Spring Front Porch Decorating and more

It’s that time again, I’ve looked at the bare, ugly front porch long enough! I will have to say, I love decorating the outside of our home just as much as the inside. We live on a rather busy street, although there isn’t a lot of car traffic, we have many people that walk and ride their bikes on our street. Growing up in this town, I absolutely loved this street, it’s full of old homes that have a ton of character.

One of my very best friends lived in the house that is across the street from ours, her Mother still lives there. And I dreamed about one day living in a home on this street. Now that I do, I want to share the beauty of the home and yard with everyone.

My Spring Front Porch…

After decorating the Spring Mantel, there were a few silk flowers left, along with some fresh pansies, we pulled everything together to add some whimsy and brightness to the Front Porch.

A few weeks back, we came across this beautiful wall container at Michael’s. I think it is perfect hanging on the side of the house, filled with silk flowers.

The white wicker chair, a roadside find, a couple years ago was added first with a bright orange pillow. An antique small ladder holds one of the birdhouses that my Dad built years ago.

A pair of my rain boots were filled with silk tulips and pussywillows.

More character was added with an antique picnic basket and one of my galvanized watering cans filled with purple Violas.

The other galvanized watering can was filled with yellow Violas.

Then it was time to fill the window boxes with Pansies. Because of the cold weather, and the frost we had recently, it was difficult to find plants that looked good. So we made a trip over to our nearest Home Depot and found some beautiful plants. And they were marked half off, which was even better.

Pansies are one of my favorite flowers! I love there little face like features on the inside.

     

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am for Spring! At this time last year, most of the flowers and bushes were blooming and we had already been blessed with many warm, sunny days. This year though, has been a different story. It’s still very chilly and none of the trees and bushes are showing signs they will be blooming soon. There are a few flowers popping up through the cold dirt and the birds are singing, so that’s a good sign…right?

This year’s Spring Mantel brightens the house with flowers and the fun Washi Tape Wooden Birds that I shared on Monday. The addition of an antique watering can, rain boots, gardening tools and a bird’s nest reminds us that even though the temperatures aren’t warm, Spring is here!

While I typically like to shop the house for items to decorate with, this season I just needed a few new items. So the Spring Mantel is a mixture of some old items and a few new, along with a couple hand crafted items.

The rustic garland is a combination of burlap ribbon and grapevine garland, both from Michael’s Craft Store. Both of them come rolled up, I unrolled them and tied the burlap ribbon randomly onto the grapevine garland with twine. Then we attached it to the Mantel with fishing line.

Last year, I saved the popular Pinterest photo of the umbrella and kept the idea in the back of my head for this year. Although finding the perfect umbrella to use was a bit of a treasure hunt, we did finally find one at Hobby Lobby. The silk flowers are from Michael’s Craft Store.

The antique watering can is my favorite in my collection. The green bunny is from Pier 1, they are having an Easter sale right now.

We tried my floral rain boots, but the colors were just a little too much. So we happened across these paper mache` boots at Michael’s and spray painted them with Krylon Pistachio Satin.

A couple terra cotta pots from the garage, one of the Washi Tape Birds and some gardening tools that we found at Marshall’s were added.

Down at the other end of the Mantel, is a new bird cage that we found at Marshall’s filled with a bird’s nest and some plastic eggs left from the Spring Mantel a couple years ago. The birdhouse is one that my Dad made years ago, another green bunny sitting in an aqua mason jar and the other Washi Tape Bird.

Then sitting next to the bird is a green wooden letter “L” for our last name…or well, my first name too!

Even though the Spring Mantel took a little treasuring hunting this year, I’m pleased with how it turned out.

Quick Reference

• Burlap Ribbon and Grapevine Garland – Michael’s Craft Store
• Umbrella – Hobby Lobby
• Silk Flowers – Michael’s
• Bird Cage, Green letter “L” and garden tools – Marshall’s
• Washi Tape Wooden Birds – learn how to make them in minutes
• Rain Boots – Michael’s
• Spray Paint – Krylon Pistachio Satin
• Green bunnies on a stick – Pier 1 Imports

     

It’s definitely an exciting day today! First I am super excited to share our Valentine’s Day Mantel with you, and also I have really been looking forward to our Valentine’s Day Party. Myself and 9 other bloggers have teamed up to share our Valentine’s projects and a special link party for you to share also!

The Valentine’s Mantel was put together in stages this year, first we made the Paper Hearts to hang on the Mantel and create a garland, then we made the Love Letters and covered them with fabric, yarn and embellishments. Now it’s time, to pull everything together and share it with you!

