setting the table for Christmas day

Yesterday I hosted a surprise birthday dinner party at my home to celebrate my husband's grandmother's 98th birthday. Grandma is the sweetest, nicest and most lovable lady I've ever known and such an inspiration ... she is 98 and still goes to yoga classes! 

Today I spent the day cleaning up from the party and started to prepare the dining room table for Christmas dinner. I have been making these adorable little burlap ribbon trees and I plan on putting them at each place setting.

After featuring my burlap trees in Creative Living Magazine, I had a few people ask me how I made them. So I thought that I'd share a quickie tutorial on how to make them here ...

My supplies: green burlap ribbon, styrofoam cones, T-pins, two sided tape for ribbon, striped paper straws, mini metal pails, florist foam, kraft sizzle and baker's twine.

Use one T-pin to keep the ribbon in place at the top of the cone. Wrap the ribbon around the cone to cover the pin and continue wrapping down the surface of the cone. Once you get to the bottom of the cone do one final wrap around so that the ribbon overlaps enough for you to add a piece of two-side tape to end. You can see in the photo above (bottom right) that the burlap ribbon should come down a little lower than the bottom of the cone so that you do not see the cone. Add a paper straw into the centre bottom of the cone.

Add a chunk of floral foam into the pail to support the paper straw. I tied baker's twine around the pail and added kraft sizzle to hide the floral foam. 

These trees are pretty simple to make and I think that if I store them properly they will last for a number of years.

I'm also adding these s'more favors to every place setting. I have decorated the clear take out boxes with the green burlap ribbon that I used to make the trees and lace ribbon left over from my holiday gift wrapping. We have an outdoor fireplace in the backyard and I'm hoping that the weather is nice on Christmas day so that we can toast our s'mores outside after dinner.