Christmas Porch Garland

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.

Fall Porch Garland

Garland has hung from our porch each fall since we purchased our first home.  My mother had given me a large grapevine garland so I put it to use.  I soaked it and then stretched it across our cute little bungalow porch.  I then added leaf garland, sunflowers, and plastic gourds to it (my husband drilled all the holes needed in the gourds to attach them).

Over the next eight years I added more leaves and flowers to the garland.  It has always been the first decoration to go out each fall.

The only pictures I have of the original garland (October 2004):

Since our move, I have found our new porch is much longer than our previous one, and so I have made new garland for it.  I truly missed putting it out last year, but we had just moved in and unpacking kept us busy. I never had the time to make a new one.  This year I decided it would be my one new piece of fall decoration.  I found some smaller grapevine garland on ebay, then waited until Michael's had fall leaf garlands on sale for 50% off.  Then I picked up the gourds at Hobby Lobby once they started their 50% off fall decor sale. 

I kept the garland more simple this year.  I wrapped the grapevine in leaves, used raffia left over from my sister's wedding decorations, and secured it to the vine.  I then added pumpkins.  My Husband installed the hanging hooks on the front porch so I could hang our new fall garland.  He then asked if I was going to put garland around the door, unfortunately not this year, but maybe in the future.  My Husband loved the leaf colors I picked and really thought it complemented the color of our home.

Here is the new Garland:

With the porch complete I decided to re-purpose the old garland.  I stripped it down into individual pieces.  Next, I rummaged through more left over supplies from my sister's fall reception.  My Mom gave me

all the leftover stuff, or stuff that she didn't have a use for.   I added it to the grapevine garland (which I had to trim down a bit to fit my mantle).  I then added the new garland to my mantel and it looks wonderful.   I'm now in the mood for a romantic cuddle with my Honey next to the fireplace on a brisk fall evening.