If you are like me, you LOVE a bargain! I mean who wants to pay full price when you can get it on sale or for free? Last week while checking Facebook, I saw an advertisement for a free 7 1/2 foot tall artificial tree from Frontgate. Imagine my excitement! I called dibs!
Our town has an online Facebook Page where folks can advertise items for free. It is the ultimate in recycling! I usually give things away to my family or friends first. If they don’t want it, then I will give it away or donate it too. This time I found an artificial tree that just needed a little TLC. The kind lady giving away the tree said one of the strands of lights had a short in it, which caused endless fights with her husband. I figured I could easily replace or repair it. Otherwise the tree was in perfect shape!
I hauled the tree home and put all three pieces including the stand in the living room for assembly. It is a 7 1/2 foot tall Siberian Spruce tree that retails for $1,599 in Frontgate. Personally I LOVE everything in that catalog, but I’m afraid my husband would divorce me if I ever bought a fake tree for that much. It is beautiful, however….
Since it was free I knew I could repair the damaged string of lights myself. The catalog boasts commercial quality lights so that if one burns out the others stay lit. Perfect. So, before heading home with my new tree I swung by the store and picked up two more packs of the LED diamond cut lights that matched the ones on the tree. I like these bulbs because they stay cool to the touch and cast a soft warm white light. They are also a good bit larger than typical tree lights.
Yesterday my sweet husband helped me assemble the tree. It was heavy! Once we put it together I tried to light it, but the top part of the tree would not light. That must be the faulty section. I dug through the rest of the tree and rearranged the order of the plugs and what do you know? It all lit up! Maybe as it stays on a while it shorts out? So far so good! I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
Meanwhile, I am beyond thrilled with this beautiful tree! I have two extra strings of lights just in case. I think I will leave this one in the living room where it is. We have a larger artificial tree that my in-laws gave us years ago. I do love a real tree but since we put it right next to the wood stove, it always dries out too quickly. So artificial it is.
Last year I flocked our large artificial tree, but this year I think it will need re-flocking. (Is that a word?) It is raining today so that will happen another day. Today I will play with the free tree and dig out some other decorations. Do you prefer a real tree or artificial? Happy Monday, friends!
