Decorating for Valentine's Day: Welcome to the 160th Metamorphosis Monday!

Valentine's Day is tomorrow.  I love that holiday.  How can you not love a day that's all about chocolate, romance and ♥ LOVE! ♥

It makes me smile when I remember bringing Valentine's Day cards to school.   If I close my eyes, I can still see all the colorful construction-paper folders we made and decorated.  They were strung along the wall where they patiently waited to be filled with sweet valentines.

When February 14th arrived, the classroom became a little bee's nest as we scurried around carefully placing the tiny envelopes in the correct folders.  Do you remember the night before, reading the valentines and carefully choosing just the right valentine card for each friend, especially if that friend was your classroom crush?

Oh, the excitement of opening the valentines the next day!  I always wondered what those little envelopes would hold.  Would it be candy, a message from a "secret admirer" or just a friendly valentine?  Maybe it was all those Nancy Drew books I was reading.  Whatever it was, I loved and still love the mystery and intrigue of this special day.

This Valentine's Day, my crush is you.  Will you be my Valentine?  ♥  Check: Yes √ or  No √.  ;)

The guest bedroom received a little Valentine's Day decorating.
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Colonial Williamsburg at Christmastime

Recently, my friend, Mary, visited Colonial Williamsburg.  While there she took photos of some of the wonderful outdoor Christmas decorations she saw on Duke of Gloucester Street, which is the main road through Colonial Williamsburg.  I have never been there during the Christmas season, but I do so want to go.  Have you ever been at Christmastime?

Mary said, "The arrangements go up right after Thanksgiving and remain up to January 6th.  Most of the arrangements are hand made by the employees of Williamsburg, Va. and some arrangements, the employees who are lucky to rent these colonial homes make their own arrangements. Employees who rent are allowed to hire a florist to make their arrangement but everything has to ALL natural, and only items that would have been in Virginia in the 1700's can be part of the arrangement. All of the arrangements are judged by the category-professionally made, hand made by an amateur, made by Williamsburg employee in the floral department. The arrangements are checked daily for anything that might have wilted. The pine roping is changed every 2 weeks."

No wonder all the arrangements are so beautiful!

Come along and help me name the elements used in creating these amazing displays.  I've numbered the pictures for easy reference.

1.




2. This appears to be dried flowers with perhaps burlap interwoven throughout.  I know I should know the names of the flowers…they look so familiar.  Want to take a stab at it?  The purple and pink are globe amaranth, I think.




3.  I see pomegranates, pine cones and more dried flowers.  Ummm, what are the long, skinny stalks?

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A Christmas Porch Welcome to the 151st Metamorphosis Monday!

Happy Holidays!  Hope your weekend has been grand!  I've been busy finishing the last bit of Christmas decorating for the front porch.  Come a bit closer and check it out.

I usually use pine garland around the door for Christmas, but last year I had to buy enough to go around the door twice because it was sort of skimpy looking.  So this year I decided to try cedar.  If you live in the Atlanta area, Pike Nurseries has beautiful cedar garland.  I purchased 30 feet--enough to go around the door, down the center of my dining room table and across the mantel for $45.

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Hang Wreaths on Your Exterior Windows: A Tutorial

Though I didn't have a working camera this week, I did manage to get all the "outside" wreaths hung and snapped a few pics for this tutorial.  The porch isn't decorated, yet.  This is an old pic from a past Christmas showing the wreaths across the front of the house.

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Decorating with Wreaths Inside Your Home

Although Thanksgiving is still two weeks away, I'm already thinking about Christmas.  I have even started decorating a little inside.  I want to start early this year so I can really enjoy the holiday season in full.  There have just been too many years in the past where I felt I had just put the decorations up when it was time to take them back down.

One  of my favorite things to decorate inside with at Christmastime are wreaths.  We all know wreaths look wonderful hanging on doors but there are so many more fabulous places to hang a beautiful wreath inside your home.

