Yes, Lollapalooza is in full swing at the moment, but this is not the festival I'm speaking of. I'm speaking of the Peoria Festival of Trees. Yes folks, the decorating has begun.
A few weeks ago, I joined Kristin and the decorating crew for move-in and design for the 2026 festival season. No, I didn't like move-in better than last year (in fact, it was worse because we had less help, it was 100 degrees, and MORE boxes to move).
We did complete the move from the storage facility to "the shop" in under 4 hours (although it took two trips). I, however, did not need to to participate in the second trip because Kristin wanted me to work with Marci to unpack the speciality ornaments. It was a job I had last year, so she thought I could handle it.
It took all move-in day and 1/2 of the following day to get all the specialty unpacked. A few observations: 1. There are too many snowflakes (this will be important later in this post), 2. The design crew used a lot of specialty ornaments last year and Kristin has - almost - held true to the promise that she would not buy anything new, 3. The elves are creepy, 4. Kristin bought a "deer" ornament that is not my cup of tea (and for that commentary, I was tasked with helping design a tree using this ornament).
This is the "deer" ornament in question.
Also, I thought that unpacking ribbon last year was the absolute worst job in the shop. I was wrong. The absolute worst is unpacking floral and organizing all of it into bins. However, I was so good at it, my sister had me doing all of it, with the help of another decorator Sarah.
Sidetrack for a moment...I also got to spend quality time with my nephew Finn. I'd feed him in the morning and give him his treats in the evening. And for the first time ever, he let me pick him up and hold him. It was less than 30-seconds, but I as very happy he finally let me do it!
Back to regularly scheduled programming. We got the shop fully unpacked in 5-days and began the design process for the trees.
I stayed long enough last year to design a single tree and really disliked the process. Why? Well, we had just finished putting everything away and the design process involves removing ornaments, ribbon, floral, etc. from the place we just put it away in and then, whatever we don't decide to use gets put back on the shelves. In the meantime, whatever they will use for the design gets packed up in a storage bin to be brought out later during the decorating process. I mean, didn't we just get done with that? However, I stayed for the all tree designs (we didn't start on wreaths or hearth and home before I left).
Here's a sneak peak at the "Gingerbread" design, the first design of the season.
And, Toy Story.
But the tree I am most excited about is the one that Kristin let me design with an ornament I've been looking at in the shop for the past three years and wondering why it is not being used. It is my favorite ornament.
I can tell you that the tree using this ornament turned out awesome. This is not the design aesthetic of my sister, but in the end, she loved it. And everyone else does too.
Now they've completed this tree in the shop and I can tell you it is stunning. Of course it is! I do have the eye for this sort of thing (which I know my sister doesn't love)!
We also did a few other things while I was in town. We attended the retirement party for Decorator Kim, had a few Framily dinners with the Reed family, hung out with Patty P, and of course went to the Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Costco, and Menards (no festival trip would be complete without visiting those places).
But the absolute best thing I did while I was there was attend decorator Sandy's weekly swim time. Yes, she and a friend swim three times a week for an hour. So, I was in the pool at 5:50 a.m. and loved it. For those who don't know, I was a champion swimmer in my youth (and very good at it). I hadn't been in the pool in years - well swimming laps in the pool that is. But, it was great. And look forward to doing it again in the future.
Oh, and I can't finish this post without sharing that we have a new shop shirt this season. Or as I like to refer to it, the uniform.
