Our holiday porch

I’ve always loved my tried and true Christmas decorating for our front porch and yard – it’s simple and elegant. (I told you how I do it back on this post.) But this year I was feeling like it needed a bit more fun…I think it’s because our son is getting older and becoming more and more obsessed with Christmas -- just like Momma. ;)

So I wanted to make it a little more whimsical and colorful this year. I started with the wreath I got on clearance last year at Target. It still needed a little somethin’ somethin’, so I just took a plain greenery wreath and smushed them together with wire, like so:

I love how it gives it a bit more dimension (see first photo). Lurve.

For the rest of the porch, I did my regular deal with greenery and lights, but this year I added some bling and color with $5 worth of ribbon and $15 of plastic ornaments. I just wrapped the ribbon around the greenery and then hung the ornaments from the centers of each with floral wire:

Whew hew! Color! Just want I wanted.

I take the floral pots that hold my mums in the fall and keep the soil in there so I can just plop the little trees in. I added some of the plastic ornaments to the bases of the tree just for fun (and color!):

Not sure I’m loving the little bows on top of the trees, but c’mon, they are pretty cute.

I added some ornaments to the wreath over the garage door and the wreaths on the windows, instead of the sad little bows I’ve always had on them:

PK at Room Remix posted about just twisting some ornaments together with floral wire and I don’t know why the heck I hadn’t thought of doing that! I love how they look on the wreaths!

Many of you have asked about the iron pieces hanging in our windows – they were actually gold “snowflakes” I got on clearance at Pier 1 years ago. I spray painted them black and hung them with fishing wire from the drapery rods:

I took down the blinds we never use on these windows and now you can really see them from outside! They don’t look Christmasy most of the year, but they do with a wreath in the window. ;)

I love how the front porch decor looks through the transom window from inside.

This may be how it looks with the door closed:

But this is how it looks when you open it:

Holy Christmas mess Batman!!

I’ll add some daylight pics of the porch tomorrow…the ribbon looks soooo gorg during the day too.

Did I mention I was hoping to have ALL of the Christmas decor up before Monday of next week, so I can sit back and enjoy it all month? I hear you laughing at me. I can do it, I can. Only 13 more bins of stuff to go. ;)

Fall decor for the outdoors!

I hope you all had a lovely fall weekend!! We did -- it included just about all of my favorites of this season, which I'll tell you more about tomorrow. I am truly in fall nesting mode right now, and I love it!

Every year I have more and more fun decorating the outdoors of our home for the different holidays and seasons. The front door and porch is my favorite area, but this year, because we made our deck so livable, I threw a little out there too.

For now, just a simple collection of white and mini pumpkins, along with my 49 cent Ball jars, is plenty to add a touch of fall out back:

I'd like to do a couple more things out there, but for now it's lovely just as is. :)

For our front window boxes, I added some "faux" (sounds sooo much better thank fake, doesn't it?) pumpkins, as well as some real ones. The little ones last forever and always get me well into the Christmas season. (That would be 12:01 a.m., November 27th, in case you didn't know.):

The mums are looking just a tad bit droopy right now!

For the front porch, I have found a set up that works every year and I think I'm gonna stick to it. First, corn stalks for $5.99 each (you can find at most nurseries right now):

Next, some GORG mums...

Aren't they the most beautiful color you've ever seen?

Next, the tried and true front door container, which I showed you here:

And this is what you get:

Add a brand spankin' new flag, and some pumpkins, and you are set!

Our front porch is TEENY. I mean, teeny tiny itty bitty eetsy weensy. I dream of a gorgeous expanse of porch, but just because it's small doesn't mean it can't be beautiful my Squee-zays.

Stalks, mums and pumpkins, and your front porch will be the talk of the neighborhood (in a good way), even if it's teeny! Sigh. I love driving up to our house and seeing this...

Although it appears only a size two woman can walk through the middle, there really is plenty of room. And Halloween night, I move the planters and pumpkins so those precious goblins and ghouls can actually get up to our door, costumes and all. ;)

How do you dress up your front porch for fall?

DIY window boxes!

Before I show you how I made our new window boxes, I must introduce you all to my LOVAH...
That would be my compound miter saw. Say hello Squeezies. You want him, I know you do. Don't be sceered, he's very gentle. I. love. him.

These window boxes were so easy, I swear it was ridiculous. Crazy. Nuts. Wacky easy. Here are the steps...

I used the leftover fence posts from my DIY shutters, measured the width of my windows and cut three pieces of wood to the length I needed:

Then I cut two end pieces the width of the wood -- five inches long. I ended up with the sides, bottom and end pieces:

To put them together I used my super duper glue:

I put a bead on the edges that were going together and then nailed them together with my beloved, er, nail gun:

And yes, I get a little nail happy. I put in, oh, about 20 nails per side, just for good measure. The nail gun is like the best thing ever in the history of man. Really, it's that fantastic. Really.

