"I went to the fire sale at the Baptist Bookstore in Shreveport last week. They had mismatched manger scenes at incredibly low prices. I cleaned them out of baby Jesuses which I made into ornaments!"
Steel Magnolias was a favorite movie of mine and my mom's. The Christmas part is so superb and Annelle's over the top decorating never fails to impress me every time I see it.
The crown jewel in my opinion is Annelle's wreath comprised of a mass of mismatched baby Jesuses (and later I realized it is also cluttered up with hair clips, rollers, and hair color samples which is so perfect for a hair salon!). I have had a major fascination with making my own baby Jesus wreath for years and finally made one this year:
I wasn't able to get my hands on a bulk of singed baby Jesuses so instead I found images out in internetland, printed and edged them in gold glitter, hot glued those babies down to a cheap wreath we picked up from a church rummage sale along with adding gold glitter balls from 1.25 Tree to fill it out.
Of all the times I have watched the movie I never noticed that Annelle's wreath had the extra Hair Salon bling on it until finding a movie still to include in this post. I think pretty much all of those extra items could be sourced from 1.25 Tree if anyone out there is wanting to really do up their wreath full Annelle!
Since the wreath was Steel Magnolias inspired I decided to extend the theme on the entire stoop.
We put out our stuffed armadillo as a nod to the cake from the movie:
Only we aren't hacking into him. He's Santa's side kick. Oh! I just thought of something! I should have given him a red nose!
And to round it all out, Annelle's berserk elves decor inspo:
"Put the cords so they don't show. It'll look tacky."
Tacky is what we are going for!
My version....
All the spiders got some holiday flare.
Keeping with the Baby Jesus theme I put out most of our vintage nativity sets.
I decorated the silver tinsel wreath with all the little plastic mangers.
I wrapped the beam in garland and bows, along with everything else getting garland and bows!
Again, looking at the movie stills I am realizing I barely decorated in comparison to the epic porch Annelle presented.... beautiful blow molds that moved, everything draped in garland, banners, bows, pots of poinsettias....and music!
Here is the song she played:
Down in Louisiana....We have a Cajun Christmas!
Play it while looking at my front stoop images for that added bit of Annelle pizzazz!
Here are a couple of past posts that are Cajun/ Steel Magnolias themed:
4 comments:
πMerry Xmas Mary..!!π Hope you & the family have a fabulous time.. ABOLUTELY LOVE your porch decor.. Isn't Steel Magnolias a wonderful film. So well acted & covering the good & the bad in life but ultimately, about carrying on regardless despite adversity, & with a core of loyal friends to help through it all, despite disagreements along the way! How cool that you had your own armadillo cake! (What a great mum!)
Anyhow.. Adore all the tinsel, & am coveting your hanging metal spiders & their red bows & your fantastic lights.. (we used to have similar when I was a kid, not the hideous & way less impressive LED things of today.. which manufacturers rarely make in interesting colours unless you're prepared to sell a limb to afford, & who can't seem to agree on what "warm white" lights mean..) & OH... to have a big blue eyed Santa blow mold... sigh... π So, so cool.. (wondering if you've put up your collection of smaller santas anywhere too?)
It's all looking fantastic on your porch there Mary.. Oh, & your Dolly Parton Tree with the leopard print guitars & very busty angel with the absolutely fabulous wings... Made me smile...!! Hope you've still put up all your retro xmas decor too (mind you I also loved your Fallmas decor last xmas & your Fall decor & porch this last Autumn.. & that fabulous table cloth.. more coveting..)..
I'm hoping you'll share photos of the rest of your xmas decor when you have chance over (or after) the hols too... (Pretty please..) Your posts cheer me up no end, & I especially love your xmas, winter, halloween, Fall porch & home tour posts.. There's always more & more to look at each time I look, & you've a great eye for your displays & lovely vignettes. I find them all so very inspiring (& they really do cheer me up in very difficult times here..).
Loved the nod to the Armadillo cake too... Great film! The local amateur theatre did a production of it a few yrs ago (the film not the cake..) which sadly I was too ill to get out to see.. Though truth be told, I wanted to be in the play rather than watchng it, to share with the locals my version of a southern drawl... (which I used to do to cheer my mum up when she was very ill & dying.. but that's another story..) The local amature theatre seem to do a lot of American accents in many of their plays over the years.. & truth be told, my version of a Southern accent was FAR removed from the posh & pretentious American accents they seem to always use in their plays.. (remindsed me of American made films or programmes, where the British characters nearly always speak with over pronounced, exaggerated, often upper-class sounding "English" accents, even when played by a British actor & meant to be working-class..)
I think they'd of balked at m attempts at a working-class Southern drawl, which would probably of made them run to the hills.. & despite my trying to sound more Dolly Parton-esk I'd been forced to try for Ouiser I'm sure... though I'm not sure even she's ever been cast as a middle-aged short, fat, Welsh woman with a walking stick.. π
On that cheery note.. Hope you & your family have a fantastic xmas Mary.. Season's Greetings from Wales.. Ruthππ€ππ΄σ §σ ’σ ·σ ¬σ ³σ Ώ
I *love* this! Especially the armadillo and the spiders! Too cute!
~Ruth~
Steel Magnolias is just so wonderful. My mom and I loved to quote it, like "Pink is my signature color"...only she would say red and I would say black!
I know what you mean about the "warm white" with the lighting. I hate that cold blue light!
I did put up the Santa Choir of blow molds on the top of the china hutch in the Dining room as I do every year. I just didn't photograph it this year since it's in a corner that is super bright backlit by the sun...and thanks for noticing!
I'm not even going to try to do an English accent! I'd sound worse that Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins!
Thanks so much for your kind words! Sorry you had an issue getting your comment to go through. I had to turn on comment moderation when I got a troll comment several months back. Had to nip that nonsense in the bud!
~mary~
~Jennilee~
Thanks! The spiders aren't quite Annelle but they are very me!
~mary~
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