Wreaths are gorgeous hanging in front of a window.  Give the chief dishwasher a lovely view with a beautiful wreath.  I love the little one hanging off the edge of the island.

Traditional Home

Here's another great example using a square wreath inside, again in a window...

Traditional Home

I took this photo while on a home tour and I love how she not only hung a wreath in the window, but she completely encircled the window with garland, too.  You can take this home tour, HERE.

On this same home tour we saw this wonderful bedroom, again with a lovely wreath hanging from a window.  Isn't this room just beautiful?  You'll find more of this home tour, HERE.

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Front Porch Decorated for Halloween

Wow, what a fun night! I love, love, love Halloween. I have so many wonderful memories from my childhood of trick-or-treating with friends, so Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays.

I decorated the porch pretty simply for Halloween this year.

I covered the front door with the "creepy cloth" used as a tablecloth in THIS previous Halloween tablescape.  (You can see the door minus the creepy cloth in THIS post.)

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Halloween Table and Mantel...Spooky!

Happy Weekend! Are you making final preparations for all the goblins and ghouls who will soon be knocking on your door? I'll be heading out today to buy candy.  Then I'll be trying hard to not eat it all by Monday!    What's your tactic for not digging into the candy and eating it before Halloween arrives? Some folks purposely buy stuff they don't like, but where's the fun in that? lol

My friend, Bonnie, has been readying her home for the big day.  I love seeing how Bonnie decorates her dining room hutch for the seasons and holidays.  Come a bit closer and check out her spooky table setting.

Love the orange candlesticks with skeleton candles.  Even the tablecloth is covered with skeletons!

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Pottery Barn Inspired Garland Tutorial-Make Your Own!

For Metamorphosis Monday, I shared this wonderful photo from a Pottery Barn Catalog and a little info on how I was inspired to re-create a similar look for my front porch for less than half the price of the PB Garland. You can read that post HERE. As promised, I'm back today with a tutorial on everything you need to know to make this ornament-covered garland for your home. :)



Before we get started, let me torture you with one more photo I found online at Pottery Barn using this same garland. ~~~SIGH~~~ You may remember I mentioned the PB garland is only 5 feet long. Notice anything about the column on the left as compared to the one on the right? Apparently, they didn't have enough garland to complete the job for the photo shoot. I never would have noticed this if I hadn't been analyzing these pics so much to make my own. I love the large lanterns they have shown on the ground. Beautiful!



I could stare at these scenes all. day. long! Soooo, pretty!

If you're a bit curious about this home that was used in the PB shoot...



Here's a pic from Google Maps of what it looks like in real life. It was built in 1850 and was the home of Captain Andrew Sampson. It's located at: 1157 Division Street, Napa, California and apparently it's home to a business now. You can read more about this home, HERE.




Update: Frances just shared a link to the video below showing how this photoshot was completed in CA in June! That's a lot of fake snow!!! :) Thanks, Frances!




Pottery Barn Inspired Garland Tutorial:

To make the garland shown below on my front porch (and in this post) for less than half the price of the Pottery Barn garland...



I purchased this lit garland from Lowe's. It's 9 feet long so two were just long enough to wrap three times around each column. (Tip: Make sure the garland you buy to use outside is certified for outdoor use.) Take a long string or rope and wrap it around your columns to see what length you'll need before purchasing your garland. If you wish to wrap it around more than 3 times, you may need additional garland. I bought lit garland but you can find the unlit garland for even less.




If you have lit garland, before you begin to put the ornaments on, plug your garland in and test it to make sure the lights work. You don't want to get it fully decorated and find that you have a faulty garland. I stretched mine out across my kitchen counter to work on it. It took me around 45 minutes to completely cover each garland in ornaments...so about an 1 1/2 hours to do both. This is fun to do while watching t.v.



I purchased plastic ornaments because that's what comes on the PB garland. Glass ornaments would not hold up well to temperature/weather changes very well. I bought the ornaments at discount stores: Old Time Pottery and Dollar Tree.

