Exterior Decorating

File this under: Things I Meant To Post Before Christmas.

See, I randomly (and I suppose most times one gets sick it is somewhat random) came down with the plague about eight days before the 25th. So while everyone else was frantically running around tying up lose ends and doing things like posting that Christmas post right before Christmas, I was half buried in my couch contemplating methods to put myself out of my misery. But I digress. 

We had wanted to do something fun with the decorating this year, and our little village loves to get all gussied up for the holidays, so we knew it had to be creative. Thanks to my mom's archive of old Martha Stewart Livings, we found the perfect not terribly cheesy, not super religious, could be left up a bit after Christmas decorations.This is how we decorated the Grange this year: STARS. 

Which some of my more astute friends pointed out to me look very similar to the ones that used to cover my planners in high school -- a correlation that I didn't make myself, but yes, they are oddly similar. I guess I just love stars. Good catch, girls!

The pets were very helpful in the installation.

This is one of those times that I'm thankful for all of construction equipment RJ has acquired. I am not so thankful when they remain parked on our yard for three weeks, but this is not one of those times. 

 Voila! Which one is your favorite? I'm partial to the upper left little one.

Overall, this took about $200 worth of lights, an afternoon of installing them, and probably waaaaay too much time making the stars. RJ made each star, then painted them white, then stapled the lights onto each in a manner that was far more attractive than I could have ever done. (I know, I tried making one of the smaller ones. Look for the messiest lights, and that's mine.) But it was all totally worth it. 

But lest you think start to get too impressed, please take note of my handiwork with the neighbor's tree:

 Wait for it.....

Wow, that's just beautiful.