I’ve always loved topiaries by the front door of a house. It’s just “one of those things” right up there with white hydrangea and yummy-smelling candles. As I’ve mentioned before, my parents live right across the street from us, and I lived in that house since I was 10 years old. I remember thinking when I got older – and actually started paying attention to things like interior design and landscaping – that the house across the street would look nice with topiaries by the front door. Little did I know that 7 years later I’d be married to that geeky guitar player from youth group and living in that very house with our son little dog. Crazy!

Needless to say, I’ve been on the hunt for topiaries. While keeping my eye out, I’ve had a few things on my “topiary wish list”: at least 3-feet tall, double round balls, faux boxwood, and (though not a necessity) pre-lit for Christmas.

While at Tuesday Morning over the weekend, I lucked out! Sitting right in the window were two 3-feet tall, round, double-ball, pre-lit, faux boxwood topiaries… everything on the wish list! Their original price was $200 each, and they were marked down to $99 each. Not bad, considering that other topiaries I’ve been looking at were anywhere between $200 and $400.

I couldn’t get them home fast enough! When I got home, I realized I didn’t have any planters for the front porch, we moved the ones we spray-painted for the carport a while back to the front. We haven’t had plants in them for months (remember, I am a plant assassin), so to the front they went. I set my newfound unkillable leafy friends down in the planters and did a tiny happy dance – in my head.

I love the look of them and the fact that the faux boxwood looks pretty real – even in an iPhone photo!

That’s all fine and dandy, but with the nice, new, tailored-looking topiaries, the rest of the porch is screaming for help. Within the next few weeks, we’re planning on removing the storm door (which is a nasty green color and likely as old as the house!) and installing a new light fixture (which is as equally nasty). That will make a huge difference and add to the curb appeal of our house. After that… landscaping, but I’m getting a little too ahead of myself. One weekend at a time, one weekend at a time.

In other outdoor news, we finally got around to having the trees in the front yard trimmed back. They are gigantic trees, so this a project to be done by the pros. There were huge limbs touching the house, and the shade was choking the dogwood trees. Every time a big storm came, we would hope that one of the big limbs wouldn’t take the gutters off the front of the house. As you can see from the above Instagram photo, everything is cleared out, and there’s a bit more sunlight in our front yard. Three cheers for progress!