Christmas tree display case

Almost 40 years ago when Needle Nicely was only located in Blowing Rock, NC, we had someone steal a model of a Christmas ornament. Someone said to me, it was only an ornament.  Well, yes.  But I think of the price of the canvas, the cost of the fibers, the time it took me to stitch it, and then the cost of making it into an ornament.  I only have so much stitching time (the most important aspect of the formula).   Trubey and I conferred about this and came to the conclusion we needed a case that we could lock.  We would have a Christmas tree painted on the back and we would then place out finished Christmas ornaments on the painted tree.  The case was then locked. It was dismaying how often we heard the lock chatter as people tried to open the case.

 When we decided to open the shop in Vero Beach, FL, we knew we had to have another Christmas tree case.  We had a wonderful carpenter in Blowing Rock who did a magnificent job on the first, so we asked him to do another. The painting of the trees was done on two different occasions (about 2 years apart).  I have to chuckle because the tree for Blowing Rock was definitely a gigantic "pot" plant (the artist was a local who was often high--he later went on to design sets in Hollywood!). Amazingly, none of our customers noticed!   We later sold that case to a friend of ours in Miami at the Naughty Needle.  She has since closed her shop.  

Wednesday, Macy added the past few year's ornaments to the case.  Regrettably, few people really examine the ornaments in the case, so while it prevents loss; it also limits the visibility of the ornaments.

If you look closely, you can see Needle Nicely's limited edition ornaments hanging from the shelf above the Christmas tree case.