Dec 10, 2008
The Daily Poverty Post.
Last weekend Bossy’s husband threw some lights at the gutter diligently strung Christmas lights on the Casa de blog.
Bossy didn’t attach the above photo of the Christmas lights so you could admire her husband’s handy work, but so you could witness that Bossy’s Poverty Party has slipped outside and attacked the holiday wattage.
Usually the white icicle lights on Bossy’s house extend up and over the roof line all the way to the rear of the house, which is, all told, approximately two feet. And typically their lights surround the dormer windows on the second floor.
Bossy was too weak busy to dig up a photo of her house during previous holidays, but the following is an artist’s rendering, where artist equals Somebody hide the Photoshop!
Bossy and her husband purchased all of their holiday lights this year at Target, which means they are fifteen days from going on the blink, where blink equals They don’t blink because they are dead.
Target’s holiday lights are relatively inexpensive and festive, but you need to know they will only last one season. Or perhaps, as a totally random example, your husband hangs them two years in a row and the lights punk out a few days into December and you spend the rest of the month trying to shove a new string of lights into the tree’s dark patch while yelling in the direction of your own personal reindeer that Next Year you will totally remember to buy all new sets.
So Bossy and her husband went to Target with the philosophy that they were starting from scratch, where scratch equals Bossy’s cleansing diet is beginning to make her feel like the inside of her skull is itchy.
They purchased two extra-long sets of white icicle lights, $13.98
They purchased five sets of mini-lights for the Christmas tree, and two additional sets of mini-lights for the family room, $27.93
Of course the above total also represents the purchase of an additional
long-ass string of lights for their son’s dorm room because Decorative Lighting isn’t allowed. Bossy’s son is going to string his lights next to his roommate’s microwave, which also isn’t allowed.
I see Stella in the doorway! Hi, Stella!
Amazing how divisive holiday lighting can be! not to mention expensive!!!
Things I had in my dorm room that weren’t allowed:
- Decorative Lights
- A microwave
- A coffee pot
- A hot plate
- Candles
- A hamster
- Another hamster
- Yet ANOTHER hamster
- Two cats
- Two guinea pigs
- A dog
- Another dog
- Alcohol
Bossy has a pretty abode.
HI STELLA, YOU BIG SWEETIE!!!
We lucked out and din’t have to buy lights this year.
I tried to convince my husband not to hang lights, but he wasn’t buying it.
Bossy, Bossy, Bossy. First, I love the photoshop. I dream we could photoshop real life. : )
But here’s a hint to save you twice: buy the good Philips LED lights at Target. They are more expensive of course, but they will last! (The ones I put on the outside of my house are on year #3 with no sign of a problem.) So you won’t have to start from scratch every year and spend $50. They’ll save you again by using a fraction of the energy that the cheap-o’s do! No more mega-electric bill for being festive.
And LEDs have come a long way, baby. You can get ‘em now that look just like the traditional’s in color and style. I’ve had more compliments this year on my all LED tree than I ever did with the non-LED version.
Either way – I *puffy heart* your house – especially the porch!
Your house looks fabulous. I think keeping the lights simple is totally sensible and classy. Are you sure you shouldn’t Photoshop your address out of the picture though? I’m sure Bossy has many adoring fans and I wouldn’t want a weird one finding their way to her nicely-decorated home.
Looks great, Bossy! Love the chateau de sparkles. We aren’t doing lights at all … we went totally Poverty Party this year. Here’s our 100% FREE Christmas wreath that we made on Sunday: http://karenmaehr.blogspot.com/2008/12/inspired.html . Poverty is pretty, huh? Not too shabby. Hey, who just laughed at those bodacious magnolia leaves?? I put similar greenery inside. F-R-E-E.
It looks nice even without the extra lights. Consider this, you could live in my co-op where the new Scrooges, I mean co-op board members, have decided to install NO holiday decorations in the lobby this year. (Do they think they’re going to save a nickel on the electric bill or something?)
And that’s on top of sending us, JUST US, a letter stating that the work on our radiator valves done almost 3 years ago isn’t considered common building whatever and we have to pay a grand. Immediately.
Don’t they know I’m a Poverty Party Participant? Bossy, can’t you wield your awesome Internet powers to make this go away???
Now that I posted, I apologize — I thought this was the Poverty PITY Party page. My bad.
Bossy, I admire your restraint. Casa de Bossy looks very tasteful!
Now, does anybody have a creative way to use all the strings where only half the lights work? It’s just maddening!
I bought a whole bunch of boxes of Christmas Lights (white only) at Big Lots 5 years ago, and EVERY SINGLE STRAND still works. Don’t ask me how. But I paid $2.99 per box. Woo-woo!
Blog This Mom! used LED lights or are they LCD lights, I’m not sure, but supposedly those L-something-D lights use 10% of the electricity of regular lights. So instead of spending an extra $250 on electricity in December, we are spending an extra $25 which means I had $225 left over and as a result only had to come up with $75 to pay the light hanging service in our neighborhood the $300 they charged to run hook-ups with timers and stuff and then hang the L-something-D lights for me. See? I rock this poverty party, don’t I?
House and lights are lovely, But I am really digging the Adirondack chairs………My Favs!
We just leave our lights on the tree in our yard all yr, just plug in the extension cord and Viola! Course there is the gap at the top of the tree cuz it grew or something, but whatever…………………
5 yrs, so far so good!
Maybe it’s a testament to how little sleep I’ve gotten that I thought your photoshop lights were real until I read that they weren’t.
Here’s my latest Poverty Party post, complete with my own “artist’s rendition”. http://wherearethebears.blogspot.com/2008/12/emergencies.html
Thank God I’m Jewish. Christmas is so forking expensive!! No thanks.
I love, love, love Bossy’s home. I want a cozy cape cod with lots of character. I live in a monsterous track house that seems to triple in size when it comes time for vacuuming and mopping.
Thank you for the post – it’s helping me get in the holiday spirit. Which I am totally lacking this year, as evidenced by my completely undecorated abode. The Cheap But Not Easy hidden fortress is utterly bare of any festiveness.
Free book giveaway at our site: http://3giraffes.blogspot.com/2008/12/in-hovering-flight-by-joyce-hinnefeld.html Mentioning it here because.. hello? Free Christmas gift for someone on your list!
I’m so cheap I don’t put up outdoors lights. I can’s see them from the inside anyway, right?
The grand mal seizure. Teeheehee.
I have discovered and become addicted to Thrift Stores recently. Bought a butt load of working Cmas lights for under $10. Not to mention lots of decorations (I didn’t know I NEEDED.) Thrifting is a riot. Addictive though.
Am confused. My parents have had the same 4 strings of lights (outdoor-sized, as is crazy festive) for YEARS. Like my whole life practically. And we replace bulbs or whatever. Why do your lights punk out on you every year?