Hanging Ornaments With Cats In The House

Dorinda
by Dorinda
3 Materials
1 Hour
Easy
I don't know about you, but I have not one, but three inside cats. This leads to a big problem trying to have a Christmas tree in the house. By the time Christmas day rolls around, half of everything on the tree is scattered on the floor, limbs have been pulled out of the trunk, (artificial tree), and it's a total mess. OK, so maybe it's not THAT bad, but it feels that way to me. lol Anyway, I came up with a way to hang my ornaments in the house without the cats getting to them. No, they won't be on a tree, but it's my way of compromising. There was no cost to me as I had everything here. I listed it as an hour to do, and this included finding everything I wanted to use.
I start out with a door frame.  As you can see, the first door frame has nothing in it, but the one behind it has a tension bar at the top of it. 
Here is what my tension rods look like.  As long as you don't have heavy ornaments, then you can use a smaller one.  Overlook the dogs head, foot, and tip of tail on the floor. lol
I found a bag of garlands that I'd used on tables at one of my yard/tag/garage sales, and picked out the gold to use on this project.
Next I found some ornaments that I wanted to hang.  BTW, these two ornaments were made by me. (shameless plug)  The Granny head was thought of when I found this crocheted hat in a box one day.  I tied bells to the ends of the bow on the hat, then glued it to the top of a frosted glass ornament.  With a black marker, I drew her a face, then glued the glasses on that I'd found at a yard/tag/garage sale.  The other ornament is very special, as it is the last ornament I will ever hand paint, as hand tremors won't allow me to now.  I first put paint in a glass ornament, and let that dry.  Then I painted the outside.  OK, now back to the project at hand...lol
The Granny head ornament used a string to hang, so I slipped it over one end of the tension rod.
Then I hung the tension rod in the doorway, close to the top.  Next I took the garland, and wrapped it around the tension rod.  I kept wrapping until I got to the other end, then straightened it out so it looked more even.
I hung the hand painted ornament on the rod, as well as the four milkweed pod ornaments that I made in my last project.  Word of advice, hang the biggest ornaments on the ends, and the smallest in the middle.  Where this doesn't pertain to me, my husband is tall enough that the bigger ones would hit him in the head as he goes thru. lol  Also, hang the heaviest ones on the ends so the tension rod doesn't sag in the middle.  No, it's not the same as having a tree decorated, but at least I can still decorate with my ornaments, and they not get broken.  A variation would be to hang them on curtain rods that you attach on the tops of your doors and windows if you're afraid of them getting knocked off of the tension rods.
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