I put a little dab of glue along the end pieces, just a smooch. Then fit them on the ends:

When you get nail happy, inevitably the nails will not always go where they are supposed to. Sometimes you need some pliers and muscle to pry them out:

Voila! A window box:

Ummmkay peeps, if you have a miter saw and a nail gun, your husband, your brother, the guy down the street you can knock these puppies out in no time. Serious -- each one took maybe 30 minutes total to cut and build. Not lyin'.

If you don't have a saw and nail gun, try the miter box or the cutting guy at Lowe's. You can rent a nail gun or just try hammering in finishing nails. This will just make the assembly a lot longer.

The result? GORG!:

Helllllloooooooooo I LOVE THEM! With a little paint to match the trim and shutters from the deck redo they were complete:

I had extra wood and the Bub was still napping, so I went ahead and made a couple more for our bay window windows:

I didn't hang them though -- kind of because they are so low anyway, mostly because drilling into the siding was starting to give me hives. So they will just sit on the deck. Whew.

They are NOT perfect. They are not polished. But that's how I wanted them. I let go and love them not perfect. Not sure they'll even stay in the side of the house. I didn't want to drill huge toggle bolts into the siding so I did my best to hit studs. Little afraid they are going to crash down sometime soon. Crikey. Serenity now...

Does it kill anyone else to spend so much on flowers? It does me. Up till this year I had two front window boxes and maybe three or four containers with annuals every year. Why I keep creating spots for them, I'm not sure -- we'll have to spend a boatload on flowers next year.

Ah, who am I kidding.

Lurve. Best part -- each one was less than four bucks to make. :)

Get dirrty.

Sorry, I couldn't resist channeling Christina for a second. I have so many little projects I have wanted to share with you, but when I asked on Twitter -- the vote was for the outdoor project, so here. we. go.

This one isn't nearly isn't as fabulous as the deck, and again, I feel like I'm probably preachin' to the choir. I'm sure most of you already know these tricks, but I like to share with the group. I'm nice like that.

When you buy your hanging baskets or plants, you can make them look like a million bucks by just replanting them out of the cheap plastic containers and into your own.

OK, they won't like a million bucks, but maybe $20.

I showed you these planters for the deck from Goodwill last week -- a steal at $2.99 each:

I had a vision for them, so I spray painted them and then wasn't sure if I was going to plant anything for the rest of the summer/fall. Who was I kidding. Unfinished projects make me twitch. Shake. Shudder. Itch.

I found some beautiful plants for cheap and got moving. Most of the time, your decorative pots will have holes on the bottom, but if they don't, or if you'd like to put more in them, all you need is a drill and a large drill bit:

Just put a few holes in the bottom -- for plastic containers, any drill bit should work. These planters are a weird fiberglass kind of material, so I used one made for cement. I put five holes in the bottom of each. As is mentioned, even if your planters have holes, you'll probably want to put a few more in. It never hurts to have a little more drainage. (I feel like I just said "holes" 15 times.)

Anyhoo, after that, instead of buying a ton of of expensive potting soil -- try this little trick. Keep the plastic planters from the plants you plant, (wait, huh?), and before you put the soil in, put the old plastic planters in first:

This is great for two reasons -- you'll use half the soil, at least. And they are soooo much lighter to work with when you're done. My grandma used to use charcoal on the bottom of her planters. I've also heard of using the foam packing peanuts. Those peanuts are expensive though -- so just use what you have!

AND, please don't buy the expensive potting soil they put out right up front at the nursery -- go to the back and use the cheaper bags -- they are harder to find but are about two bucks and change for a bag. You can sprinkle some Miracle Grow on the plants after if you want that in the soil. I've even used the cheaper top soil and mixed that in as well, and those are only a little more than a dollar a bag.

If your plant is a hanging basket, take the little clips off the planter first:
Then, to loosen the plant up to get it out, roll it around on it's side a few times, then shake it a bit and it should come out easily:

The great thing about this time of year is finding plants for el cheapo -- they are clearancing them out for the fall plants and you can find major deals. I found some Coleus plants at Menard's last for only $3.99 each -- SCORE!!

I have never planted Coleus before -- I wasn't sure about them at first. I walked right by and left them there, but they were are oddly beautiful to me. Kind of wild looking but I was a bit mesmerized -- I had to go back for them:

Gorg!! Hopefully they'll hang in there for a few more months!

Remember, fall is a great time to plant bushes and trees! I have no idea why it's a great time to plant bushes and trees! But it is!! Really, I think it's something about roots, before the cold hits, yadda yadda yadda. So keep in mind even as fall nears (YAY!!!!!!!), you can still work on the landscaping for a couple more months!

