I've spent the last several weeks doing little projects, one at a time, to decorate my mantel for fall. My mantel has always been a set spot, and I would really rather it be a beautifully decorated part of my home. It was a hodge podge of random stuff. Our unity candles, other random candles, a blue teapot that was home to some ivy as a wedding centerpiece, and stuff that just got set there (Christmas cards, headbands, lighters, you name it).
I had seen this, by Home Stories A to Z, and it was really the launch point for my project. Actually I think I saw someone else use it and added some stuff onto the sketched image. It gives a basic formula for how to decorate a mantel.
We had just finished a bottle of wine and I saved the bottle thinking that I would use it for something. It's been popping up everywhere so I'm not sure who started the fashion, but I wrapped my bottle with some thick jute twine, using hot glue. On a quick trip into the grocery store I found pumpkins on sticks, and picked up the brown balls too. Once I got those into the finished wine bottle I decided I needed something more linear with some height and on my next trip to the store I decided to get the green cattails.
The bottle was up, and I was planning on wrapping a vase with thinner jute (leftover from a wedding shower project) and finding something to put in it. While Melodi and I were decorating the kitchen cabinets for fall I found that I had an extra bunch of flowers so put those in the vase, and the vase on the mantel as a place holder. I'm trying to decide if we are going to do a full wrap, or a half wrap (top or bottom).
After we finished up decorating the cabinets I went in search of some other things to put on the mantel. I have an growing stash of decorative candles, vases, and other fun items, but a lot of it has sat hidden for five years. There was a fish bowl vase on the counter, from after Erica was born, which I filled with a bag of rocks, that I just had to have on a trip to IKEA.
Now to find ideas for a Christmas/winter mantel. I'm thinking about some quilling, another printable, and maybe some trees that runneth over from the cabinets.
