The elves have been busy in my neighborhood!
I've been taking early morning walks this past week, enjoying all of the holiday decorations that my neighbors have put up. It seems that there are even more (and earlier) holiday decorations than previous years. Perhaps this is simply because so many folks are home during the week; but I also like to think that we're all doing what we can to provide cheer to one another through outdoor decorations.
This morning, one of my daughters came with me on our walk and we talked about what we could do to decorate our outdoor areas that are highly visible for passersby on the street. I mentioned that I have everything that would be needed to make a swag for the front of our garage: the evergreen and berry-laden branches in the yard, a 12-inch length of heavy wire (mine is green, but silver would've also worked as it would be hidden by the greenery and bow), and a weather-proof bow.
Once home, I grabbed my pruners and gardening gloves then clipped about 7 branches, mostly cedar but also a couple of branches of cotoneaster for their beautiful red berries. I piled the branches neatly on top of each other and used the length of wire to bind them all together about 6 inches from the top of the bundle, finishing on the back side. After adding the outdoor ribbon, my swag was ready to hang. I used our house's flag holding bracket between the two garage doors as my hanging spot, threading the long ends of the bundle's binding wire through the perforations of the bracket and twisting securely.
I spent about 10 minutes making the swag and hanging it. This is so easy, yet it adds such a festive note to the front of our home.
I hope that my little effort brings a smile to someone passing by.
