Pocketful of Blue

We are fortunate to have two fireplaces in our house so of course that means two mantels to decorate. I wanted a new look for spring but sometimes it takes me awhile to come up with a fresh idea. The living room mantel really had me stumped. I've been trying to just use what I have because I sure don't need to buy any more stuff. It finally hit me to see if my old screen door would work. It's the perfect length when turned on its side and light weight enough that it wasn't too much of a problem to heave it up there. I think it worked out pretty well as a backdrop for some pitchers of flowers and a couple botanical prints. Once I had the living room mantel all fixed up, I needed to do something with the corner fireplace  that's in the kitchen area. This mantel is very shallow so I'm really limited  on the size of items that will fit. I ended up just keeping it simple with my Blueberry Mountain Lodg...

Hello Everyone, In my last post I shared how we finally finished and installed a mantel on our family room fireplace.   I have been making some smaller changes as well so I though I would  show you a tour of how the room looks now. It's mostly just accessories and little tweaks here and there that are making this a room I am much happier with. I finally found some checked pillows in my favorite shade of blue. I have been looking for pillows like these forever and I'm so happy I finally found them. I just love checks and to me, they really embody the cottage style. The long wall behind the love seat is always a challenge for me. I knew I wanted to use my old window but I needed more to fill in the large space. I finally came up with this arrangement (after much trial and error) using things I already had. I really wanted something interesting and a little different to look at. A new lamp on my round s...

I'm so happy to report that we finally have a mantel on our family room fireplace.  It was one of those smaller jobs that just took us forever to get around to. This photo below shows what the fireplace looked like at the first showing we attended. Of course you can see that we removed the brass doors and painted the stone. You can also see the two little funky concrete shelves that needed to be removed but that left the problem of how to fill the holes that would remain. Well, hubby was able to remove the two shelves easily enough and I came up with the idea of using spray foam to fill the holes and then sort of sculpt it  to match the existing stone. I didn't take any pictures of that wonderfully messy process but I am actually shocked that it worked as well as it did. After painting my fake stones, I don't think anyone would ever know unless I told them ~ at least I hope so. So then hubby installed a basic mantel that w...

Hi Everyone, I was recently inspired to change the arrangement that I've had on my mantel for awhile. Below is a picture from the blog that was the source of my inspiration. It's from the blog, Vintage Whites . I just love the way Vanessa has used softer, pastel colors for her fall decorating.  There are many more beautiful, inspiring photos like this on her blog if you haven't already seen them. Vintage Whites So this is what I came up with, using things I already had around the house. I used a lot of white with some greenery and some real branches with leaves that were just starting to change color. ~  ~  ~  ~  ~    I found this autumn printable here . I thought it was so cute and it had the soft colors that I was looking for. Here is my Goodwill rooster you saw in my last post. He looks so much better after his makeover with some white paint. Don't you agree? ~  ~  ~ ...

A couple days ago, I got an idea to re-accessorize our mantel. After taking down the Christmas decorations, I hadn't done anything with it and it was looking pretty blah. I wanted to see how this black wire basket would look and I  liked it so that was my starting point. Then I just pulled things from around the house or from my little  stash that were black and white as well as a little greenery. After playing around for awhile, I came up with an arrangement that I'm pretty happy with. I used a cloth napkin with black stripes to soften the hard lines of the mantel. I like how the colors tie in with the black and white of the fireplace. I think I'll be happy with this for a little while . . . wink, wink ! Thanks A Bunch For Visiting! - joining - SAVVY SOUTHERN STYLE ~ WOW US WEDNESDAY FROM MY FRONT PORCH TO YOURS ~ TREASURE HUNT THURSDAY IMPARTING GRACE ~ GRACE AT HOME MY ROMANTIC HOME ~ SHOW AND TELL FRIDAY ...