In the close up pics on the PB site, you can see their garland is covered with shiny and satin finish ornaments. So I bought shiny and satin ornaments, too. Also, I bought ornaments that look as if they are covered in glitter.  It took 7 boxes (each containing 24 ornaments) from Old Time Pottery, and two tubes of ornaments from Dollar Tree ($1 each) to completely cover my two garlands. That's around 180-200 ornaments, total. To attach the ornaments, I used some green coated twist type wire I already had. I think I bought it years ago in a garden store. It was a little brighter green than I would have preferred, but I already had it and I knew it would be hidden by the ornaments and greenery on the garland. You can just see the wire on the counter to the right of the ornaments in the picture below.



Before you get started, if you have a glue gun, plug it in nearby. Occasionally you are going to have a plastic ornament pop out that isn't really tight in its top. If an ornament pops out, just use a little hot glue and reattach it.

Start by spreading out the branches on your garland. You'll only need to attach the ornaments to the top side since you'll want it nice and flat on the other side to wrap around your columns or wherever you'll be decorating.





It's best to attach your biggest ornaments first. I initially used some realllly large ornaments but I decided later they were out of proportion to the rest of the ornaments and I took them off. Medium, small and very small ornaments work best for creating the PB look. The smallest ornaments I used were the ones I found at Dollar Tree...they came in tubes.

Spread out the colors:
To get the different types/colors evenly spaced out, I set them on or near the garland where I wanted them before wiring them. I first took all the shiny reds and spaced them out and attached them. Then I took all the shiny silver ornaments and spaced them out along the garland and attached them. I continued that process until all the ornaments were attached.


Attaching the ornaments:
I attached the ornaments to the center of the garland with the green wire. Some will fall naturally to the left, some to the right...so that will give it a nice look. On one garland, I cut off the excess wire as I went along. When I worked on the second garland, I decided to attach all of the ornaments first...then I flipped the garland over and cut off all the excess green wire at one time. In this pic below, you can see the excess wire. While you are wiring on the ornaments, it gives you an opportunity to use the wire to pull in the "lighting wire" a little tighter to the center of the garland. In other words, if the lighting wire is sort of sticking out on your lit garland, pull it inward when you wire on your ornaments for a nicer look when finished. You can see how I did that in this pic below.




Here's how it looked after I snipped it off. You don't have to cut that closely. I just didn't want to risk scratching the paint on my columns.




As you work, occasionally an ornament will pop out of its top or the plastic top might break.




Just reattach with a little hot glue and you're good to go.




Here are a few pics I took after I was finished. I later removed the really large bulbs and replaced them with medium size bulbs.







The garland I purchased from Lowe's had these long wired pieces on the end...



Since my columns are pretty fat, it helped to stretch my garland a bit so I could wrap each column with just one 9ft. garland. I used the 3M hooks that are supposed to be easy to remove to attach the garland to the column. Update: When it rained, the 3M hooks let go of the pole. So I ended up hammering a skinny little nail into the top of the pole on which to hook the end of the garland. That held perfectly.




Here's a close up of one section on the column...wish I'd pulled that silver ornament up out from under the greenery before I took the pic. Why do we always notice this stuff after we take pics.




I ran into a little snag when plugging in my garland. The plugs on the garland only have the holes/prongs that are narrow...and my extension cords all had the prongs where one side is big and one side is little. I know there's a name for that, but I have no idea what you call it.  I looked at Lowe's and they didn't have extension cords that would plug into the garland. So, I bought one of these.



I cut the end off my extension cord and attached this plug. The directions are on the package plus the nice Lowe's guy told me how to do it.




Then I was able to plug in the extension cord I had run across the top of my porch from one garland to the other garland. If your garland isn't lit, you won't run into this. Or, you may be able to find extension cords that work with your garland.




I still have more decorating to do on my porch (wreath, etc...) but I wanted to share the garland tutorial now so you'd have time to plan if you wanted to make some for your porch or stairway rails, etc...



