Today, a break from recounting my adventures in harvesting. You all know that I like to decorate my home for various holidays. It brings me a lot of joy to change up the looks of our house for each new season.
Will you be decorating for Halloween or fall? A recent survey polled Seattleites on what they might be doing this year to celebrate Halloween, as trick-or-treating and parties are likely to be "out" this year. The majority replied that they'd be decorating their houses for Halloween/fall. And you know what? If I were a betting person, I'd say they were polling my neighborhood, as so many neighbors have put up lights in their front yards and on their homes.
I talked it over with one of my daughters and we agreed that putting up decorations just for Halloween seemed like a lot of extra work, but that doing some decor that would be appropriate for all of autumn, through Thanksgiving, would be appealing. Besides, I really don't go in for the ghoulish Halloween decorations, but prefer understated, general-purpose autumn decor.
Since it is getting dark so early now, and lighting can be seen from the street as our neighbors drive passed, I put some extra effort into a little fall lighting project this year.
I had been eyeing some beautiful, lighted garlands in a catalog in August. Of course, these were pricier than I was comfortable with. So, I set out to make my own. I used two strands of mini LED lights (1 orange and 1 yellow, both ordered online) and several lengths of Dollar Tree faux leaf garland which I'd bought several years ago and have used in different applications each fall. I offset the light strands by about 2 inches, so the individual lights would appear closer together. Then I wrapped the faux leaf garlands around the light strands and secured the lighted garland to the surrounds of the kitchen window with cup hooks screwed in at the corners and center top of the wood window trim.
The whole project took me about 30 minutes from finding the cup hooks and wrapping the garland and lights, to securing to the house's exterior. My cost would've been much less if I didn't have it in my mind that I wanted colored lights and instead had used some strings of regular (white) Christmas twinkle lights. In fact, this lighted garland would've been free had I taken that route. But you know, sometimes the heart chooses instead of the mind.
I also changed out the lights to all orange in the bush to the left of the kitchen window. If you'll recall, last fall I put an old C-9 string of lights on a conical shrub and filled the light sockets with green and orange lights only. This year, I bought some additional orange C-9 lights, so I could have all orange lights on this bush. Yep. the heart was in the driver's seat the day I made these purchases. Like I said, it brings me a lot of joy to decorate for the seasons and holidays. Money well-spent.
Lighted evergreen garlands for the winter holidays can be very pricy. This same sort of idea can be used with inexpensive Dollar Tree evergreen garlands or homemade garlands made from evergreen branches wired to a rope and wrapped with strings of mini-lights. I plan on making a couple of those for our house later this fall. Anyways -- just thought I'd share my latest home decorating.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend!
Love your outdoor lights, Lili! I'm with you on the ghoulish stuff.
ReplyDeleteI think since there are less activities at this time, more people are going to decorate outdoors so everyone can enjoy them. I think it is great - a way of caring for others when we are forced apart. That's probably why your heart was in the driver's seat ; )
Enjoy your weekend!
Jo Ann
Thank you, Jo Ann. I hope that our lights bring cheer to our neighbors.
DeleteI hope you're having a great Saturday!
I'm sure your neighbors like your festive lights. I am seeing more and more people with lights for Halloween this year. It seems to be a growing trend. Personally, I consider it a big accomplishment that I have a fall wreath on the door. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteGood job on the wreath! Don't belittle that effort. I still don't have anything on our front door.
Enjoy your weekend, Live and Learn!
Hi Lili. Your lights look nice! That's a great idea of how to MYO lighted garlands.
ReplyDeleteI too like to decorate with fall decor that runs from Sept through Advent. I'm not much for the creepy ghoulish Halloween decorations either. I am halfway through decorating. I need to go up the 2 flights of stairs (ugh) to retrieve my Dollar Tree leaf garlands like yours, my wheat, a wall hanging, some apples and a few more items. I don't use a lot of orange so tend to go with more neutral items like the wheat, white ceramic and mercury glass pumpkins. Meanwhile, I've got a fall wreath up, some small ceramic pumpkins, Indian corn, some corn husk figures and large natural acorns and pine cones. But I better get cracking since it's almost mid October! Plan to finish up today.
Hi Lynn,
DeleteYour home will look gorgeous with all of your fall decor. I hope your plans for finishing today all worked out. Good luck!
Enjoy your weekend, Lynn!
Looks very nice! You have a knack for making things look pretty--thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Cat. I hope you're enjoying your weekend!
Delete"sometimes the heart chooses instead of the mind"--so true!
ReplyDeleteI mostly pulled out autumn decorations from my bin--I have a few pumpkins that I use indoors, and a wreath outdoors. I've always purchased potted mum and pumpkins (from Aldi) for the front porch but when I saw that Aldi also had lanterns on sale, I bought those. They were the most inexpensive ones I've seen. Wind is a problem here so I figured out how to open them from the bottom (not an easy task) and my husband gave me lead fish sinkers to pop inside them--hopefully they won't blow over. My across-the-street neighbor complimented my porch the other day (now SHE is a major Halloween decorator) so I'm glad it gives her something cheery to look at.
Love what you did. Well worth the effort and money.
Your front porch sounds lovely, Kris. I love the look of lanterns, too. I hope yours are well-anchored, now. It's nice that we can all be thinking about how to add cheer to our neighbors' views. I know I appreciate my neighbors decorations. Something nice to look at.
DeleteHave a great weekend, Kris!
Kris, I was at Aldi yesterday and they were out of pumpkins and mums. Also, I didn't see the lanterns. I was disappointed. However, they have chainsaws back in stock. :)
DeleteHi, everyone,
ReplyDeleteI won't decorate for halloween as it's not my favorite day. Never liked it and won't participate either. My daughter and I talked about fall decor and both decided not to. But I will say that all the leaves in the front yard look fall-ish so that's the extent of it.
We thought perhaps pumpkins on the front steps but we never use the front door so we decided to skip that as well. It boils down to needing to buy pumpkins and I don't really want to do that either.
But inside the home we are feeling the autumn by having lots of soups, apple foods like applesauce, apple crisp and pumpkin apple streusel muffins. My dish soap smells like acorn spice, sweater weather and these kinds of things.
Alice
Hi Alice,
DeleteYour home atmosphere with lots of soups and apple/pumpkin foods sounds very welcoming and autumnal. Your scented dish soap reminds me that I should dig out my autumn scent candle.
Have a lovely fall day, Alice!