Before and After Party: Festive outdoors!

Hey all! Whew, we have Internet back! I actually started a different post last night for today’s Before and After Party, but when I drove up to our house this morning after running errands, I changed my mind.

I love love LOVE the front of our house at Christmas. I was so taken with it, especially with all the pretty snow, I wanted to share this instead today.

I usually have the same recipe to our outdoor decor every year, but I changed it up just a bit this year (that would be easier). :)

I started with a couple $3 big honkin’ sparkly bows from Big Lots on our spray painted coach lights:

They’re a little droopy, but I LOVE the pop of red!

Our porch hasn’t changed much:

I showed you how I hang the greenery every year here. Last year I added the red ribbon and ornaments and I love that festive touch!

The wreath is a basic (fake) evergreen with the beautiful amaryllis wreath from Target wired on top:

I drooled over that red wreath for weeks and got it on clearance a couple seasons ago. I love how layering them combines the green and red, makes it super full and gives some padow!! to the front porch. ;)

For years, I’ve hung lighted wreaths over our windows, but this year I was inspired by a picture in a magazine and wanted to try something new. I ADORE our shutters, so I wanted to play them up.

I took some simple small wreaths and just looped some basic red ribbon through to hang them from the top and bottom:

I just used one tack at the bottom and top to hold them on and they’ve held up great. (This spring I need to replace some of the wood on the shutters and repaint them – they’re starting to look a little worn!)

I usually put some greenery in the window boxes, but goodNESS it got cold fast. I’m just going to deal with the frozen kale. ;)

And that’s it! We feel all smooshy and googly when we drive up this time of year, especially with the lights on at night. :)

The snow totally completes the look, don’t you think?:

So here’s my before and after for the month of December – our windows in the past (which I do love!)

And the slightly simpler version this year:

And our porch before, as it looked till two weeks ago:

And now:

Funny how the temp has dropped about 50 degrees in two weeks! I could barely stand to be outside long enough to take these pictures. YIKES. It sure does feel and look like Christmas around here! ;)

So what have you been up to? I can’t wait to see your Before and Afters! And don’t forget to link up to Kate’s crafty party tonight! I need to get busy!