Time for a long winter's nap?

Preferred tune: Away in a Manger

The porch is alight thanks to sticks from our yard.
Our wreaths say we're poor; not when viewed from afar.

This quatrain wraps it up, though decor took three days to make.
Money for time is the trade when crafting for saving's sake.

/poetry

Now for some note-filled prose. No energy for paragraphs with transitions. The rhyming is the most coherent piece I have to offer tonight, which is more than a little pathetic.

1. Our front doors desperately need to be sanded and re-stained. I'm embarrassed. It's on the list!

2. The wreaths are lit with LED lights. The "G" is affixed in the center of each with a 3M wire hook. I wrapped the tail ribbons around the Gs to make it seem like the letter was suspended. It's just POV trickery. Here is a pic before I finished wrapping the ribbons:




3. The branches are a very loose interpretation of a presentation in Restoration Hardware (camera phone pic below):





I was not about to pay $15 per bundle of birch branches, so I asked BG to saw these from a junky tree in our yard. Bonus: It has red berries and looks a lot like holly! The little disco balls are Winter Solstice ornaments from World Market, purchased with a 20% off coupon.


Here's a closer look at our branch pots:




The branches extend to the ground. I covered the stems with burlap, weighted down with a brick, and tied with ribbon. Then I put coconut fiber around the open iron planter. Another brick is nestled in there in case the wind whips afool. The lights are strung up the back of the planter. This is a camera phone pic, so it's not very vibrant, but I hope you get the idea. The bows are made by moi. I was a bow-making savant this weekend. I even helped my neighbors with their bows!

4. The project cost about $100 out of pocket when all was said and done and materials we didn't have on hand were purchased. The crappiest wreaths I found this size (30 inches) were $100 EACH, and that's without porch lights and ribbon. I consider that a win.

5. Voila!



Happy holidays!! Please link to your festive outdoor creations in the comments.