Ingenuity and Persistance: Alice in Wonderland Christmas

For my first official post, I'm going to start with Christmas.  Makes perfect sense considering it is the middle of April--right?  Bear with me.  There is a reason for this madness.

Normally my Christmas tree looks like this:

In case you are wondering, this is the "Peacock Tree."  We had this as our tree for years.  What was ingenious and clever about this tree?  Nothing.  Well, maybe the tree skirt.  The tree skirt is just a bunch of my girls' dress-up clothes piled around the bottom.  Otherwise, the tree is covered with the usual ornaments purchased at big-box stores.  There are a few odds and ends picked up at my local decorating warehouse (I call it Kirklands on crack), but only a few.  I don't have money for expensive designer trees.

But this year, I was determined to do something different.  Something crazy.  Something totally my family.  The answer--an Alice in Wonderland tree!  Because we are all mad here, of course.  SOOOOO, I turn to google and pinterest to get ideas.  (Isn't that what everyone does?)  Guess what I found.  Absolutely nothing.  Well, that's not true.  I found one tree covered in ornaments made out of paper plates by kids.  Sentimental, but a little sad.  Oh, and I found a crapload of links to buy Disney ornaments (a set of tiny Alice in Wonderland will set you back about $50 on ebay).  Not exactly what I had in mind.

Mission:  to create a tree out of stuff I had and found on a budget.  I wanted the FEEL of Alice without just hanging a bunch of Disney or Hallmark Alices all over it.  Here is the result: