christmas tree by the books

Hi everyone! I was having some problems uploading photos to blogger this week, but I seem to have it figured out. 

Despite my mini holiday decorating spree this past weekend, we don't have a proper Christmas tree up yet (either fake or real). I saw a tree made out of books on Pinterest (but can't find it anymore!) so I decided to build a book tree for our bedroom! In Chicago, our living room (exposed brick) wall had two large built in bookshelves that we loved to fill, so we have a ton of books--now, our bookshelf in the living room is completely full along a dedicated shelf in the hall cabinets--so I had plenty to build my little tree!

I didn't take any step-by-step photos, because the construction of the tree was trial and error. I divided my books into three piles--large hardcovers (like old textbooks & coffee table books) for the bottom, medium hard covers & paperbacks (like biographies & novels) for the middle, and small paperbacks (like shorter novels & plays) for the top! I first stacked the bottom books in a circular configuration, trying to layer the corners of the books to look more natural. Then, I did the same for the middle & top layers and finished with an open book on top to make a point. It took me a few tries & re-stacks to get something stable that looked good (due to the ranging thickness of the books). Once I was happy with my tree, I wound a string of lights around the "branches" and topped it with a bow!

The tree is about 2.5'--3' tall. I wanted it a little taller, but I didn't want to pull all of the books out of our living room bookshelf. I used the books we had stored in the hallway--about 35-40 in total for the tree. This is a great project for you if you have a bunch of old college textbooks and readers that you couldn't (or didn't want to) sell back!

I still want a real tree with ornaments though :)

pizza advent

For our advent calendar this year, Dane & I decided to try something kind of silly, kind of strange, but kind of awesome. The idea stemmed from a statement Dane once made: "I could eat pizza every day." So, to build anticipation for Christmas, we created pizza advent.

To defend myself against those of you who think this idea is unhealthy and gross, we have twenty varieties of pizza on our advent calendar. Some are the traditional, cheesy variety (pepperoni, Chicago style deep dish) but some are healthy (veggies & herbs, butternut squash, grilled fajita). A lot of these pizzas are dinners we already make--but now, they will be served on some sort of crust. The crust will change up a bit as well, and I'm looking forward to experimenting with different styles and tastes of crust.

We are also very active people and you can't tell me what to eat. So there.

To make the calendar, I simply cut triangles of white paper and decorated them in seasonal themes with markers. Then, I pinned them onto a cork board in a feathery, pine tree like manner. Can't beat that for simplicity.

Here's a rundown of the pizzas that made the list. I'll be sharing the recipes for some of the more "special" ones:

cheeseburger pizza
s'mores pizza
grilled fajita pizza
dessert pizza
King's choice (Dane picks)
Lady's choice (I pick)
calzone
breakfast pizza
leftovers
bacon & eggs (inspired by Elise's pizza)
pepperoni
taco pizza
butternut squash & caramelized onion pizza
BBQ chicken pizza
veggie & herbed cheese pizza
Chicago style deep dish (because we miss it!!!)
green chili pizza (this is the flavor we usually make when we have a regular "pizza night")
margherita
pesto pizza
buffalo chicken pizza

We put twenty pizzas on our advent calendar. I am pretty excited for this--not only do we get to eat some form of pizza every day, we also get to spend time together in the kitchen creating the recipes and save money by not eating out (since we have every meal planned until Christmas vacation on the 20th).

Did your favorite kind of pizza make the list? If not, share! I'll still need to come up with something good as my "Lady's choice" night!