Outdoor Decor

Last Sunday I finally got motivated to put up my outdoor Christmas decorations.  The lights are actually pretty simple since I snap them all into clips from the comfort of my living room couch.

After that is done it only takes about 30 minutes to throw them up on the house, and most of that time is spend moving the ladder.  I love how it perfect spaces the lights and makes them all level.

Next I grab my large ornaments that I picked up on clearance at Target last year.

I envisioned hanging them from my live oak but once I started executing that plan, the result was pretty underwhelming.

Dwarfed Ornaments on a huge tre

Plan B was to hang them on my front porch.  I already had a few cup hooks installed from the previous owner so I just added four more.

I love my festive porch now!  Later that night I lit it all up.  Aside from some spacing issues that were in my light strand it looked pretty good.  The only bad thing is the color.  They are bright white and everyone else on the block has the yellow-white lights.  Somehow I did not get the memo.  It makes my house look a little more neon than Christmas should be.  I think I'll try to score new lights at this year's after Christmas sales.

I may also add more lights this weekend.  It's looking a little dull now that I'm looking at the photo.  On a more exciting note, I'm able to control my lights via my iPhone!  My alarm company gave me an outlet that you can plug lights into and remotely control from the phone app.  I just plugged my lights into it and voila! The lights are plugged into my garage socket so I don't have to worry about the outdoor elements.  My favorite trick is turning them on from my driveway when I get home from work each day.  It's the little things in life that entertain me.