My Husband and I bought our first home in the month of November 10+ years ago. So right after Christmas that first Christmas season, I had a few days off work and decided to wander around the store Modern Display, that had all their seasonal decorations on clearance. I was immediately drawn to these large rusty bells and decided to buy a few. I purchased 11 of the bells (1 extra large, 4 medium and 6 small) for the original price of the big bell. I didn't know what I was going to do with the bells, but I knew that I wanted them for my front porch the following Christmas. The following year, I purchased some green garland and my Husband went to work hanging the garland and bells. He found a perfect arrangement for them (adding permanent hooks on the ceiling of the porch) and so for the next 8 Christmases the Garland was put out. However, after 6 years I felt the garland needed some additional color and while visiting Joann's one afternoon with my two young girls, I found the perfect flower garland to add. It was perfect in my opinion. It had red poinsettia's and white hydrangea's. I waited until Joann's put all their Christmas garland on sale and then once it was 50% off, I purchased enough to cover the current green garland on the porch.
It was perfect and for the next 3 years this is how it remained:
Last year when we moved into our new house, my husband went out to hang the Christmas garland and just like the Fall garland, it was too short. So he just hung the garland in a new design just between the two pillars at the top of the porch steps. I loved how it hung and so this year I decided that I would add the 2 additional sections to the porch. I started looking for similar poinsettia and hydrangea garland on line, only to find that the cheapest it came was $59.99 for 6 feet. There was no way I could afford it at this price (considering I spend less than this 5+ years ago buying it at Joann's for all four 6 foot sections). I decided I would have to create the garland myself. So I purchased 4 sections of just red poinsettia garland during the awesome Thanksgiving sales going on and then purchased a couple of bushels of the white hydrangeas. I set to work wrapping the green garland (which I also purchased during the Black Friday deals) with the red poinsettias and then taking sections of the hydrangea's and adding them onto the garland. My Husband hung the old and the new garland outside and it looked great. I loved having the bells only in the main entrance part of the porch and so I didn't add any additional bells. My Husband also went on a green garland buying binge on Black Friday and we had enough green garland to add to the railing on the porch and inside the house, with still some extra left over.
Here is the final result:
I am thinking next year I want to drape the garland on the railing and add some red bows. Plus finish the porch off with some silk poinsettias in pots by the door.
