Decorating underway

Happy Sunday,

How are you all doing on this fantastic Sunday evening? Enjoy the weekend? I did. You know I’d love to hear what everyone was up to so shoot me a text or drop me a comment. I love it when you reach out. Makes me so happy.

Today I began officially decorating for Halloween with a little splash of fall. Even though my house is disorganized with all the containers in which I store my decorations, I still am over the top excited to have my home looking so festive. I have a ways to go to finish. I need to set up 4 more villages, but that’s okay, I’ll have it done by next weekend. The outside is near done. Just a few more lights and John has an incredible idea for a black light to make things look super eerie and cool. Oh, I have the tombstones I’m making to put out. Those should be done by the weekend too.

Below are some of the photos of my outside. I feel like something is missing on the top portion of my house, so I’ll have to see what I can come up with. I do have more decorations, but they’re packed away and I’m having trouble finding them. UGH, that’s the one negative of combining two houses into one. Anyway, here’s some of my decorations on display. What do you think? Suggestions for doing something different or adding anything? Let me know. I welcome all input.

So far this is what I have for outside. I also began working on the inside. Below are some photos of my first village. Thoughts?

I still have some more minor touches to add to the village, but overall, this is what this village will look like. I like it.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, John’s parents came up to the lake house today and we went to lunch and then they came home with us and sat and we talked while I decorated a little more. We really just enjoyed the afternoon. It was awesome having them to our home and getting their thoughts and ideas on our decorating too.

Mina is awesome, she kept saying to me and John when I told him I was sorry for getting more decorations, which by the way he never seems to mind, Mina would say, “there’s no rules in decorating and there’s no rules to how much you have.” I’m sure John wouldn’t agree completely with that, but he’s awesome and never gets upset with the amount I have.

I spent the first 45 years of my life not being allowed to celebrate holidays, so I think John feels I’m making up for lost time and he does enjoy the decorations and how festive our home is. He’s more the techie kinda guy, so anything that has to do with lights, batteries or videos, he’s game on.

I can’t wait for Christmas and being able to set up all the fun things we have. I have some fun ideas brewing in my mind for my gingerbread houses and I want to make some candy canes for decorations, but I’m not going to wish Christmas upon us yet. I really do want to enjoy my Halloween decorations.

John’s currently in his office researching the best kind of lights to shine on our displays and such. I told you he’s a techie guy and I love him for it.

I sure do love the holidays and being able to finally celebrate them. One of my favorite things is to decorate. Seeing the lights is certainly something I’ll never get tired of and I’ll let you in on a little secret. During my time incarcerated in the cult life, I’d sneak out in the evenings during holiday season and go drive around so I could see the Christmas and Halloween lights. I’d make up a little white lie and tell my husband I needed something at the store or I’d tell him I wanted to just go walk around Target or Barnes and Nobel. Of course he’d give me a time allowance of maybe 30-60 minutes, but that was okay, I got out and got to see the lights.

Now that I’m free from cult life I don’t have to hide my love for holiday decorations and the best part, I get to decorate too. I love it!

I even take painting classes from time to time. The sip and paints. I love those. Usually my daughter in laws go with me and we have the greatest of evenings. We paint, have a little dinner and on occasion, we’ll sneak in a glass of wine, a beer or a cocktail, but the best part of sip and paints is the time with my girls.

Below is a painting I did last year with Kaitlyn and Jagger. Not to bad if I do say so myself. What do you think?

Happy fall y’all. I do hope you find this holiday season to be filled with love and making memories with family and friends. I know I’m going to do my best to enjoy every moment of this season.

“The trees are about to show us how beautiful is to let go.”-unknown.

My dear friends, thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read today’s blog. I hope you enjoyed the photos and until next time, don’t forget, Love Life++ Hugs.

“I hope I can be the autumn leaf who looked at the sky and lived. And when it was time to leave, gracefully it knew life was a gift.”-Dodinsky