4th of July Front Porch: 2015

Posting an update of what the house is looking like this summer. We had family visit for the 4th so I actually did some porch decorating for the holiday.

 A couple of big changes to the front. We have started painting the trim and doors. The garage doors were teal/french blue. As is the window trim. We plan to change all this to just the crisp white. I think I will keep the nautical navy on the door. The other change is the new garden fence and gate you can see to the left of this photo. It still needs stain and the tops finished, but it looks great and keeps the deer from eating our garden.

For the first time I actually have a large "old fashoned" coverd porch. I decided that some classic buntings would be the perfect touch for an island style 4th.

 Simple red flowers next to the blue of the door, and moving a metal star to the door looks patriotic without spending much money. Everything here I already had.. just added the fresh flowers.

 My pots are not looking super lush this year.. probably because it's abnormally hot and dry this summer. I'm going to have to break down and buy drippers and install them all over the yard.

 Of course by the end of the week the porch was covered with sand, wet swim suits, towels and coolers... but that is summer life.

Our Christmas Front Porch

I have always loved large front porches and our new home has a nice large wrap around porch. I was quite excited to get my decor out and see what looks I could create. My main purchase this year was to replace our failing incandescent strings with more LED. A couple years ago we bought two spools of lights for the roof line, but we wanted to replace more of them and took advantage of Home Depot's trade in deal.

We picked up a few sets of these icicle lights, they can switch between multicolor and warm white with the push of a button. A really cool idea, for us it's a great compromise as my little boys want everything "rainbow" and I prefer classic white.  I added the string to some faux garland I have had for years, and I mean like from when we were first married and many houses ago. Someday they will need to retire, but they seem to be still going strong and I found a place to use them on the porch.

 

In a previous post I wrote about adding greenery fillers to my patio pots. I aso added it to the small urn by the door.

 

 The dragon finds it nice to nap under

 

I also used some to perk up this terracotta quail.

 

I found two snowflake stakes at Hobby Lobby and added them to the pots. 

 The pots and arborvitie are wrapped in warm white twinkling LEDs.

 My thrift store grapevine deer is standing at attention.

 

I used my Kirkland brand swags outside this year. One on the door and two on either side of the porch entry. and added bright red bows to every post. The icicle garland run the whole length of the porch.

 

 The big shrub in font of the porch are sporting another set of color changing lights, here they are set to warm white. 

 Well that is our porch for 2014, Happy Holidays.

Linking up to:

Savvy Southern Style

Our Halloween Front Porch: By Day and Night

Welcome to our Halloween front porch tour.

Well the wet season is finally here in the Seattle area. We had an unbelievably warm and dry first couple weeks in October, were talking beach weather still... but now fall is finally here. The rain and the leaves are coming down.

Come walk up our leaf strewn driveway...

........ and up to our porch.

We are the crazy neighbors that decorate for Halloween.. not just fall season. 

Now grant you, we have younger kiddos. So nothing too creepy or gross. No blood or guts.

Some stuff is cute and happy...

Some are a bit furry. Go ahead, ring the door bell... he won't bite. (much)

The witch is currently absent from her pink rocking chair. Her cupboard is open and ready for casting spells this Halloween. 

I used the old garden gates to frame the potions wall hanging, added a bit a creepy cloth and some ravens and lights. 

A couple skulls and spiders are about as spooky as we can go. This skull has been named "Bob" 

The talking raven in the cage is new this year. I found him at HomeDepot and loved him. The kid safe cauldron is fairly simple. You can find DIY instructions here. 

With stuff still boxed from our move, I couldn't find my fall wreath. I did find my old fake pumpkin vines I found years ago at Goodwill. I stuck those on one of my white metal stars, added a sparkly dotted bow and some tiny red LED lights. 

The pumpkins from the patch are not carved yet. They spoil way too fast here in the wet. In fact we had one turn to mush already and is currently being happily munched on by our composting worms.

Closer view of the "make do" wreath.

If you need a rest, the swing is waiting. It's a nice dry spot to watch the rain come down. 

You can stay and wait for the sun to drop... 

.... then the house looks like this.

I just love fairy lights! They are the best at taking away the gloom. Though I admit they do make the house less creepy. A dark house would be best for that. In this case, we have quite a few little kids in our neighborhood and trick or treat is really more for them anyway. We try to stay just enough scary to be exciting, but not make little kids cry. 

I added orange bulbs to the exterior lights.

Who's watching you? 

I like to stick plastic pumpkins in my plantings, they can be used longer than real pumpkins and they are so easy to come by at thrift stores. I also stuck in some branches from a dead tree in our yard. 

The cauldron is bubbling away... 

...... you can see the reflection on the ceiling. 

These two dudes like to hang out in my bistro chairs. They tend to get too waterlogged in the yard. (and used as a punching bag by my boys)

The red LED's in the wreath are only lit occasionally to save battery, but they give a zip to the look. 

That's all of it... 

Happy Halloween!

Linking up to:

Savvy Southern Style

Snap!

Seven Thirty Three

French Country Cottage

Summer Front Porch

Summer is officially over, I thought maybe I should post our summer front porch look before I start swapping it out for fall stuff. I love having a large front porch.. and at some point it will be dreamy, but for now I'm just lucky if it's not covered with kids sandals and empty cardboard boxes from moving. (yes we still have unpacking to do) I actually took these with my phone... trying to capture what work I had accomplished before it got messed up again.

We have a lovely porch, with white railings, cedar ceiling and recessed lights, there is even a blue porch swing toward the end.

I added this thrift store rocking chair, I painted it with Rust-oleum Panters Touch in Berry Pink. The color matches the geraniums in my pot very well. 

 I added some accents in this corner.. it really needs something with more umph. It's too shady to put a potted plant. I like to put pots where mother nature will water them. (I'm lazy) Another summer project was these white metal stars. They were rustic red, but the color blended into the shingle color too much, so I hit them with some Petal White.. I think they will also be a great Christmas accent this winter.

My pots... they got a late start this year. I had nice flowers I had planted for selling and showing our previous home... but the trailer ride over to their new home did them in. I had to replant it, and so they have not matured too much. I have gotten some pretty geranium blossoms, the petunia and sweet potato vine have not trailed much. Bummer as I love having that dark potato vine for Halloween decorating. Notice my little dragon? He likes to guard the front porch. :)