Silver Trappings

Part 2 - Still Glowing!

The outside of Mary Carol Garrity's house is just as wonderful as the inside. If you are not familiar with her, you can go to her website here. She has some wonderful books. Absolutely gorgeous pictures! You can get them on her website here, or on Amazon or at any local bookstore.

This is our first step onto her actual property. When we finally made it to this point, to step up onto the first step of her front walk, we had been in line for probably 1 1/2 hours. When we stepped onto this first step, I squealed, "We're here! We are actually on her property! I am at. her. HOUSE! Aren't you EXCITED!?!?" to my husband. He looked around to see if anyone was listening to my raving. He was possibly wondering at this point if this had been a good idea after all. Standing in the freezing wind for 2 hours with a lunatic wife. Hmmm.

She had five or six of these white concrete urns across the front of her house. Each one was full of greenery, with little silver balls in a couple of sizes tied onto the ends of the greenery. And each one had a big silver gazing ball (WHY didn't I buy a few of these last summer at Hobby Lobby!!!) in the middle. How simple is that!?!?! And this would not cost much. But it was so very pretty. The silver just pops next to the greenery! I think that attaching the little silver balls at the very ends of the greenery is part of what makes this so pretty. They kind of looked like they were just floating.

I am going to get a couple of those really large silver plastic Christmas ornaments that Hobby Lobby has right now. I have a bird bath on my front porch with fall leaves and pumpkins in it. I am going to copy this silver and greenery idea in that bird bath this year! (And next spring when the gazing balls are back in Hobby Lobby, I am going to buy a few large silver ones! Because the gazing balls are bigger, and a much more shiny, bright silver than those plastic ornaments!)

The planter below was also on her front porch. It is really very simple, but so very pretty.

This black urn was also on the porch right by the door. I wish my picture was not zoomed in this much, so you could see the entire thing. She just stuffed it full of a variety of Christmas greenery (faux, but it looks real), and tied a great black and white checked ribbon on it. Simple, but elegant! I loved it!

Ok, now to the part where I become famous. Once we reached the porch, she was by the door visiting with everyone on their way in. They let 8 to 12 people in at a time. Once inside, you could stay for however long you wanted. It was not a guided tour. You could just wander through her entire downstairs, stop wherever you wanted, take as many pictures as you wanted, and stay as long as you wanted. So every few minutes they let another little group in, and there was a continual little stream of people coming out the back door that had finished their looking.

When we were close to the door, we were listening to her talking about her decorating for this week. She glanced over at me, and saw that I did not have a coat on. She asked me where in the world my coat was, and I just laughed and said 'I don't know.' She promised that she would get me in with the next little group. And just then, the door opened, and she led me up to the door and told the "door monitor" that I had to get in with this group because I had no coat on! So, you see, she now knows who I am. Doesn't that make me famous?

Come back tomorrow for some inside pictures!

Shannon