Festival of Trees

You've heard all about Nolan's girlfriend Annabella, but her mom Heather is an interior designer (her site here) and my mommy entrepreneur mentor. She designed a tree for the Providence Festival of Trees that is currently on display at the downtown El Gaucho. Heather, send me a picture!

Since it was her first year doing this for this organization, her tree is not in the big auction but we took a trip downtown to sneak a peak at the trees that had made it in. Let me tell you they better watch out for Heather next year, they are going to have some stiff competition!

There were a few that were really gorgeous and inspired but most were just OK, nothing special. Here are a few of our favorites.

This one was all purple, one of my favorite colors and called "Dressed for the Holidays".

This one was Heather's favorite and one of the more inspired ones. It was called "Christmas in the Northwest" and was dripping with raindrop crystals under a metallic umbrella. From far away it really looked like it was raining.

This one was my favorite, called a "Winter Jubilee". It had so many layers and things to look at but from far away it all came together really well. I would gladly have this on display in my home. A few more years and we will go all out on a tree. We still have to keep the decorations to the top half, away from little fingers and curious cats.

Close up of all the details.

I think this one was Annabella's favorite, covered in cupcakes with an icing topper!

Both the kids liked this one because of all the toys at their height, but there was no touching at this event. This tree was of course called "A Christmas Story". See if you can figure out all the movie references, it's covered with them!

This event was open to the public and very family oriented with balloon animals, face painting and Santa pictures. We took full advantage of everything and got the kid's faces painted.

Nolan quickly turned his ornament into a chilly pepper.

It was the perfect way to spend a rainy Monday, plus it was all free (besides the downtown parking). We will definitely be back next year. Taking pictures of Heather's tree of course!