Valeria Out Loud

Every year I try to be clever with how to showcase the holiday cards. Hanging them everywhere; around windows, doorways, closet fronts, etc.

The idea for today’s post comes from an idea from way back in 2001, our first Christmas married.   The apartment we first lived in was, itself, not terrible, but it had seen better days. Needed serious upgrading, but for a first apartment it was great.  We did what we could decorating that first Christmas, and we didn’t really have much restriction except from hanging things from the ceiling.  Since it was our first Christmas together I was inundated with holiday cards.  I had so many I didn’t know where else to put them.  So, one brisk evening, as I was walking into the apartment’s gate, I stumbled upon a branch. I picked it up, with a smirk on my face like ‘wth do I do with this?’, and there I stood, holding a big branch.  And a light went on.  I could use it to hold those cards! So, I convinced the Mr., for I needed his help, and we screwed the sucker to the wall!  I figured I’d take a card, punch a hole, and use string to attach them to the tree like an ornament.  And.  It was so cute!  The branch was real big, and spacious enough to hold a ton of cards.  The rest I had taped around the branch and also around the wall opening next to it.

Fast forward to 2012.  When we put up our dear tree, our lovely cat, Mr. Gordon Ramsey, felt like shacking up in it.  He wouldn’t budge from sitting on the bottom row of limbs.  He within a day broke off a limb.  Snapped it right off and it couldn’t be repaired. I was furious. And there I sat, on the living room floor holding the darn branch thinking what the heck do I do with it?  And a light went on.  I could use it to hold this year’s cards!

A long story short, we have renovations in the plan for next year.  There is a wall between our kitchen and dining room that will be taking a nice well deserved trip to the dumpster.  Even so, instead of screwing the branch to the wall, I thought it best to use a couple of those removable hooks from 3M to hang the branch from the wall.  It worked!  So, I took the cards, punched holes in them, and used green ornament hooks (got a box for a buck at Target!) and am hanging them on the branch.  The branch isn’t as big as I’d like, but it works to keep the cards in a place and it’s cute.