HOME TOUR 2011, THE FRONT YARD!

WELCOME to the HOME TOUR 2011!!

This is the first part of our Progressive Home Tour!

I am linking this up to:

Cowgirl Up! Creative Linky Party- Christmas in July Party

We are looking forward to sharing our Home, decorated for Christmas , with all of you!!

There are 7 Parts to our HOME TOUR.

Each post will feature one room in our home and all the posts are now linked together.

At the end of each post, which features a room in our home, you will be able to click on the link that will take you to the next part of the tour, the next room on the tour, until we have taken you through our entire house!

So we will start with the outside of our home. Remember that we live in a townhouse.

Our Front Door......

I have mentioned in the past that I added the shatterproof balls to this wreath that I made a few years ago.....

This tin pocket, which is to the side of the front door, was bought at the After Christmas Clearance Sale at Target several years ago and I filled it with Christmas greenery....


Below the tin pocket is my childhood sled that I used quite often in the winters here in Pa. while growing up.
I remember that Santa Claus gave it to me one Christmas .

It had been bought it at the local American Auto Store. Who remembers these stores in your town???


I have decorated it with a burlap ribbon bow, old ice skates and greenery and some other wooden ornaments.......

It remains out on the porch all winter and I have decorated with this sled for many years.....

On the side of the sled, is a wooden reindeer filled with silk poinsettias. It was made in Cub Scouts by my oldest son, Joey, who will be turning 30 after Christmas.

Along with the sled, it is one of my most treasured decorations.

All the Penguins are for Joe since we have season tickets to AHL Wilkes Barre Scranton Penguins Hockey . Both penguins were after Christmas Target finds.

The tin stocking was bought quite a few years ago at one of my favorite stores, Country Folks.

To see my tour of Country Folks decorated at Christmas from last year, please click on the pic on my side bar.
I will be visiting there this season and I will again take lots of pics.

This milk can is something that I bought at a yard sale for $5.00 about 15 years ago. I filled it with silk poinsettias and greenery.

This is looking toward the small flower bed under my Living Room window......

I have lighted garland on the railing of the porch....

Did you see my concrete frogs??? They came from Sam's Club many years ago....

This Victorian style basket was a flea market find.

I had a friend come to my one of my Open Houses last Christmas and she commented that I had a " 3-5 and 7-9" basket on the front porch.
I had no idea what she was talking about.
Apparently these standing baskets were used outside of Funeral Homes and the times for the "Wake" were usually 3-5 pm and 7-9 pm!!!

LOL!!


I just liked the basket and I had seen it on someone's blog ( sorry, I don't know which blog) , used in the bedroom!

This is the front porch looking toward the front door....


And this is the lighted wreath that is hanging on the wall of our house.....

Below the wreath is a sled that I have also decorated with for many years. It was made in Cub Scouts by my youngest son, Jim, who will be 28 years old in a few weeks.
Another one of my most treasured items.

I added the shatterproof balls also to all the wreaths on the windows!!

I love how the balls stand out!!

I bought these ornaments in Target last season for 75% off. They came in a tube with 3 different types of balls, stain finish, glossy finish and glittered, for 25 cents!!!


So I arranged the 3 different types in a cluster and added them to the wreaths.



My small flower bed under the Living Room window......

The chippy angel is also an after Christmas Target find.
The candle lights are from Big Lots. Again, purchased after Christmas for $5.00 for the set of 10.
The front flower bed looking up from our parking lot. There is 13 steps to walk up to the front side walk.
The lantern was bought at Big Lots. And more penguins bought at Target!

Here is what the front of our house looks like in the day time from our parking lot.

Those shatterproof balls really stand out on the wreaths, don't you think????


Now, here is the house at night....

The Front Door taken with a regular flash....

The front door taken using the "Candlelight" feature on my camera.




You can see that our home is connected to a house on each side and we are in a row of 10......

You can see I have lights in the shape of icicles on the garland too.

Looking toward the front door....

The front porch.....

You can see we are prepared for snow as we have our shovels ready on the front porch. We did have to use them in October after we had 9 inches of snow on Oct. 30!!

Looking at our home after walking up all those 13 steps!!


We have the weeping mortar on the front of our home so it is easy to hang things off of it!!


There is the wreath all lit up....

Taken with the Candlelight feature...

I also have a spotlight shining on the center of the house where the wreath is...

Candles in the windows....

Looking towards the flower bed...

I have two 3 foot artificial pre -lit trees stuck in my flower pots on the side of the flower bed. They were a flea market buy for $ 3.00!


Again, looking toward the front flower bed....



The flower bed under the Living Room window....

It will look much better with snow.....

A topiary tree.....

You can see the trees in the pots and the candle lights.....

Here is the house taken from the parking lot...


The penguins and lantern with a red bulb in it.....



From the side.....

And that concludes the first part of our Home Tour 2011.

CONTINUE TAKING THE HOME TOUR:

To continue on to Part Two of our Home Tour 2011, please click HERE to see our KITCHEN!

I will say that I will equal last year with at least 14 trees and maybe......there might be more!!

It is a sickness, what can I say!!

I am linking up to these great parties:

Masterpiece Monday

Mod Mix Monday

Amaze Me Monday

Metamorphosis Monday

Wow Us Wednesday

Rednesday

Outdoor Wednesday

Home Sweet Home Friday

Show and Tell Friday

Potpourri Friday

Vintage Inspiration Friday

Deck the Halls Friday

Pink Saturday - Special Holiday editions

Seasonal Sunday

Itz Festival Time Party

Open House Thursday party

Christmas Party at Holiday Haven

Christmas Blogger Block Party-

Doors and Porches

I'll Be home for Christmas Linky Party

Tour of Christmas Homes @ The Nester

Hooked on Houses Holiday Home Tour

Christmas Home Tours 2011

2011 Virtual Holiday House Tour

Holly Bloggy Christmas

Please stop by and visit the hosts and participants of these wonderful Blog parties!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and every day that you take the time to visit with me!!

Hugs,
Debbie