Christmas Trees

When decorating for Christmas, I used to replace the potted plants on top of my kitchen cabinets with artificial poinsettias. Last year I decided to do something different. I found these iron Christmas trees at Hobby Lobby:

Originally they were a plain brownish color. I had recently discovered one of my favorite things - Rub 'n Buff - so I knew I could make them prettier. I thought they were still a bit plain so this year, I added some garland and picks. Here they are after:

Christina (daughter #2) put the outdoor lights up on schedule just before Thanksgiving. The front porch still needed something and I had some vague ideas for what I might add. I needed some inspiration so Pookie(daughter #3) and I stopped by a nearby garden center. We both really like to browse around in that store. As I suspected, we found plenty of holiday decor but the prices were pretty steep. That's ok though because I left with an idea for my porch pots that I could create fairly inexpensively. I picked up a couple of wire forms that are used for making topiaries at Hobby Lobby for $11.99 each. I spray painted them gold and wrapped them with berry and pine garland that I picked up at Jo-Ann's for 50% off. For convenience reasons, I had wanted to top them with ready made bows. I was surprised to find that much of the holiday merchandise was already gone from the stores and could no longer find any bows that I liked so I was left with having to make them myself. A few years ago, I made the bows that I use to decorate the garland on my banisters. I did a search for bow making instructions to refresh my memory. They were much easier to make than I had remembered and I ended up needing several so I'm glad I didn't spend extra money on ready made. Here are the new front porch trees:

I hung some more of the garland around the door with Command hooks. I also decorated a grapevine wreath to go with the garland but when I went to hang it, it wasn't quite working so I hung a welcome sign with one of my bows attached instead. I put another bow on the bell (another 50% off find from Jo-Ann's) that is hanging from the light fixture.

Here's the wreath which is hanging in the front hall instead of outside: