Ok, I’ve been meaning to do this for two weeks now, so prepare for a long read! Life has been busy lately with doing things away from the house, especially working. The buzz(saw) of Xmas carols has started, and the twinkly lights and decorations are everywhere you look, and the crowds are-a-starting to become too large for comfort. I don’t mind crowds if they are all going the same way, but in a mall there are those who stop to look at every little thing, those who decide they want to walk in lines rather than in smaller groups, those you are sure are reading your mind as they can consistently get in your way no matter which way you try to go, and then there are those like me who are just trying to get from one end to the other in the fastest time possible. There has been so much to do these past couple of weeks, but I’m happy with the work I’ve done and it has been stressful but oddly fun (I’m a poet, dont’cha know it!) Anyway, here are some pictures of the projects I’ve been working on. The Display Attic team has been fun to work for. Would I do it again next year? Perhaps … for a little more money (I’ve got experience now, yanno!) 🙂

The Swarovski Crystal Wish Tree

This thing is a beast! 32 gargantuan feet, a tonnage of metal and bristly green fibers with large green balls, and 5,000 Swarovski crystals hung so delicately and just so, twinkling and sparkling like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It’s magical! It’s soooo beautiful! Well, it better be cause it was a helluvalotta work to get it there. 🙂 It took lots of people up day and night, fluffing and primping, unwrapping and hanging the close to 5,000 crystals (I think the tree has something like $350,000 worth of crystals on it), getting up from the basement to the 3rd floor, building the revolving stage that it’s on, putting it together without breaking too many crystals (4 levels all 8 ft high, weighing hundreds of lbs), pleating yards and yards and yards of fabric to create a skirt around the aforementioned revolving stage, putting up 50 foot curtains to hide the terrific tannenbaum, lights to create the magic, and a team of guards sitting around the perimeter 24/7 until it is once again, stripped and returned to the warehouse to live it’s life out in the dark. It’s ok though, after all that excitement, I think the tree will need a bit of a break. It’s alot of work, but in the end it’s always worth it. The Swarovski tree is sponsored by the Children’s Xmas Wish Foundation, so make your wishes on the tree. May all your wishes come true!
PS: Mouse over the pictures for an explanation. 🙂 PPS: Only if you use IE!

My job in all this was to keep fluffing and primping the trees, looking for broken crystals or fixing bare spots on the green beastie’s sparkly fur. Seeing the daylight break over the glass roof of the Eaton Centre was pretty cool. There was just enough light for the crystals to start twinkling. I think I may go out to the unveiling on Thursday night (if I’m not already working!) Either way, I’d love to be there to see it. 🙂

Santa’s Castle

Putting up Santa’s Castle was a fun project! I think we made it look beautiful and magical, and hopefully Santa’s red suit won’t clash with the colour scheme (purple and gold mostly, with some teal coloured trees with green lights, and blue rope lighting all around the fence). It shouldn’t – purple is half red already, right?! Santa arrived at the castle this past Saturday, and already hundreds of families have had their children’s picture taken with Santa. It kinda baffles me that we put up so much fuss for just a few days of the year. People overspend, overindulge, and overstress, when we should all just be taking it easy and spending time with friends and family before the winter sets in. In pagan times, people got together and celebrated Yule, the winter solstice, because they weren’t sure who would make it through the winter and they wanted to celebrate their survival so far, but also to know that they’ve seen their loved ones one last time before the long cold winter. People shared what they had, and some exchanged little tokens with the specials ones in their lives. For me, that’s what makes this time of the year. I’ve always been a little stressed around Xmas, but Yule makes me all shimmery and warm inside. Could it possibly be days getting longer? Could it be the return of the light? Could it be all the yummy food and good times with friends? Probably! 🙂 Ok, picture time!

Sherway Gardens

I only worked at this mall 4 or 5 times, and while I enjoyed it (the mall is gorgeous!), I also felt as though I was out of my element a bit. Sherway is definitely a rich people mall. They put HEAPS of money into maintaining the mall, and the Xmas budget is much bigger than at the Eaton Centre. They play classical music in the mall, which is quite nice, but all the stores are slightly upper crust (the flakiest part right?! *grin*), so I don’t even want to go into them. These people want Xmas and they want it in style! *sigh* Santaland is pretty cool though. If I was a kid I think it’d be quite cool to go and sit with other kids for story time with Santa. I think they have a photographer to take pictures of the kids interacting with Santa, but it allows the kids to be able to play a little and hang out with interactive Santa. The parents had to pay $4 for each child for story time, and I think the money is going to some charity or other. Beats just sitting on his lap!

Lobby trees, etc

We also lit, fluffed, and decorated 17 trees of various sizes and 4 wreaths for the 3 main entrances into the Eaton Centre. There are trees at 20 Queen St. W., 250 Yonge St., and 1 Dundas St. W. At the main entrance at Yonge and Dundas we hung these giant silver stars (that look very much like giant silver sea urchins). They look pretty neat if I do say so myself, and I can report that no eyes were lost in the installation of this Xmas decoration. Hopefully, they’ll all stay right where they are!

Ok, I tired now! Back soon!