Treetopia assembled a super cool Design Council for their Christmas in All Shapes and Sizes campaign, and I am so honored to be a part of it!

We got to decorate a Treetopia tree of our choice (sponsored) and then answer the question, ““What unique family tradition inspired your Christmas tree’s theme?”

I have sort of a roundabout answer to this, as my Christmas tree is really about starting to create new traditions in my own home, rather than representing unique traditions from my family. After moving out of my family’s house, I didn’t have my own tree for a very long time. I was kind of afraid to start gathering my own set of ornaments when I was basically moving to a new apartment every year. When I finally got around to buying my own (faux) tree a few years ago, I decided that I wanted to only buy handmade or vintage decorations, and this is what I’m showing here for the Christmas in All Shapes and Sizes campaign. I like putting new spins on classic Christmas traditions, such as stringing popcorn into garlands and finding the Christmas pickle. My popcorn and pickles are crocheted! And since I just love food-themed decor in general, I have a lot fun, kitschy cupcakes in my tree, too.  I admit that I broke a little on the handmade/vintage mission when I hung some cute keychains I purchased while in Tokyo in October, but “re-purposing” might still be on theme! My personal mission as a crafter has always been to add more fun and color to my life and the world around me, and my candy-coated lavender tree definitely fits the bill!

Let’s take a closer look!

My older tree is pink, which I have a vintage red tree-skirt for. But I’m one of those people who doesn’t like mixing purple and red, so I threw down this vintage flower-loom afghan! I love anything that screams technicolorgranny!

Ok, I broke my handmade/vintage rule a bit here with these Treetopia Artisan’s Glass Egg ornaments, but I think that gifted ornaments can count, too :P. I liked these lil guys because they reminded me of ornaments from my tree growing up. I probably accidentally smashed a few… and in grand tradition, I actually already dropped one of these Glass Eggs on the wood floor… shhhhH!!! I can have nice things!!!

I really love ornaments that have a little tiny story on them, like these two lil smooching deer!!! I am also in desperate need of an amazing tree-topper. I have gone years without one, and I want the best one!

I actually have a few more kitschy cupcake ornaments on the way, being handmade as we speak! My current fave shop for this kind of decoration is 12LegsCuriosities on Etsy.

Please check out the other Design Council Bloggers’ trees and their holiday family traditions on the Treetopia blog! Two trees/bloggers per day have been going up this whole week. BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE.

Treetopia is giving us the opportunity to give one lucky winner a $150 gift card to shop at Treetopia. That’s pretty dang spiffy if you ask me! All you have to do to enter is to comment my blog with your favorite one-of-a-kind family holiday tradition. I know that I just asked this in my group giveaway, so if you wanna mix it up, you can also answer with your favorite holiday treat/drink/side-dish/snack as well! You can enter until next Wednesday, November 30th, at midnight! A winner will be chosen randomly by Random.org.

P.S. The holiday tradition with my family is that we go out to eat somewhere nice together on Christmas Eve and then go home and open presents that night. The following day, we have friends come over for Christmas dinner and have a huge, extremely funny White Elephant gift exchange. Which reminds me, I have to go hunt for that…

P.P.S. Here is an outtake from when I had the room arranged a bit differently, but I felt like Bearry Ham (long story) was lookin a bit weird, so he sat the rest out.

My friends at Creativebug have an amazing Black Friday sale starting TODAY through November 28! If you’ve ever been curious about taking any classes (including mine!) on Creativebug, this is the time to try it! New members get a 3-month subscription for just $1, and you get access to hundreds of fun and informative video classes spanning a broad range of art, craft, and DIY. No special code needed, just click on any images or links on this post, and you’ll be taken to a page with the offer. Here is a lil taste of some of my other classes! PLUS, I have a new Critter of the Month crochet class launching in December, and… it’s pretty awesome.

Hello! So…! The app that I used to run my blog ads, PassionFruitAds, seems to have gone belly-up sooner than they had announced… the website suddenly no longer exists, their Twitter has been suspended, and they owe a bunch of bloggers (including me) a bunch of money. I’m still hosting a giveaway even though you can’t see any ads running in my sidebar at the moment, but I hope to figure out a new blog ad situation in the new year. I have been thinking about some changes, but we’ll see how everything shakes out when I am able to devote more time to it!

I really love how colorful this giveaway is. It’s right up my alley!

One lucky winner will receive:

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I know this is super last-minute, but I’ve been juggling quite a few things! The Yummy You! website has been in dire need of a re-build (long story), but I wanted to make the turkey hats available to you ASAP! I also discounted them! I will also ship them via Priority Mail within the U.S.! Can’t wait to see you guys in them!

(p.s. crochet pattern coming very ver soon…also possibly a video tutorial…!)

I have a cute little pattern available now in Issue 51 of Simply Crochet magazine! It’s a  cupcake pencil topper, and it’s perfect for a stocking-stuffer or a “just thinking of you.”

I don’t usually crochet tiny things, so this is probably the smallest cupcake I’ve ever worked on. I hope to see some of your cupcake pencil toppers out there!! It’s a great stash-buster and so adorably sweet!