2013 Christmas Mantel

I don't think I had shared any photos of my Christmas mantel last year. Maybe that's because it wasn't much to speak of, or I just didn't have the motivation to write a post about it. Yea. That's probably more like it.

This year's mantel really isn't much to speak of either, but that's the look I was going for...something simple that will carry through the winter, as I'm just now getting around to decorating for the holidays. I just put up our tree on the 15th of December and THAT has NEVER been that late in getting put up. I swear, it gets later & later every year. 

Since we repainted our living room this summer in a two-tone beige color scheme from the basic (dirty) white, I wanted something that went with the room & yet was still noticeable on the darker stone wall & mantel tones.

You can see a little bit of the paint scheme to the left in the photo - just pay no attention to that horrible popcorn ceiling. We have every intention of removing that some day, but it's a huge room that will take forever and a day just to get scraped off.

This is a sign I made for myself after I made one last year that sold immediately in my first craft show. I'm just now getting around to finishing mine up. I made it from a cabinet door that I painted & distressed, some dollar store picture frames that I painted white, scrapbook paper & my Silhouette Cameo. It's hard to tell in this shot, but I've also embossed the background paper in the frames with a Tim Holtz vintage postmark embossing folder & inked them in Tea stain with Tim Holtz stamp ink.

It's probably not a wise choice to do my mantel in such light colors because it's almost pointless to dust up there as long as we're using the fireplace insert. I can dust & there's literally dust there again in just a matter of seconds. Even though this insert is a newer one, it blows out a ton more dust than the identical one we have in another room that is 15 years old & this one doesn't blow out the heat anything like the old one does either. It's better than not having one though, I guess.

So I'll enjoy this photo of it while it's less dusty.

 
I'm linking to these parties:

Funky Junk White party

Spring Mantel Decorating

We didn't have a mantel in our living room when we first moved into our home over 9 years ago. There is a rustic barn beam mantel in the family room, but I didn't want that for the living room. Our living room is not formal, much like the rest of our home which isn't really formal either. It has more of a lodge look and feel as it sits back in the woods. It has a lot of charm amidst all of it's neglect from previous owners that we have slowly, but surely been trying to overcome.

My husband started to build the mantel in the living room during a period where he was laid off. He has mostly made this mantel out of scrap wood that he has had on hand that was thrown away pieces from various jobs he has worked on over the years. He is a plumber, but very well skilled in so many other areas - thank goodness! He got the shell done, but then was called back to work before it was finished and he just never had enough time to get back to it until the next year when he was laid off again. thank goodness he's been back to work for a year now.
 

 
After never having a mantel that I can decorate my whole life, I have to get into the habit of doing so & getting better at it. I've had this decorated only about a week before Easter. Everything is 2nd hand and low budget! 

Take this bugle, for example.

I only gave $5 for it at a little sale last fall held by the local Humane Society. The lady at the booth was telling the other lady in the booth that it would take "the right person" to buy that horn. Since I was eavesdropping on their conversation, it caught my attention and I told them that "the right person" just showed up and I bought it. There is a chain on this that was only half there, I'm sure it's not original to the horn. I had just received my product compensation from my Cricut magazine publication and it included some gorgeous crystal prisms & some vintage looking brass flowers that were made by Maya Road. I just had to add them to the chain for a little dressing up.

If you want to duplicate the dust, feel free, you don't even have to give me credit. I'm sure it's not MY original idea and I don't recall where I originally seen the idea. It must be catching on, cuz I've seen it all over in other people's houses.  ;)

I know I need to get better at decorating my mantel, but this is what I have on hand. I'm happy enough with how it looks.




I'm linking up to these parties:

Christmas Mantel & Tree

I have been trying for what seems like forever to get a picture posted on here of how I did my mantel this year. It's really pretty simple and nothing spectacular compared to blogland, but these are things I had and wanted to use in a different way. The reindeer is part of a pair I picked up at Hobby Lobby on clearance a couple of years ago. I typically have them standing outside my front door. I guess the other one will have to be lonely this year. LOL! I do love the look of a wreath hanging in the middle of shutters, like I've seen on Pinterest and blog land, but I guess I had seen so many of those & and knew I could not do anything better that I just wanted something a little different with the reindeer.


Yes, there's a fire a blazin' in the fireplace insert because we have it going all winter long to help with the gas bill. Because of the heat from the fire, I have to be careful what goes on the mantel in the winter. Some of the red berries in the garland get hot and split open showing the white foam. I pick them off, but eventually they'll be all gone from that practice. LOL! The floral spray at the top of the shutter is from a garage sale. The little tree luminary I just picked up at the local thrift store for some pocket change.


