Tropical Scene is getting there

This weekend, Joey and John got the garage backdrop done. I got a little further on the tropical scene. Now, I just need to decorate the flamingos and perhaps somehow make it look like they are decorating the tropical tree.


Maybe I can find mini tropical ornaments and hang them all over the tree. Then, I can have an ornament hanging out of the mouths of the flamingos. Cute!

I am thinking sand might complete this scene, but I'm not sure how I feel about sand in the house. It'll probably happen. I need to decorate the top of the brick pantry first. What am I going to do up there?

5 annalee elves jumped unto the trunk

Not a bad deal for $75. Merry Christmas.

Cardinal Scene Throughout the Years

This year, the red cardinal scene is above the front window. Last year was the first time I moved it from where it was, next to the snowmen.


I love the red and green lighted twigs. We got them last year at A Christmas Place



Here they are in 2010


Here they are in the 2oo9 and 2008 displays.

Snowman Scene is complete

Today friends and family came over to help decorate. It was loads of fun and we got a lot accomplished.

Some of us wrapped the wall art to look like presents.


Here are the masterminds of the snowman scene. Kathy's vision was to have all the snowmen cascading down the bar. She made it happen and with Caitlin's help, they got it done in only a few hours. Bill and Jim helped John get the tree to rotate and Jim hung the giant glitter snowflakes in the perfect locations. The kids and Mom decorated the tree and I was the runner.

Oh, and I made the cocktails which fueled our creativity.


I don't know how Tinsel made it into the team photo...all she did was steal our Christmas socks. What a great memory I have when I look at this photo. It was a fun day.


2011 Copeland Christmas

Who remembers where the snowman scene was last year....?.....

How to Fix Broken Christmas Lights

I love our Lightkeeper Pro. It's a little red gun that fixes broken Christmas lights. You can it get on the Christmas aisle at home stores. Some Christmas lights just need to be thrown away, but if you have a strand that you think is only a few years old and the bulbs are still clear (as opposed to hazy/burned) then use the LKP.

• Plug lights into an outlet
• Remove an unlit bulb
• Plug the empty bulb socket into the Lightkeeper Pro
• Pull trigger 20 times while watching for faint flickers coming from the other unlit bulbs. This is the culprit bulb.
• Replace the culprit.

This method doesn't always work, but today it worked for me with 2 of 2 strands. Visit the LKP website for the official user instructions and also for alternate methods of fixing broken lights. Email me with questions.

Note: this is not a paid endorsement.

Made a lot of progress today

I want to thank John, Tessa, Bradley, Eric, Dalton, and Joey for helping out with organizing the storage units this weekend. We took everything out, organized it, then put it all back together. Now, the decorating part will be a snap.

Here we are at 2pm after 4 hours of dirty, sweaty work. Thank goodness we got in a cold front last night. Today, the high temp reached 82. It was great.


Compared to yesterday, the units look spectacular today. There are aisles and everything is labelled great.

First Full Day Dedicated to 2011 Copeland Christmas Display

I haven't been to storage in a while, so I rode over with Joey and John to get some work done. I have to say, I was floored. It looks like someone robbed a Christmas store in the middle of night and had to shove the hot santas somewhere fast.

Tomorrow, I am headed back to storage with 4 new Harbor Freight shelving units and 3 paid helpers.

All the non-christmas stuff will get put in one corner. The loose clunky Christmas items will go on shelves. Everything else is going in a rubbermaid bin or the dumpster. What am I going to do with those 500 CDS, 300 VHS tapes, and 500 records? The inflatable boat we'll never use is going to a new home. So is everything else we NEVER USE but pay to store.

...We will create rows that a person can fit through.....
...the boxes will be labelled with legible handwriting...
...it won't be perfect, but it's be better...
...I'll take a deep breath and *deal*



On the good side of things, I put up the "noel scene" above the kitchen cabinets today. I usually call it the gold angel scene. It wasn't my first choice of scenes to build for the year, but these were the bins closest to the front of the storage unit. It was a rather easy decision.

Other good news is that the scene went up in about 1-2 hours. I switched things up a bit this year and added the gold glitter candles to the fridge. I don't know that I love it, but it works. The little Annalee angels hanging from the ceiling are so cute.



I also rewired the 18" lighted palm tree with white LEDS. It looks good. My flamingos are on the way from California tomorrow I hope to find the tropical bins in storage so I can begin working on the 2011 "tropical scene."

Copeland Christmas on Facebook

I wonder if I can get more fans on our Copeland Christmas facebook page than on my personal page.....

http://www.facebook.com/CopelandChristmas

We put up the first 2011 display item

This is so exciting! We are doing a snowman scene in the dining room.



Here's what I jotted down in my notes the other day...

We could do a snowmen scene, and we could even use one of the 6 ft resin pieces (like we did in the '09 display-see below). Then, the tree could be all red/white/black with carrot nose ornaments. I have a new snowman hat tree topper from January Pier One sales. Photo below. I could make all the snowmen doing something...like shoveling snow. I could use blocks of styrofoam and lots of fake snow. I could get some cute garden shoves and rest them against the wall. Maybe I can find some blocks of ice. A few snowmen can be off to the side getting into a snowball fight. Maybe some other snowmen could be making snowglobes. Or perhaps I could use some Annalee elves to be making the snowglobes. The snowflakes have to hang from the cieling again...just like 2 years ago. Blue mini lights can illuminated through snowblankets to add some depth. A big red/white striped scarf can keep the tree warm...and big stick arms can make the tree almost look like it's alive. Somewhere I'll put a homemade looking wooden sign that says "snowmen at work" or something clever. My new led dripping icicles will have to go somehwere...maybe they'll hang from the curtain rod. This makes me hope I can find the snowmen early on...now I have two scenes that I need to dig out of the storage.

Now I'm thinking all the snowmen will be decorating the large tree. Some will even be repelling from helecopters so they can add the tree topper. Others will be choosing ornaments from boxes and yet others will be helping pass along ornaments in an assebly line fashion. I think there needs to be lots of snow all over.

The Themed Trees at Copeland Christmas 2010

Two exciting new themed trees for this year, plus one old standby...We have a woodland gnome tree, the large Annalee tree, and the pink Disney Princess tree.

The Annalee Tree:
A few weeks ago, I began stalking the macys holiday section in hopes of catching a glimpse of this season's exclusive Macys Annalees.