Good afternoon! I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving! It was a bit of a whirlwind, I can’t believe how fast this weekend went. Did you do any Black Friday shopping? I went out twice, I was such a nut! The early 7am one I almost didn’t make because I only had 3 hours of sleep. But Michaels was having a deal on their plain garlands and wreaths for only $1.99 each! Since I was banking on it going on sale that morning and I had to buy a bunch anyway, I made myself get up and go. I’m so glad I did! I had fun at Christmas Tree Shop and Carter’s, too! I got a lot of my Xmas shopping done so definitely felt accomplished. Now that the holidays are in full swing, I’m not ashamed anymore that we have our Christmas decorations up, haha! I definitely want our house to stand out and I think we achieved that. I got lucky on Friday because the weather was so nice, I got half of the decor done. Yesterday I was not as fortunate because it was FREEZING out, but thankfully I finished! Now we just get to enjoy the decor for the rest of the season!
Let me start by showing you what the house looked like when we bought it. Honestly, I wish it didn’t have vinyl siding. But, what are you gonna do? There’s definitely plenty of things still need to be done (remove awning, landscaping needs major help, painting it a different color, fixing concrete walkway, adding window boxes…to name a few), but there are a couple changes we did so far that has made a big difference.
I hate that our sidewalk in front of our house is so damaged. People used to park right on the sidewalk, especially during football games across the street. I hope the town will fix it eventually. And as you can see, LANDSCAPING NEEDS MAJOR HELP, lol! I tried really hard this summer to make it look pretty but it just wasn’t helping. I think I will need to hire a professional this Spring if I still can’t figure it out. Until then, we worked on projects that we COULD handle. We cut down those large bushes on the side, which uncovered a hand railing. (And if you remember last week’s post, those bushes were the inspiration for my “natural” tree theme.) All that brown fence I stained white in September. Essentially I painted over it. I love painting fences as much as I love painting bookcases…which is not very much. Wow, did I get hand cramps! Of course it was well worth it in the end because after that, it really stood out. I never knew I wanted a house with a white picket fence but it totally works for me! And of course, about 7 hours total of prettying it all up with the holiday decor this weekend. Here it is!
The sun was setting when my husband took this photo so it looked so pretty! Doesn’t the awning make it look like the house has eyelids? Lol! My sleepy home. By the way, I get so embarrassed when I’m outside and taking photos. I don’t know why, lol! Because we live on a main road, we get so many cars driving by and I don’t know what they’re thinking. Like maybe, “Who does this girl think she is? Her house ain’t all that!” Just my insecurities talking, don’t mind me! Anyway, here are some close up photos!
When I think of a color that represents Christmas the most, I think of red. The red stands out so much against the white, and I love it! So playing up the color and making it a focal point really makes everything pop. What I basically did was reused all the red I used last Christmas and ornaments from previous Christmases. I did run out of ornaments but I got some more at the Dollar Tree. Here is pretty much all the materials I used:
From Michaels: Plain garlands and plain wreaths, red mesh, ribbons, ornaments and branches from Christmas past. From Dollar Tree: red/white/green ornaments, red bows on wreaths, fake red poinsettias, over-sized ornaments.
I love a good pretty wreath but for the door, I wanted to do something that was a little different. I saw this photo on Pinterest and that’s what gave me that idea:
I love how unique it is and what a great way to kind of “send out your message” to the world. With all that is going on in the world right now, we definitely need a little peace on Earth. I might end up “jazzing” it up a little bit though since I don’t feel like it stands out enough, haha. I’m going to share on Friday how I made it.
Here are a couple more photos. I loved how the planters on the steps came out with all the old ornaments I reused. I have sand in them and all I did was stick the branches in. Talk about easy! And we have a small tree off to the side of our driveway and I dressed it up by hanging some over-sized ornaments from it. So cute!
And here are a couple photos from inside our kitchen and mudroom that I didn’t get to show you last week.
There you have it! We are embracing the holidays full force! I’m such a Christmas person, haha. It’s the only thing I love about winter. I hope you enjoyed what we did! Hopefully I’m able to bring some smiles to anyone passing by, and hopefully some inspiration to decorate as well! And, you don’t have to spend a whole lot to make a big impact. I’m looking forward to relaxing with my family and swapping gifts, and watching the kids’ face light up. I hope you all have a happy holiday season! I’ll talk to you on Friday!
Stay lovely,
Jeap