how lovely are your branches

I woke up at 5am this morning... I have this list of everything I want to accomplish before everyone else in the house wakes up but of course my list is so long I could be going till 11am... especially when I start researching new blog designs and I get distracted for oh... 20 minutes of my precious hour. One of things that I wanted to do before my little guy, who has arms that mysteriously know how to grab everything he shouldn't, woke up was to take a camera tutorial from the Unskinny Boppy Blog that I found on Pinterest and apply it to taking photos of my tree.

The tutorial had three steps (that's my kind of tutorial):
1. turn off all your lights, except for your Christmas tree
2. set you focus to 1/30th
3. set your ISO to the highest it'll go. Don't ask me what ISO is yet... I just do what I'm told.

Let me just show you what a difference using this tutorial made from just doing the regular setting on the camera... BEFORE SETTING CHANGE:

AFTER SETTING CHANGE... AND PRUNING THE TREE... :)
We got our tree for $12 at the Building Center in Essex... hence the giant holes but I viewed it as a fun challenge to disguise an ugly tree... sort of like those makeover shows... you take someone who doesn't have the most going for them in the looks department and you teach them how to work it. :)

I love these little birds... I completely forget where they were from but I love the tiny bit of glitter to them so that they reflect the lights from the tree.

Most of our ornaments are from Restoration Hardware. I got them about four years ago for around 75% off at their after Christmas sale.

AJ and I each have these letters that hung on our stockings (the letters and stockings are also Restoration Hardware finds) but we don't have one for Drew so I've rigged up another plan with ornaments... maybe I'll show it off tomorrow.

My work girlfriends gave me this adorable little ornament for Drew at my work baby shower a few weeks before he was born... Pottery Barn loving Katie Arnold found it..

There you have it... the Migonis' 2011 Christmas Tree! Do you have your tree up yet? Anyone go get theirs the day after Thanksgiving?