I love how there are lots of different shades of pink and red, but when it comes together, it somehow all works.

First we added white furry fabric to the Mantel, then hung the Paper Hearts with red twine. They are very easy, but make a big splash.

On one end, we added a stack of Valentine’s Day baskets that I had in my decoration box.

The Love Letters were added next to the baskets. And a little ceramic cherub.

I wanted some Love Birds for the Mantel, so Doug came up with a great idea…he spray painted a couple Dove Decoys that we found in the hunting department at Walmart, he used ivory spray paint. And then hand painted the eyes and beaks with black acrylic paint.

And on the other end, a white pitcher filled with red tulips that I found at Walmart, and a wire heart shaped card holder with vintage Valentine’s Day cards that I bought many years ago at our local antique store. And the other Love Bird watching over things from the handle of the pitcher.

Then a wire basket filled with a set of 4 glass jars were filled with Valentine’s candy, I used red licorice, strawberry Whopper’s, Valentine M&M’s and cherry balls. In the smaller jar, I added everyone’s favorite…conversation hearts. A couple of the jars were embellished with red twine and paper hearts. And in the wire basket, I added a couple of paper hearts.

More paper hearts were added to another glass jar. I simply love this idea, it’s super inexpensive, can be made in minutes and adds lots of great color to the Valentine’s Day Mantel!

The vintage Valentine’s are some of my favorites!

I like this Valentine the best!

Then it was time to finish it up and add the words to the Chalkboard. A simple heart garland was strung on red twine across the top, then I added “Be Mine Valentine” and a cupid’s arrow.

Joining me today for the Valentine’s Day Party are 9 fabulous bloggers!

• Karly from Buns in my Oven - follow on Pinterest
• Tiffany from Eat at Home - follow on Pinterest
• Liz from Hoosier Homemade - follow on Pinterest
• Myra from My Blessed Life - follow on Pinterest
• Amy from MomAdvice - follow on Pinterest
• Kellie from Nest of Posies - follow on Pinterest
• Amy from Positively Splendid - follow on Pinterest
• Lisa from The Pennington Point - follow on Pinterest
• Gina from The Shabby Creek Cottage - follow on Pinterest
• Heather from WhipperBerry - follow on Pinterest

Now it’s time for you to share! We will be pinning your great projects, so be sure to follow each of the bloggers, there Pinterest accounts are next to their names!

If you are viewing this post in your email or RSS feed, you may need to pop on over to see all the great Valentine’s Day projects added to the party!

     

Welcome to our Holiday Home! Pour yourself a cup of tea and grab a cupcake! As you well know, I absolutely adore decorating my home, especially during the Holidays! This year I took a little different approach on decorating though. Although I loved putting up all the Christmas Trees, this year I found it was just going to be too much. Life sometimes has a habit of creeping in and getting in the way of things.

Although I didn’t put up all the decorations that I usually do, I’m really excited about the new approach to keep things simple but yet magical!

The Front Porch is decorated with garland and vintage items that we have acquired over the years. It is but the first stop on the tour and sets the tone of what’s in store for our guests.

In the Foyer is the small Vintage Tree filled with ornaments that belonged to my Mom and Mother-in-law. The aqua mason jar holds bells for friends to take as they leave, to remind them to listen to what is important and believe this holiday season!

And the newest member to our home this year…our Magical Scandinavian Christmas Tree! Decorated in a red and white theme with do-it-yourself Christmas picks and handmade ornaments, and accenting the area are the flameless candle lanterns.

The Christmas Mantel got a whole new look this year to represent the feeling of the season! Do the bells of Christmas still ring for you? Do you Believe?

The Main Family Tree is decked out with white lights, burlap and all the ornaments we have collected over the years.

The Hoosier cabinet is in a corner of the Living Room now, we love it to take photo shoots on, but the Dining Room is so dark and the lighting is terrible, so we moved it.

The Entertaining Center, which now holds fabric and tablecloths, was recently moved into the Dining Room. An vintage sled, tree, garland and some of the Santas from my collection were added.

The buffet was decorated with a very simple {less than 15 minutes} Holiday Centerpiece.

My Cupcake Tree is perfect for the kitchen too! The cupcake ornaments from my very good friend, Dawn, jars with sprinkles and a few clear ornaments with sprinkles as well.

And above the kitchen sink, we added this cool, vintage…kind of junky, but it’s one of my favorite things – Wooden Ladder.

Gumdrop Trees for our Kiddie Breakfast, though small, bring such brightness to the holiday season.