Final Costs:
Final cost for both lit garlands was $88.87 vs $218 from Pottery Barn...and the PB garland's isn't lit.  If you chose to use garland that doesn't have lights, your cost should be closer to $50 to do two columns, using 9 ft garland.

So, that's about it. Hope this tutorial helps if you decide to make your own PB inspired garland.  Please let me know if you have any questions...I'm happy to help!

I created a labeled photo below in case you wish to save this tutorial to a Pinterest board for future use.

Decorating with Wreaths

I'm not sure what it is about wreaths, but I just love them! I think it's their "wholeness"...the way they feel so complete. The circular shape is said to represent eternity--no beginning and no end.

When I first moved into my current home 18 years ago, I continued a tradition I had started at my previous home...that of hanging wreaths outside on the windows at Christmas time. I was the only one in my neighborhood doing this, but with each passing year, more homes have joined in. Now a lot of the homes on my street decorate this way. I've never thought of myself as a trend setter, but I think I may have started something here.



Even the dormers in the upstairs family room and the garage get a wreath...



If you've wanted to dress up the front of your home with wreaths and you weren't quite sure the best way to go about it, here's how I do it. I lower the top sash and drop the wreath out and over. Holding onto to the ribbon, (from which it hangs) I raise the sash back up until the window is almost closed. I adjust the wreath to where I want it, close the window tight...then using a push pin, I secure the ribbon to the top of the wooden frame of the window. The pin is hidden by the window treatments. After Christmas, I just pull the pin out and let the wreaths drop to the ground where I collect them. I always put the pin back so it will be there when I need it next Christmas. Of course, it greatly helps if you don't have window screens on the front of your home. I had all mine removed years ago, since I preferred the look of the house without them.

One of the best things about hanging wreaths on the windows...is how pretty they look from the inside, too!



In fact, I have to force myself to take them down after Christmas...I just love seeing them from inside the house. Here's how they look in the guest room.



And in one of the upstairs family room dormers...



Another one of my favorite places to hang a wreath is over a mirror. This one hangs above the fireplace in the family room.



The round brass thingy you see sticking up at the top is part of a french horn that is incorporated into this wreath. It actually has two horns, one at the top and one at the bottom. The horns started out a brighter brass, but I like how they have aged and darkened over the years...looks better with the old mirror behind them, too.



The mantel is decorated with fresh Fraser Fir clippings I begged from a Christmas tree lot...they are the scraps left over when someone purchases a tree and has the lower branches removed. I love the wonderful scent they bring to the family room. The Nandina berries came from my yard. I copied Pat (Back Porch Musings) idea and placed the faux flickering candles down inside real candles. With all that greenery...I figured this was the safest way to mix in some candlelight.



More wreaths...the sconces in the entry get a touch of Christmas.






There are even wreaths in the kitchen...stole this idea from an historic home tour in Madison, Georgia. Debbie, (Confessions of a Plate Addict) remembers that tour, too. :-)




Bought this cute patchwork wreath at a crafts fair many years ago. I think Gloria (Happy To Be) has one like this. :-) It hangs on a pantry door in the kitchen during Christmas.



This little wreath hangs on the knob of the china cabinet in my dining room.




Can't forget the doors on the screened-in porch...this wreath is covered in snow. Now don't ask me how it got snow on it when it's under a covered porch...must have been a harrowing, wind-blowing blizzard! If you like this one...it came from Hobby Lobby just a few weeks ago.



Nothing is safe around here...even the clock in the upstairs family room gets a wreath.





Last Christmas I hung a wreath on the mirror in the dining room. I liked the look so much, I decided to leave it there year 'round.




It just seems to work with the mirror and the chandelier. This is the only room in my home where I don't use any brass...only silver and crystal.




No beginning and no end, life is a circle...and, sometimes...a square. :-)



(Photo above is from Williams Sonoma online.)