I haven’t posted in a while because I haven’t been doing very many exciting things as of late. Lots of boring stuff like adding installing furniture sliders, doing some touch up painting and organizing kitchen drawers. I did however, get a chance to decorate the house for Christmas this weekend thanks to the warm (ish) weather and this week’s sales at Michael’s Arts & Crafts.
I’ll say that I am rather pleased with the way it turned out. However I am not thrilled with my choice in LED lighting. I choose the LEDs because they are supposed to cut down on the use of the electricity and therefore be more environmentally friendly. In making my selection I knew to avoid the older technology with the blueish tint and chose these large style C-7s for a more vintage-traditional vibe in what was billed as “Warm White”. True, they are warm..er than the LEDs of the past but I’m still a little less than happy with them. The color is right, but I think they lack the glow that the old style gave. I wish they were just a bit brighter.
All the fake green stuff came from Michael’s. I wish I could have gotten the real stuff, but time, convenience and budget played a decisive role in that matter. Besides…people are going to be looking at this stuff from 50 feet away, Its just not that serious. The wreaths were a steal at 3 bucks each and two lengths of fake garland did the trick for the window boxes, those were also on sale for 3 bucks each. The velvet ribbon I used to hang each wreath was 50% off and I got 20 yards for about 3 dollars. Then I got some mini-lights to string amongst them at 3.00 each again.
I’d say the splurges were the wreath and the candles. They were expensive because they run on batteries and timers. They all come on at 5 PM and run for 5 hours and then will come back on tomorrow at the same time. The LED candles were 4.50 each and the wreath was about 25.00. But I can use all these things again.
The sun is setting now so I wasn’t able to get any good shots of the wreaths but I’ll try again tomorrow. I also have lost my camera somewhere and I had to use my phone to take this picture so the quality is stinky. My bad.
PS
Way in the back left you can see my neighbor is in the process of painting his garage, he painted his whole house this summer and Its making me feel super guilty about not getting the house painted this summer. It wouldn’t be so bad except the other neighbor on the other side did his too. I’m still on the fence about removing the siding. I’m just nervous I will mourn the loss of the added insulation.
Ittybittybungalow 
Looks beautiful! If you ever feel bad about not doing enough on your house, you’re welcome to come over to my place to feel better. We bought our place 3 years ago and have painted 1 room and had the roof redone. We haven’t even painted the trim in that one room. Hopefully with the baby on the way we’ll feel more urgency to make things look nice, but we also have less time, so we’ll see what happens.
Or you can think about mine – seven years here and I’m just about ready to finish the upstairs 🙂
Your house looks great! I’m jealous of you, finding those great deals at Michael’s. I agree, the LED bulbs just aren’t the same “glow” as the old-style bulbs. Sigh.
About removing the siding: DO IT!! It’ll make a huge difference in the appearance of your house, and it’s totally worth the slight loss of “insulation” the siding provides. (I’m not convinced that the R-value of yucky siding and possibly some tar-paper is really all that high.) I didn’t notice any difference in the temperature of my house after I took off those horrid shingles vs. before.