to top it all off...a vintage christmas tree topper to d.i.y. for

it's no secret i'm in love with all things vintage. remember when i made that super cool faux vintage ornament? i'm in heaven when i'm walking around antique stores or thrift stores-well, that is, if  lady m isn't with me. don't get me wrong. i love her. more than anything. and for the most part, she's genius in these types of stores. she's very careful, and delicate, and tender with any of the items i let her hold. it's very sweet to see. it's mostly the stress of walking around trying to hold my finds, and push a stroller, or hold a 23lb baby in one hand and my awesome deal in the other...not to mention the looks from the store owners whenever they see a little baby enter their store. *sigh. there are more convenient things in this life.

but. i digress. one thing that i can't stand is the price for some of these vintage things. i mean, i know, you're paying for history, for the look. i get it. but i'm not going to pay those prices. i just can't right now.
so.
i've been looking for a christmas tree topper for our main christmas tree. the tree has a lot of vintage elements (surprise, surprise) so i wanted it to be vintage-y-a finial, in fact. but was coming up short. the ones i did see were too breakable or too expensive.
but then, i went to target.
i saw that they had these ginormous ornaments for your outside trees. finial ones. for $5.

there it is, hanging on one of my little alpine trees. it's hard to tell from the picture, but this is a very large ornament.
and then i got to thinking that it shouldn't be difficult to convert this ornament into a tree topper.
and i was right.
i simply pulled off the hanger part. ps, that's totally the technical term for that little cap that allows the ornament to hang. anyway, i pulled that off.
took some tree trimmers (i'm sure some strong scissors would do the trick, too) and enlarged the hole. and that was it.

a freaking tree topper. less than 5 minutes of work and for $5. freaking crap, people. that. happened.
the size is actually perfect for the size of our tree. it has enough weight to it (visually speaking, of course) and it really looks like it belongs on top of a tree-not hanging from one. target, please, what were you thinking trying to sell this as an ornament?

things i've learned:
1. ok. so fine. i'm sure most of you have your trees already up and don't even care. but...the possibilities are endless on this one. i mean, they have several shapes not just vintagey-finials. when they go on clearance i'm going to snatch a few up for next year...i might have some ideas. (*sigh. i can't believe i'm already in the plan-for-christmas-next-year mode...*sheesh)