I know, I know, I'm a crazy lady.
I totally redid my Christmas mantel.
I just wasn't happy with it before.
I'm in my family room alot and every time I looked at it I felt a little down.
Then I was working on decorating the buffet in my dining room and I came up with a display that I loved.
So I moved it to the mantel.
(but I want to say thank you for all the sweet comments on my previous mantel)
This metal deer used to be a copper color, but one night I couldn't sleep so I grabbed some Q-tips and Rub-N-Buff and got to work.
The silver looks much better!
The fumes knocked me right out and put me to sleep. :)
Just kidding. I was fine, but that stuff is stinky!
Last year when my dad saw that I used a vintage sled in my Christmas decorating he picked up this little tabletop sleigh and sent it to me. So sweet!
I decided to paint the metal parts gray and dry brush the wood parts with white paint.
Now it is more "me".
My sparkly NOEL is sitting on top of the sleigh.
I decided to jump on the wreath on a blackboard bandwagon.
Why wouldn't I? It is super cute!
If you want to know how I made the wreath click here.
The wreath is pretty small so all I could fit inside was "joy".
There are a lot of holly trees in our neighborhood so I took a few clippings and put them in a little collection of small white pitchers.
We used to have a huge holly tree in my backyard when I was growing up in Washington state.
I always loved using clippings from the tree at Christmas time.
The baskets at the base of the fireplace hold my little guys toys.
Do you see the peek of bright yellow? It is his construction hat. :)
Ok, now here is the other reason I decided to redo my mantel.
We went and got our tree on Sunday, but the first chance we had to decorate it was last night.
My plan was to use matte gold ornaments to match my fancy mantel, but instead I just let kids do whatever they wanted and they used all the fun red ornaments.
I loved it!
This morning I just redistributed the 20 ornaments hanging from the bottom branch
(from my 3 year old)
I also added some white paper ribbon.
I'm using our tree topper in my breakfast room and quite frankly I like the tree better without one.
I'm using our tree topper in my breakfast room and quite frankly I like the tree better without one.
I put my tree in the same galvanized bucket I used last year.
I got it from Lowe's and there is a tree stand inside.
I placed a vintage window next to the tree for a cute cottage look.
Can you believe I found this big window at an antique mall in Illinois for only $12.00!
Last year I bought a bunch of Swedish style ornaments from Target's after Christmas clearance sale.
The little Swedish covered bridge is a thrift store find.
I am always pinning pretty Christmas wrapping, but I never do them.
So I decided to try my hand at a couple of packages.
This simple brown paper is from Target, but not with the Christmas paper, just in thier regular gift wrap section.
I used gingham ribbon, some sprigs of evergreen and a pretty tag from Michael's scrapbooking section.
They have little books of cute tags.
They have little books of cute tags.
Target has this great faux bois wrapping paper with their Christmas paper this year.
I am a huge fan of faux bois!
I used raffia ribbon, more evergreen and an initial playing card.
I found this gingham paper at the Dollar Tree (again not w/ the Christmas paper).
I used burlap ribbon, evergreen and another Michael's tag.
I have a lot more wrapping to do so they won't all be this pretty.
I also bought fun Santa, snowman, and deer paper for the kids presents.
But it is in the same brown and red tones, so it will coordinate nicely.
I am so glad that I changed out my mantel!
The cottage look is much more "me".
Two of my favorite Christmas trees I've seen this year are:
Kelly's from The Essence Of Home
&
Emily's from The Wicker House.
Click the links to see thier gorgeous trees.
My tree has a similar look and the red feels so festive and makes me feel happy.
I know the kids really love it too and that is the most important thing to me!
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AN - Thursday, December 6, 2012
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