-
It was weird going to get food anyway. Half the people in the room would stop and look at us as we entered because we were not immediately recognized.
For breakfast they brought muffins, bananas, grapes and whole apples. They also had a table with coffee, water, and an assortment of juices (apple, cranberry, orange, grapefruit and tomato). For lunch they just added a three-tiered plate of wraps (turkey, roast beef and ham) and some candy. The wraps were about 2 inches by 2 inches. So yeah that was "lunch". -_-
I should also mention that one lady who waitresses for the restaurant offered us sodas and brought a refill for us as well (serving us in the lobby which was nice). She also brought us a cart to put our ornaments on so we didn't have to reach for the ground each time.
Visitor #1
Sometime not too long after this Butt-dan arrived to bring Ingrid something from the house and stayed a while. He helped out a little here and there but mostly just kept to himself and watched. He stayed for about an hour or more.
Lights
As we continued working on the tree and I went around putting on more ornaments I started to notice that something wasn't right with the lights. None of the strings of lights were attached to the tree like we were instructed. They were wrapped around the inside but not wrapped properly out to the tips of the branches. It was frustrating because the lights tended to slink back into the three. I worked at wiring them closer to the front as much as I could but I know I didn't get nearly as many as should have been done.
Then Ingrid started to get irritated with the lights and had me turn them off for periods of time during the decorating process. It worked out ok but I got the distinct impression that she doesn't like them. The general public liked them though and we got lots of comments as people walked by.
Ornaments
It was staring to become apparent near the end of the day that we had too many ornaments. That worked out find and I think we ended up ultimately with something like 75 left over. We calculated the best we could based on what we knew going into this (which wasn't much). I decided to start using some of them to fill in gaps back in the tree instead of just putting everything on outer section of the tree. So I filled in spaces near the trunk with larger ornaments and some of the smaller ones. It worked well to give the tree more depth.
Fish
Around 4:15 Parris called to say that he was heading over to the hotel to bring the rest of the fish. We were both surprised because he hadn't taken any interest in why we needed the fish only that we were making them. The best we could hope for was that he actually had more fish.
When Parris arrived he had the fish as promised but about 4 of the 7 or so he brought were folded to be more like paper airplanes than fish (obviously rushed). That wasn't the bad part though. Parris wouldn't let us work. He kept talking, and messing with the tree and…and…and. *Grrr*. I had to ask him to move a couple of times. He wasn't happy when I didn't say please! O_O Some how he figured he had creative right to start adding whatever he wanted. We had to remove things he kept putting on the tree. Then he kept getting in our way when we went to get stuff.
Ingrid got irritated with him when he started telling his dad and other people he knew that the tree was "his" tree. I wasn't so bothered by this because people know what he is talking about. He meant it as in it was the tree with is origami on it. Not the tree that Parris sponsored or created or designed.
One thing I should mention is that only two of all of these fish were presentable for the tree upon receipt. Ingrid worked to make the others fit better into the three after we received them. This was particularly hard with Parris looking over her shoulder and when she tried to spray paint one orange (because some weren't even the right color) Parris darted out the door after her like a rocket. O_O My favorite part of all this came when Parris was asked by a family friend which fish was his favorite. That happened to be one that Ingrid modified and we were both amused. ^_^
My Daughter
Sometime before Parris arrived, my daughter showed up at the hotel to visit. Apparently she was supposed to meet her friends at the library (just across the way) and it was closed for the holiday. So she called her friends to meet her at the hotel instead. She was good about staying out of the way and happy to get to see me work. She was also not impressed with Parris. ^_^
Emily showed up first with her mom. I talked with her briefly and promised she would be at my house or the hotel whenever they wanted to pick her up. Danielle didn't show up until right around the time we finished decorating.
Finishing for the Day
Parris left sometime around 5pm and we were free to finish up the tree. Ingrid left some of the fish off so she could fix them and attach them tomorrow. It looked good and so I got the vacuum from the hotel staff and cleaned up the floor around the tree before putting down the tree skirt. Picture time for the slide show was 5pm so we needed to get it cleaned up and the fake gifts under the tree. I started to realize that we really did need some kind of stand for the three but it was to late and we made do.
Final Arguments
You might think that after making it through most of the day without problems we could finish up that way but all problems were left to the last. First were the decorative gift boxes. I specifically told Ingrid I wanted my share where they were (specifically the largest box behind the waterfall). She didn't listen to me and kept moving things. I was very irritated with her blatant snubbing of my ideas at the end.
Then as we were cleaning up she handed me the power strip. I asked why it wasn't on the tree. She told me that they gave her an extension cord instead. I told her that the power strip needed to be on the tree because it had to go with the tree when sold (the extension cord would not). She wouldn't even listen to me about it until she looked at the two other trees in the area and saw that everyone was doing the same thing. -_- I told her more than once that the power strip needed to be attached to the trunk of the tree. _~_
I was so tired from all the work that I just let the present box thing go but insisted about the power strip because it is important to the overall tree. She removed the extension cord and added the power strip as the last thing. We finished up around 5:30 and I ended up taking most of the left over ornaments with me. Clean up was fast and we were out in no time. We didn't leave the actual gifts under the tree because we didn't want to leave them in the lobby over night. Ingrid also needed to get a few things to make them presentable. With that I headed home.
I hope things go well tomorrow. We got LOTS of comments about the tree and a lot of people were hopeful that we would do well. I love that our tree was placed where everyone had to see it and that people commented well even when they didn't know I was one of the decorators. ^_^