So glad you all loved my hole patchin' post. Please check out the comments for some really great tips -- you are all so brilliant! Sorry I have no clue what to do with plaster though -- anyone know how to patch that up?

My consult rates will be $20 starting Monday, so if you are interested, let me know before then! I'm thrilled to be working with so many of you -- thanks for your patience. Any new consults may be about two weeks out before I can get to you, but I will as soon as possible!

The details of the deck.

OK, well if it tells you anything, it's midnight and I'm just now posting because I've spent the evening on the deck again. One of my best friends came over tonight to chill outside with us and we ended up spending three hours out there. Ahhhh...heaven.

I wanted to show you some of the details of the transformation so maybe you can grab some of these deals while you can. This is the only good thing about the summer stuff disappearing in July -- clearance baby. Run! Don't walk!!

The first deal was the lights I got for the pergola. They were in the Smith and Hawken section at Target, on clearance for $10 a set:

What kills me is I've had a set of these for years, but took them apart and don't know where I put the lights. (I used the twine balls for filler inside.) Ah well, $10 each isn't too bad.

I hid the extension cords down the columns by spray painting the cords (ummm...is that allowed??) and then using little bits of cord covers I spray painted as well. No one will never notice them:

I have to take care of the little details like this. It will drive. me. mad. otherwise.

The lighting on the table is simple, 50 cent Ball jars from Goodwill, filled with sand:

They had to be Ball jars -- in homage to my alma mater Ball State University! (Double pound to the chest.)

My little jars were in the dollar spot at Target a few months ago. Oh, how I love you dollar spot:

Kisses to you dollar spot. Hugs. Smooches.

The deck box is double the size of our old one and was another Goodwill find for $30. That's a lot for a Goodwill purchase for me, but this would be more than $100 in the stores:

Can I mention how perfectly it matches the brown paint? I mean, it was meant to be folks. I did a little happy dance when I found it. Over a deck box. Issues.

The rug was $13 (I think) at Lowe's -- love it! It was my color inspiration. Just wish it was a tad bit bigger:

The pots I already had and the flowers were clearanced out because they were about to die. (Look for these -- they just need water!) Did you know you can use stain on plastic? You can!:

I stained these years ago to make them a bit deeper and they've held up perfectly. Took about five minutes each.

The new light was from Lowe's and was $22:

Adorable!

These shutters were so easy I promise any of you could make them:

AND unbelievably cheap. I wanted them to match the cottagey shutters we have on the front of the house so they needed to be uber rustic. I found the perfect materials -- fence posts!:

They were something like $1.68 each and were six feet tall, just slightly shorter than what I needed. I used three on each side for the double windows and two on each side for the single window:

I just cut pieces of the posts to the size I needed and measured one foot from the bottom and top:I used liquid nails and a nail gun to attach the slats, but you could use nails and hammer them together. If you make your measurements, Lowe's or Home Depot would make your cuts for you. I love the detail at the top:

The planters were from Goodwill. Surprised? No? They were $2.99 and started out like this:I spray painted them with outdoor paint and they ended up like this:

I don't know if I'll plant anything in them this year or not. I may go ahead and do it because I know flowers will completely finish off the space. Loverly.

I hate when I love Walmart. I really do. I can't stand that place, but always find something I must have. Ugh. These were TEN BUCKS each on clearance:

Can you even believe it??? I'm sure I'll find a great spot for them inside during the winter too. Adorable. For now, I've just put tea lights in them:

Our "summery" pillows were from Wally World as well, for $10:

Just don't go buy any at my Walmart -- I need to go get a couple more. Back off!! Please.

Our tables are really plant stands. I didn't want to spend much and I didn't want them to be huge. These are perfect at $12 each:

I bought the cork thingamabobbers to put inside for a flat surface and they work great! I tied them down to make them a little more sturdy:

And for entertaining outside, you need plastic that looks like glass to drink cool beverages out of. These perfectly ca-uuute glasses were on clearance at Meijer for $1.25 each!:

No evening outside is complete without Summer Beer (at least for me this summer) -- it's soooooo good people! Equal parts Diet Squirt, light beer, tequila and one can limeade or lemonade concentrate. Amazing! I hate anything diet and detest beer, and this is my most favorite drink ever!

Many of you asked about the furniture and the pergola -- the furniture was from Craigslist and the seller got it through Amazon.com I believe. The pergola was from Menard's, but we only found two left and had to call two stores. So if you have one nearby, call NOW!!

Have a great weekend! I'll be back later with a big announcement I can't wait to share with you all! It won't be a big deal to you, but it is to me. And NO, I'm not pregnant! :)