Awhile back my husband and I made use out of some tree limbs that had been salvaged from a tree in our yard that had been damaged in storm. Normally we don’t get so sentimental over a tree that we would save the branches, but this tree and 4 others are very special to me. Each tree represents one of our children.
Five Bradford Pear trees line our driveway and let it be known that if I had known then, what I know now about Bradford Pear Trees, then I never would have chosen that tree to line my drive. But you live, try and learn. If I were to do it all over again, I would have chosen Crepe Myrtles and I still might, but that is years away. For now these trees are here and one by one they are loosing limbs, killing my grass and becoming an eyesore.
The first tree in the line is lovingly named Autumn, named after our oldest. This tree is the one that has sustained the most damage and will be the first to go. I will cry, but it has to be done. It’s split down the trunk to the ground and has become unstable. The second tree as you can see is struggling to make it. It will be the second to go. I will cry once more. This will be a tough journey for me. But they are just trees. I’ll get over it.
As for the post I spoke of earlier, that was a tutorial on how we made a branch ladder for our home out of the saved branches from the first tree in the photo above. You can find that post here.
About two weeks ago I woke up before anyone else, came out to the kitchen to make coffee and noticed something odd. I could see a shape of something, it just caught my eye while glancing out the window. Upon closer inspection, I saw that another large branch had fallen in the night. Thankfully no one was under it, thankfully it didn’t fall across the driveway. Hubby and I priced chainsaws online as we enjoyed our morning coffee. We knew what we had in store for us that weekend. Buying a chainsaw, cutting up the debris, and toting to the curb.
Then I had a thought…I remembered Donna at Funky Junk Interiors doing a blog post about some wooden buttons. She used them on a pillow, a pillow that she featured in the post about an outdoor sofa she made out of pallets. An awesome blog post about an amazing pallet sofa and I remembered the wood buttons. hummm…must’ve meant I was smitten with those buttons. Who wouldn’t be, they were rustic, rugged, woodsy with awesome texture and they looked great on the pillow she put them on.
I asked hubby if we could save more branches, he asked if this involved making more ladders, I said; “no” ….buttons!
I explained Donna’s blog post to him and he said that he would be happy to do that. Within minutes he had set up the miter saw…
Have told you how much I love that man?
He’s wonderful.
In just a few seconds he had sliced up some round blanks for me.
now it was my turn to play with the power tools!
I drilled the holes…daring aren’t I?
I’ve already used some for a couple of little projects around the house. One of them being the little jute covered votive holder I did on Day 2. But as I sit here writing this post, ideas are flooding my brain. I need to go write them all down in my “handy dandy idea book”. You have one of those too right?
I’m thinking…
ornaments
garland
buttons
coasters
jewelry
just to name a few…I think there will be many posts written on fun little projects to make with tree branches.
like this one…
a magnet!
Are your creative juices flowing now?
glad I could help!
By clicking the photo above you can check out the other participants of the 31 days of change!
Click here to see all Before & After posts to date
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See ya tomorrow!
Rustique Art 
those buttons are just darling! And I like where you’re going with your other creative ideas too, particularly since I like to make button garlands so much – small versions of these would be completely delightful!
Cindi – you should not think of it as losing a tree, rather as passing from one form to another. Just as our children grow and change and move onto new paths, so are the trees. You honor all the memories by allowing them new form, new use, dare I say – new adventures.