First up: My AOL email address was hacked. I think it was my AOL address. It’s hard to tell because it looks like the email is coming from me, but it’s actually coming from another address. I’m going to change the password of all my email addresses today. I’ve already changed the AOL password.

So if you get an email from me with a link, don’t open it.

We haven’t decorated the tree yet. Why? Because I was working on a project or two for the dollhouse and Don was busy and by the end of the day we both agreed that today would be a better choice.

The biggish project for the dollhouse involved a bottle brush tree, a product called lycopodium, lots of glue, and lots and lots of patience.

For the past couple of Christmases, I’ve used a small white bottle brush tree in the dollhouse living room. I’ve never liked it precisely because it looked like a bottle brush tree with no depth or irregularities, not to mention the fact that it was too short. You know I strive for realistic looking minis in this dollhouse. This year, I happened upon a couple of tutorials that showed me that I could, in fact, have a real looking Christmas tree. I’ll link to the one I used at the end of the post.

I found a green bottle brush tree last week. It wasn’t easy. Michael’s, for example, had sold out. It had to be a certain height and width, which made the search all the more challenging. I finally found one at a local market.

There it is. I had to snip off all the glitter at the ends of the branches and I ended up trimming the whole thing so it was a bit narrower.

Next, a bag of lycopodium, which I ordered from miniatures.com. Lycopodium is preserved princess pine – so it’s real and you can use it for trees, wreaths and garlands.

It comes in a bag and there’s lots of it. There’s more than enough on hand to make more than one tree.

You also need glue. I used my favorite, Quick Grip.

Basically, you measure how long you want the bottom branches to be. They need to extend beyond the bottle brush branches. Then you start cutting pieces of lycopodium to match that length. Then you add a drop of glue to each branch and start inserting them in the bottle brush tree. The tutorial advised filling in the bottom first, then doing the middle, then filling in the rest of the tree.

I deliberately clipped the lycopodium branches in an irregular manner. I wanted the tree to look real.

It’s somewhat tedious work. It’s messy. It took me a couple of hours to add all the pieces. And, if you’re at all like me, you’ll end up with glue all over your fingers and you will spend the rest of the day peeling it off the aforementioned fingers.

But gosh, does it look great in the end!

I’m so excited about this tree! Now I have to figure out how to decorate it.

I’ve got ideas.

It’s too big for the living room because of the fireplace, so Caroline decided to put it in the den this year. And, of course, furniture had to be rearranged.

Note: the rest of the runners for the stairs have been installed.

Caroline’s getting ready to decorate.

Finally, in preparation for the rooftop garden, some ironwork has been installed.

I’m thrilled with it. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner! It really finishes off the roof. Don says it looks “elegant.” There’s a segment of the iron work that extends from the back of the potting shed to the edge of the roof on the right, but you can’t see it in this photo.

All in all, a very exciting day at Hummingbird Cottage. Carpet installed, ironwork installed, Christmas Tree in place. Looks like both Mockingbird Hill Cottage and Hummingbird Cottage need to do some decorating now!

The tutorial I used was from the blog, My Projects in Miniature. Here’s the link.

I’m off to change some more passwords.

The book review I promised for today will be posted tomorrow instead. I’m just now finishing the book – and I really love it, so I don’t want to rush my reading experience. It’s that good.

Happy Wednesday.