Pottery Barn Ornament Garland Hack for Less Than Half the Cost! Welcome to the 96th Metamorphosis Monday!

Today has been a crazy day! It started with me cutting a deep 1 inch gash through the underside of my wrist while trying to open a can of kitty food. Please, if you ever start peeling back the metal lid on cat food or any can with a pull tab, and it gets stuck, don't decide to pull even harder. Trust me on this! Just stop and use a can opener.

When the lid finally let go, it snapped back hard and sliced my wrist open pretty badly. Let's just say it was bad enough I called 911 because I was alone and couldn't drive myself to the hospital. I became really lightheaded and felt like I would pass out. I had images of bleeding to death while I was out. :(

What a way to start my day! I know the neighbors think I'm nuts with paramedics and the Fire Dept. showing up this morning! I decided to not go to the hospital since they got the bleeding stopped and bandaged me up. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to let him look at it...hope it doesn't need stitches and they can just use that "glue" stuff to close it. I'd show you a pic but then you'd NEVER come back to my blog! :}

Thank goodness my Met Monday project was 99% completed yesterday...including the "installation." I had planned on adding a bit more to it today, to make it fuller. I only did a tiny bit more...it just hurt too much to work on it today. So if it's a bit sparse here and there...you'll know why. Ok, on with the good stuff!


Metamorphosis Monday:

Even the crazy start to my day couldn't stop me from sharing a metamorphosis I've been busting to tell you about ever since I started working on it. :) Maybe I am a little nuts. ;)

Last year, I got a Pottery Barn catalog in the mail and it pictured this house. I about died. Is it not absolutely gorgeous all decked out for Christmas?! A few weeks ago, I received another PB sales booklet in the mail and it was in there AGAIN! That did it! I was now officially obsessed. I wanted that garland on my house for Christmas this year soooo badly! I went online to Pottery Barn and began clicking away to order.



During the ordering process, I realized the garland is only 5 feet long (60 inches...no way that would be long enough for a column. I would need two garlands per column. My columns are 7 1/2 feet tall, so 5 feet just isn't gonna cut it. Five feet wouldn't even reach from top to bottom if it wasn't wrapped around the column. Anyone who orders the PB garland will need two garlands per column. At $109.00 for two, it would be $218 to wrap just two columns. Yikes!




I am a true believer in saving money and being frugal when I can. So, there was no way I was going to spend $218 to decorate two columns, even if I am completely obsessed with the PB decorated house above.


So what to do?

I visited all my favorite discount stores and created the look above for less than half! Here's how I did it:

I went to Lowe's and purchased two of the spruce garland shown below. It's 9 ft long, 4 feet longer than the PB garland and just long enough to wrap three times around each column as shown in the PB pic. Plus, it has lights...the PB garland does not. Yay! :) The garland was $25.97 each.



Plastic...Not my fave but necessary:
I read the description and the PB garland is covered in plastic ornaments. Now, I have to tell you, I'm a bit of an ornament snob and I am just not crazy about plastic ornaments. But, I know glass ornaments would never hold up to extreme weather changes and being banged around on porches and columns during the decorating process. The PB ad said their ornament garland is made to withstand the harshest weather, so I knew this was the reason their garland had plastic ornaments. It looked gorgeous, so I got past my ornament snobbery and headed off to Old Time Pottery where I had seen rows of plastic ornaments the year before.

I bought quite a few boxes of silver and red ornaments...shiny, glitter and satin finish. Each box contained 24 ornaments for only $4.99...great deal! I used 7 boxes total on the two 9ft garland. Also, I stopped by Dollar Tree and picked up two skinny tubes of the small red, plastic ornaments for $1 each. I ended up using 1 tube on each garland. You can see them lying across the top of the other ornaments below. At first I used the really big ornament balls you see pictured below, but ultimately, I decided they were two big and took them back off and returned them with the others I didn't need.




AFTER:
Please keep in mind, I haven't finished decorating the porch, yet. I'll be adding some fresh garland and a fresh wreath, etc... I just wanted to share this with you now so if you are obsessed over the house in the PB ad, you'll know you can get the look for a lot less.




I have about 25 ornaments left over that I had planned to add to it today, but after my "mishap" this morning, I just couldn't do it. So imagine it with a few more ornaments in the skimpier spots. Now I just need snow like the PB pic. LOL




Evening view:

Here's a view with the porch lights off. You can't get lights with the PB garland since it isn't a lit garland.



With the porch lights on...




A final view...




My Cost:

All in all I spent $51.94 for the two 9ft. lit garlands from Lowe's and $36.93 for all the ornaments from Old Time Pottery and Dollar Tree...for a total of $88.87 (plus tax). That's well under half of what it would have cost if I had bought the PB garland at $218 (plus tax). I will do a complete tutorial on how I created my garlands in an upcoming post...so you can get the PB look for less than half the price, too! :)

I tried to capture the night sky this evening while I was outside taking pics after dark...it was so magical. It was 73 degrees here in Georgia today and just beautiful! It wasn't even cold when I was outside taking these pics. Check out the moon and the gas lantern against the night sky. The other tall white object you see is the dove cote in the perennial garden. I couldn't keep my hand steady enough to get a perfect shot in the darkness, but I wanted to share what I was able to capture. Isn't it gorgeous? Better than any decorating I can do! :)

Update: Melissa at Melissa's Heart and Home told me tonight's moon is special. You can read about it at Yahoo News. Melissa thanks so much for telling me about it. It's a "once in a blue moon" occurrence. :)




Deck the Halls Party for Met Monday, December 6th:

Oh, please mark your calendar for our Deck the Halls Party on Met Monday, December 6th. Click HERE for all the details.






Metamorphosis Monday:
If you are participating in Metamorphosis Monday: Please be sure to add your permalink below, and not your general blog address. To get your permalink, click on your post name, then just copy and paste the address that shows up in the address bar at the top, into the "url" box for the picture linky. You'll also need to put your e-mail address in, but don't worry, it will not be visible to anyone.

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Please include a link in your MM post back to the host blog, Between Naps on the Porch. Why is this important? When you include a link back to BNOTP, it ensures your regular readers/visitors will find the other awesome "Before and Afters" linked for this Metamorphosis Monday. If everyone links back, this maximizes the visits for all participants.

Please do not add your link below, until your MM post is actually published to your blog. Please DO NOT type in all caps...it spreads the links waaaay out. Thanks! :-)

Let's try something fun today! Please visit the person who linked before you and after you...that way everyone will get some visits. Hope you'll visit more, of course. :-)


Little Reminder: Thank-you for linking back to this post so the regular visitors to your blog will find all your fellow Blogger's posts linked here for this Met Monday. If you find your link has been deleted, it is because your post didn't mention you were participating in Metamorphosis Monday and didn't include a link back to the other participants and/or was not a "Before and After" subject/project.