What's A "Love Tree"...And Why You'll Want To Bring Our Tradition, Into Your Home, Next Christmas Liveloveblank.com live love blank, Kim Blank Scottsdale Arizona, interior design, Christmas tree, christmas decor, family christmas tradition, Style an…

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Of all our trees…this is our Family Favorite, and most important tree of All!! (The Love Tree)

My best friend Valerie, started us on this tradition, our First Christmas, post marriage. For Christmas, she gifted me Love Ornaments. These were ornaments that represented our engagement, our wedding in Riviera Maya, and the official starting of our lives together. Each year we were to collect more ornaments from all that we experienced, and major milestones that happened that year.

Are you kidding me!!! I thought this was the most fantastic idea ever…and then kind of ran with it, in true Kim fashion…and created a designated tree for just this. It has always been my dream to have a tree in every room of my home, and therefore I keep this one in my family room, where the tv is…for Hallmark Christmas movies and hot cocoa every night…with the Love Tree, as the main source of light.

So what’s a Love Tree?

Basically its a tree that represents your family! Where you got engaged, married, honeymooned, who your furry kid(s) are and then as your family grows, and you have children, they are added on. Things you love to do, and experiences you have and the trips you take. My favorites are three of the ones that Val gave us to start, a hot air balloon (we got engaged in a hot air balloon) the kissing bride and groom fish (seriously the cutest ever) and the “The Key to a Happy Life is toLove and Be Loved” (this is everything)! You can put on favorite things…like I have donuts and a handbag…because I’m obsessed with Handbags, and Dunkin Donuts are my favorite things ever! I also have a camera that represents the start of my blog/business. Jordan has a few Ohio State and Ohio sports ornaments, because that’s his alma mater and he’s crazy about sports! For the kids, we have special ornaments for them from our pregnancy and their births, and things that represent them…hearts, owls, that kind of thing, and that will grow as they have more hobbies and interests. We have home ornaments and personalized address keys, that represent our first home, which is this one. We have ornaments for our dear Chelsee who passed away last year, and for my momma who passed away when I was 7 (she is on two trees actually). I love having them on this most special tree!

My favorites, are our travel/experience ornaments, and these make up the majority of the tree!! With every trip we take, we buy an ornament to represent that vacation. Whether its scuba diving with turtles in Hawaii, swimming with the sharks in the Dominican Republic, our honeymoon in an over-the-water bungalow in Bora Bora (best trip of our lives!!!), our trips to Cape Cod, Cabo, St Martin, the Riviera Maya, Tulum, or our numerous vacations to Sedona, and San Francisco, and Napa and Sonoma…We buy a memorable ornament for our Love Tree. These are my favorites to hang and reminisce about….so many good memories already…I can’t wait for all that lies ahead for us to experience as a family!

It’s the one tree we all decorate, as a family, each year, and chat about each one as its placed. We usually have on National Lampoons Christmas movie, with hot cocoa, and Christmas music in the background…HA! Overload of Christmas!! My hubby is actually Jewish, so we have a little Menorah and Star of David to represent on this tree as well, and he loves this tree and this tradition! So if you have a multi-religious household…there are so many ways to incorporate each other and this is one!

I have a few more “need to find” ornaments, and am looking for any recommendations for online ornament shops…If you have them, please comment below…every year I go searching and searching for the missing ones, to describe that year, so I would love to know of any that exist…(I’ve actually contemplated starting this as a side business myself…ha!)

The Design Process

This year I upgraded my 10 year old (had to manually put together and string on lights) tree, to a gorgeous pre-lit, heavily flocked one from King Of Christmas. I got THIS ONE. It is 7.5 ft and heavily flocked and is amazing!! I’ve been on a flocked trend lately…I added a 3rd tree in 2017 that was also flocked…and wanted to flock the 9.5’ designer tree we have in our living room, but oh man, too much this year to get all of that done. But this tree is gorgeous, and took minutes to set up and fluff! Can’t recommend the quality enough, its stunning! But with a new tree, I wanted a new background for all the colored ornaments.

My other 2 main trees are color coordinated. My main “Designer Tree” is gold and silver, over-the-top glam and fabulous…My Tree in our Champagne Room (which is really more a Martinelli’s room, these days, is blush and silver with really cool white and silver antlers on it and it is so cool and gorge!

I have absolutely no red holiday decor, and haven’t been attracted to that for many years…I’ve been all silver and gold, which also matches my entire home decor. However, this year, a subtle pop of red plaid and a more cosy warm vibe, was calling me for this year’s Love Tree inspo. Ironically, it’s in a more modern glam room, with this amazing gold geometric wallpaper, but whatever, I had a feeling and went with it. I fell in love with these two reindeer and these fluffy pussy willow sprigs I found, and thought would make a fabulous topper. Plus, this plaid was the most perfect plaid for my taste. I’m very into layering textures in my interior design, and that extends into my tree decorating as well. Most of the sprigs and ribbon I actually picked up at Michaels, and can’t link, so I tried to find some similar items to link something for you. (see below) I layered on a pop of plaid, and then doubled the amount of ribbon in the faux white fur, and then added in a little of the animal antler ribbon. I used these burlap-like flowers, to ground the design, and give it an all-over cohesive feel. You need to lay a nice neutral foundation when you’re decorating with ornaments like this, with tons of colors and everything is mismatched and crazy. It took me a few weeks to get it together, but I’m so happy with the way it turned out. Seriously, I love decorating so much…Fashion and Interior Design hold equal weight!!!…one is just quicker for me to produce and communicate with you guys! But honestly I’d love to re-theme trees each year…this makes me sooo high on life…lol! I bought these two perfect reindeer to represent each of my daughters and attached them to the tree. Then I bought extra of the ribbon, so I could coordinate the presents under this tree, with the tree itself.

Anyways, I’m thrilled with how it turned out! It’s magical, warm and Full of Love, and represents our Family!

Honestly, I’ve been dying to share this with you guys for years now, and I’m sharing so late this year, but I really just wanted to get it out there, so next year, it will be ready to go, and you will have been exposed to the idea, and can start collecting your ornaments along the way for next year.

I’d love to hear if you decided to add this tradition to your home and your thoughts!!! Also, any other traditions you do, that you think I would enjoy…please share! I’m always looking for ways to make my family’s life more magical and rememberable!

I’m honestly so happy to be finally sharing one of my Favorite Holiday Traditions with you!! I swear this is the best idea, and thank you to my best friend Val, and my old Interior Design Partner, for this most special gift of tradition!!! This has been something so magical for our family, and I already can’t wait to put it up again next year!

Merry Christmas and I wish you Lots of Adventure, Love and Memories, on your Love Trees to come!!!

All the Love, Kim