We're Getting Festive Up in Here

I failed to mention last week that my new favorite Christmas Tree lot not only sells 16'+ trees for just $25 bones, but they also sell "an armful" of pine boughs for just $5.  I love a good small town business that can sell things by the "armful," and can trust customers to be fair and honest.  Holla Christmas!  I choose to use my pine boughs to fill our front planter.

 

I should note that when I first filled this planter there was no snow on the ground, and I didn't remove the white Dusty Miller in the front of my planter box because it still looked really nice and worked with the decor.  I probably need to give it the boot now.  For some reason it reminded me of Martin Short from Father of the Bride, "It's white, it works!" I just dated myself there...

And then nature came by and added a little natural bling:

I had a few extra that I tossed in an old planter and wrapped with a spare gold wire ribbon.  Its not perfect, but it was free, and you know I love me some free decor.

 And then my friends, I stumbled by the 20' fresh pine garland on sale at Trader Joes for just $6.  You heard me, 6 bones.  So I made our entryway just a little more festive.

 

I just added a little more of the extra wire ribbon I had on hand to dress it up a bit.  Note to the Hubs- this is why I never throw anything away.  You never know when you'll need some fancy ribbon.  (I can literally hear you shaking your head at me.)

 

 And while Trader Joes had me sucked in, I picked up a $9 boxwood wreath for the front door too.  I had the red berry swag left over from Christmas past, so I added it for a little color. 

Speaking of color, I can't believe that a year and a half later, that door is still purple! It's like we've been busy adding 1500 sq ft of wood floors, gutting 3 bathrooms, remodeling a kitchen and creating human life or something.  I promise that the minute the weather is warm enough to keep that baby open for a day I'm painting it.  Promise.

But we're not done yet, because everything is more fun with a little twinkle-twinkle:

I've got all the Christmas lights at my house set to automatic timers so I don't have to fuss with turning them on and off, and there's nothing more fun than the "POP" that turns them on at 4PM just as it starts to get dark outside.  Magic.  How about you guys- do you decorate outside or do you prefer to keep your holiday decor inside?  I was thrilled to see this year that a handful more houses in our neighborhood have added some festive decor outside.  We've also seen a couple of demolition dumpsters out in a few driveways.  Maybe we're rubbing off on the neighborhood a bit.  Sorry guys!