Christmas 2011 Outdoor Decor

Hello again, friends!

Are you all happy and tired from touring all the great homes in blogland this week?

What a lot of inspiration out there!

Well, I'm happy to finally be showing you the outside decorating we've done around here.

To be honest, I was kind of stumped on what to do. I just didn't seem to be getting any good ideas at all...until I realized there really isn't anything wrong with reverting to "old faithful"...that is, the same style of outdoor decorating I have done for a few years now.

I have enjoyed putting out a garden bench of some sort by our front door and decorating it up with lots of greenery, lights and outdoorsy "stuff". I've always loved it. So why stop now?

As you probably already know, this Christmas we have a new house...and a new garden bench!

Those of you who have been following along since earlier last summer might remember the cute little story about this twig bench, from my garden tour post in July.

I thought it might add a nice rustic touch in the front for Christmas, so we dragged it around...and I say "we" rather loosely, because it wasn't "we" at all...it was all the male half of "we" that dragged it around front. And he wasn't particularly impressed with the female half of "we" either when I suggested it, since he'd been shoveling off all the snow on our deck onto the bench below for several weeks.

Well, he's a good man and didn't grumble too much...and now it sits in the front.

In our neck of the woods (I love saying that), you can buy a permit at the town office and cut down up to three trees in certain designated of the countryside...so we packed up the kids, a sled, some snacks and off we went to find our trees.

This beautiful tree was one of our lovely finds. I think it adds a bit of a woodsy feel, and I love that. 

I cut off some pine and spruce branches to line the bench and then wove lights around the branches for a bit of added twinkle at night.

I've had this old lantern for so long, I don't even remember where I got it!

One of the glass panels is broken out now, but it's still a much loved addition to our outdoor accessories.

In the summertime, these cast iron pots are filled with overflowing flowers and vines, but in the winter we like to fill them with more greenery, lights and a twiggy lit up tree.

Another tree stuffed into another cast iron pot by the front door.

This tree required a bit of a haircut to fit into the entryway! This is the first year I've put a live tree into a pot, and I will admit I'm really happy with the look...I believe it might be a permanent addition to the "old faithful" decor every year now!

Hubs found this big lantern at Home Sense several years ago and convinced me to buy it...not that it really took too much rubber arm twisting... *wink*

And last, but not least, more greenery on the door.

I could not come up with any ideas for a wreath for the door and even considered just leaving the door empty...until I remembered this old wall hangy thingie that I had spray painted black last summer.

Duh! It worked great and all it needed was some more pine branches!

It doesn't get any easier than that.

Now c'mon in while I take you through the house to the deck off the kitchen...

If you missed touring the rest of the house earlier this week, you can go here.

Again - usually this is filled with my favorite red geraniums in the summertime, but now it's filled with more pine and spruce, sticks, lights and lit up twiggy branches.

We enjoy seeing the twinkly lights through the window at night while we're eating dinner together!

Thanks again for visiting!

I'll be sharing a fun tutorial for a tree filler flower in the next couple days, so I hope you'll be back to check that out! Although...for your sake...I hope you've finished your tree decorating by now so that you can sit back and enjoy it for a while!

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To see the other great parties I'm linking up to, click HERE!