And off to my office for a little more fun with the Glam Tree!  I hope you have enjoyed my Holiday Home Tour!

Homemade for the Holidays

Linking to…Holiday Home Party, Cottage Magpie

     

Filling my home with beautiful Christmas decorations and making this time of year Magical is very important to me! It’s seems like this year, above all others, I’m striving to create the magic. It began with the Believe Christmas Mantel…always hearing the bells of Christmas. And has flowed into the rest of our home.

The red and white theme of our Magical Scandinavian Christmas Tree was definitely a work of passion. I think Doug and I literally changed our minds on this tree four times! But, as you can see…it turned out…well…magical…

I’m absolutely thrilled with how it turned out! We made some of the ornaments, and will share with you how to make them too! Specifically the picks, we couldn’t find exactly what we wanted, so with just a few simple supplies we created our own.

But first, let’s take a closer look at the Christmas Tree…

Everything you see on the tree, around the tree and including the tree, came from Walmart. We started with a pre-lit Christmas Tree, it was only $39. The red and white ribbon is wide mesh, and I just cut it in half and ran it down the tree, tucking it in to look like a candy cane.

Red and silver ornaments filled the tree. Do you see Doug taking the photos? He is the best helper ever! I couldn’t do this without him!

Then it was time for the picks, the red present and the curly ribbon picks were added. {see the tutorial below for them}

The clear ornaments were filled and decorated.

One of my favorites parts of the tree is the red hat for the topper. It started as a food gift container, filled with treats. We found the curly silver picks in the Christmas area. And the snowman is another pick we made.

We added a little magic to the stairs and banister as well. Garland with white lights and the same red and white mesh ribbon, then a few of the curly ribbon picks that we made. And the lanterns…

I absolutely adore the Flameless Candle Lanterns. The minute I spotted them, I knew I had to make them work. They are battery operated with a built-in 5 hour timer so they don’t drain the batteries resulting in more money for batteries.

And one of the best things, they are versatile enough, I can use them all year in my decorating both inside and out. To display the hanging lantern, we filled the basket with styrofoam to hold the shepherd’s hook, then added a bit of greenery and ribbon to cover the foam.

Finishing off the bottom of the tree is the best blanket EVER! Really, my friends, if you have not given or received one of these blankets, you must! This one has the Scandinavian theme, they are soft flannel on one side and fuzzy on the other. Wrapping our Magical Christmas Tree in this blanket was perfect…and besides, it was a good reason to buy another one! Grab one for a gift…they are only $12!

Now, let’s chat about the DIY Ornaments and Picks…

First up…the Beaded Ornament. Inspired by the ornaments at Walmart, we headed to the craft department for supplies…

DIY Beaded Ornament Supplies

• Clear plastic ornaments
• Hot glue gun
• Glass beads – we used 2 different styles and sizes in white
• Epsom salt to fill the ornament – you could also use the beads
• Funnel to fill the ornament

DIY Beaded Ornament Instructions

1. Place the ornament in a cup to hold it upright and fill with Epsom salt
2. Place the cap back on and pour beads in a bowl. Apply a small amount of hot glue on the ornament. {Note: I tried several different types of glue and this was the only kind that would not run before I could get the beads applied}
3. Sprinkle on the beads, being VERY careful not to touch the glue

When we couldn’t find exactly what we wanted for picks, we decided to make our own. They were super easy!

DIY Christmas Picks Supplies

• Ornaments and ribbon
• Wooden skewers
• Spray paint
• Hot glue gun {not shown}

DIY Christmas Pick Instructions

1. Spray paint the skewers and ornaments, if desired
2. Glue the pick on with hot glue
3. For the present, Doug used a nail to make the hole in the bottom, add a little glue, then the skewer and more glue

The ribbon picks were created again, because we didn’t find exactly the color we needed.

DIY Curly Ribbon Pick Supplies

• Ribbon – be sure to get the kind with wire, I found a package near the Christmas wrapping paper that had 5 different rolls
• Wooden skewers
• Glue – I used glue dots because they are super easy, but hot glue will work as well
• Scissors

DIY Curly Ribbon Pick Instructions

1. Cut a piece of ribbon – various lengths is best
2. Wrap the ribbon around your finger or a pencil to curl
3. Attach it to the wooden skewer with glue
4. Repeat with 3-5 pieces of ribbon

Whew…we are done! So what do you think? I hope you love it as much as I do!

Linking to…Holiday Tree Party, Show and Tell Friday, Weekend Wrap Up Party