This is actually my first year being able to decorate a mantel because there wasn't one in the living room before.  There used to be a free standing wood stove sitting in front of the fireplace when we bought our house, but we finally had it removed and put a fireplace insert into the actual fireplace. Then my hubby started to put up a mantel when he was laid off the one time. He got called back to work before it was finished, but was able to finish it when he lost his job last Christmas (thankfully he's working again). And now I have a pretty mantel to decorate! I have a mantel in the family room too, but that is considered the hubby's room with it's authentic barn beam mantel that I could make look all cool, but he doesn't want me to touch it, so I don't.

 Here is our tree this year. It's not as pretty as years past, because I slacked on the motivation to put all the pretty icicle ornaments on, just a few made it. As you can see, there is no snow outside in northern Indiana right now. I'm not a fan of the stuff, but as I've maybe mentioned before, I do need it to get me in the Christmas spirit. We've had some, and that helped, but it hasn't lasted.

Here is a picture of the tree looking through some special 3D snowflake glasses that Brooke got in the mail from her aunt. You might get a better image if you click on the picture. Brooke thought these were so cool! VERY fun!!


I made some Keiflies yesterday and they were just delicious!! I LOVE those things! It's my step-mom's recipe that was her mother's, I believe. My back was hurting after rolling out 70 Kiflies and 2 batches of sugar cookies with Brooke. She enjoys decorating with the colored sugars, but I think I end up throwing away half of the sugar because she seems to get more on the cookie sheet than on the cookie.  :^/


Well, I'm done here today. I have a ton of presents to still wrap and I will be picking up my sister later this afternoon.


So everyone have a Wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza or any other celebration that I may have missed!!

God Bless!!

I'm linking up to these blogs:

Fall is Halloween Time and MORE Witches Hats

Sorry....I know, I already did a post on the witches hats I made, but I didn't have them done in all the colors nor did I care for how the picture turned out. One of my friends said that maybe the pictures didn't do them justice.... Which to me, that makes it sound like she wasn't impressed with them. So I thought maybe, just maybe, and most likely, the picture didn't do them justice. Perhaps these won't either, but I think they look better than the other shot I took of the 2 together. At least now I have my fall mantel done to help out a little more.

This is the green trimmed one, which looks a little washed out and more yellow looking in this photo.

This is the mustard trimmed one that seems to go really well with my mantel decor and the butter yellow shutters.

Here is the orange trimmed one. This is the first one I made and the brim is a bit smaller than the others because I made that larger after this one.

And here is the purple trimmed one. I was kinda worried about how the color would turn out for the trim around the hat, but I actually nailed it with what I had in my mind. That's not something that happens very often in my world.

 Here is my mantel decorated up for the fall season (without the witches hats). I will be adding some Halloween stuff later this week or next. Too many other things in my schedule to be worrying about that right now. We didn't have a mantel in this room when we first moved here. My hubby started making one the first winter he was laid off, but didn't finish it until this last winter when he lost his job. The only thing we had to buy was the trim pieces, so it was basically a $25 mantel. Since my hubby is hoarder like myself, he had all the wood he needed from scrap pieces that were being thrown away at job sites he worked at. Frugal is so good! Now I'm still debating about whether I want add a medallion of some sort to the front or just leave it blank so I can change out vinyl words or sayings. I'm leaning towards the latter, but then again I hate to waste vinyl that I'm going to throw away. I could make custom sized signs to hang there and then switch them out when needed. We'll see.

Well hey! Thanks for stopping by today and I'd love for you to leave me some comments. You don't have to tell me you love me, or my stuff (unless you do love my stuff), just let me know you stopped in! tee hee... ;^)

God Bless and have a great day!

Linking up to Up to the October Halloween party over at While He was Napping blog.


Other parties I'm linking to:

Been a little while...

It's been a while since I've posted here & even today I don't have anything new to show you, although I have been working on stuff, nothing is finished yet. As it turns out, my hubby, Alan, had his work hours cut at the beginning of the year & now he's been laid off for a couple of weeks now. So, needless to say my normal routine is not normal anymore. I love spending time with him, don't get me wrong, but I have always been kind of a loner & need my own space - a lot!

On the bright side to this, he's been getting things cleaned out that he's neglected for oh so long. It feels good to have the pile of auto magazines GONE! He finally finished the mantel above the fireplace that he started a year ago - YES!! I still have to get some stuff to put on there, but at least it's done & looks better than a couple of bare pieces of 2x4's. I love the way it turned out too.



















He cleared all the junk that was piled on his desk & old stuff that he was able to let go of. I am trying to make the most of his time at home. He made a really nice play desk for our daughter, Brooke, so she could have a place to play with her Moon Sand without it getting all over the floor or on the kitchen table.It still needs a coat of paint, but we'll have to wait until spring when it warms up enough that we can do that outside. I'm thinking about adding some Cricut cut vinyl to it too!




Well, hopefully I can get some projects done to show you soon enough.

God Bless & have a great day!