Fall Mantle (a little late)

I feel like this week I am finally getting into a groove...a little. I keep waiting to get less busy but I don't think that is going to happen so I need to get organized and go with it. My son got his splint off (from his broken elbow) which is awesome, but he can't fall on it. And he really likes to play... hard. He is 9 and getting him to slow down is not easy. I might be more nervous now, at least before he had the splint. Poor kids just wants to play football and soccer but we can't risk him falling. He also still can't straighten or bend his elbow so we are adding PT to our schedule.  He is such a trooper though and I get to spend alone time with him waiting in Drs offices, which I kind of love. Shows me I need to make more of a point to hang out with my boy just the two of us.

Well my fall mantle has been up for a few weeks and I have just been slow to share, sorry. I like to change up my mantle for the seasons, but not completely. I keep the base and just change up the extras. It takes too much effort to switch everything out. I have found this is what works best for me. Do you change your mantle with the seasons or more often or not at all? Just a few tweaks really changes the look but doesn't take me all day to do it.

I am really pleased with my fall mantle this year, I feel like I am getting better at styling with more practice. I am getting better at figuring out what I like and what works with the house. And it is fun to look at my mantle and see that I DIY'ed almost everything.

The wheat bundles I found a few years ago on clearance, I just added some brown ribbon to them. The chalkboard is the back of a picture I painted with chalkboard paint. I can always turn the picture around again when I am done with the chalkboard. I painted the chevron pattern onto an old canvas. The fall banner is available in my etsy shop, but is would be easy to duplicate. I used craft paper, book pages and letters cut out of blue paper and strung them together with twine. You can find big letters at a craft store and you can hand cut everything else.

My favorite thing about this mantle are the DIY arrows! As soon as I saw them I knew I had to make them.  Jenn over at My Fabulous Life made them. Aren't they awesome? So easy and fun. Just need some sticks, DMC thread, and clay ( I used gold oven baked clay so I could skip the spray painting).

I still love my little pumpkins, here is a tutorial. You can pick any colors you want to match our decor.

I added a few Goodwill books to the hearth, just make sure to check the books without the paper covers. Their are some pretty books behind those ugly paper jackets.

Aren't those little pumpkins cute? Seriously you should make some.

Hard to believe October is here, I might need to start thinking about a Halloween mantle. I kind of like this one though, we will see.

Have a great day!



Sharing over at: Nancherrow, Tatertots and Jello, Natasha in OZ, Remodelaholic

Adding a Little Spring

As I write this post it is a blizzard out my window.  We are only supposed to get an inch but it is snowing very hard. So I am focussing inside to make it look a little more like spring. I am trying to force bulbs for the first time this year. I posted a picture on instagram, you can follow along by clicking on the link. I hope they bloom! Every fall I mean to plant some but I never get around to it, so the only way I am going to get my own tulips is if I can get these to bloom. Wish me luck.

I switched my mantle around a little and added a new banner. I had so much fun making banners for my kids birthdays I needed to make one for myself. I got a Silhouette for Christmas but have not played with it much until now and now I am addicted. I can't believe how much it can do and I am sure their is a lot I am missing. I see more Silhouette projects in my future.

I made my wreath last year and was excited to pull it out again this year. I love burlap and chevron. It was super easy to make.

I added some shredded paper or basket filler to a glass jar and some speckled eggs, so fun for Easter and Spring! And the bird my son brought home from school is perfect. I love the kids clay projects.

I added some dollar store moss rocks to my cloche (actually it is a cheese board). Their are so many easy ways to add spring around the house. Now if I could figure out how to add some spring to outside that would be fantastic.

I hope you are getting some warm spring weather wherever you are. Have a great day!



Sharing over at: Winthrop Chronicles, Tiny Sidekick, A few miner adjustments, Carolyn's Homework, The Turquoise Home, Someday Crafts, The life of Jennifer Dawn, Cherished Bliss, Lamberts Lately, Living Well Spending Less, Imparting Grace, Jennifer Rizzo, The 36th Avenue, Remodelaholic, Tatertots and Jello, My Snippets of Inspiration, Minettes Maze, Uncommon Designs, Keeping it Simple, Skip to my lou, Mad in Crafts, Home Stories A to Z, Yesterday on Tuesday, Love Grows Wild, Coastal Charm, Lil Mrs. Tori, A stroll thru life, Made to be a Momma, DIY by Design, Oh my creative, 733 Blog, Dear Creatives, Nancherrow, Thrifty Decor Chick, The Child at heart blog

Winter Mantle

I finally took my Christmas mantle down, I really liked that one so it was hard to take down. Just when I think I have packed all the Christmas decorations away I find another wreath or bowl full of ornaments. Does that happen to you?  I hope I find everything soon, I didn't have that much out.

At least my mantle is done, for now. I would really like to find a mantle setup that I keep up longer than a holiday. It is too much work changing it with each holiday. We will have to see

I started with a bunch of S's (Our last name starts with an S) that I found at Joann's and Hobby Lobby.  And I painted them up in either white, gold or blue.

For one of the gold letters I added a blue edge. I love how it turned out. (If you will notice I added a thumb tack to the bottom to keep it from rolling away) S is hard, I had to eliminate several choices because I didn't know how I was going to get it to stand.

I love this little gold S. It is fun to add more gold to the house.

Since we are in Wisconsin and we got about 8 inches of snow the other day it is best to embrace it. So "let it snow" is very fitting around here. We might as well get used to it and try to enjoy it. I would rather have the snow than the bitter cold.

I hope you are staying warm. I am headed off to a girls weekend! It will be so fun to catch up with friends I don't get to see much these days. So excited!

Have a wonderful weekend yourself!

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Halloween Mantle

Well we have skipped the 60's and 50's and gone right to 40 degrees, Brrr. Everyone is getting in the mood because I had a hard time finding boots in my kids sizes last night. The cold weather always seems to come too early. I have been enjoying the fire place and warm drinks though. Their is something very cozy about the cold weather.

I finally got my Halloween mantle put together and I really like it. Last year was the first year we decorated for Halloween, because the kids were begging. Of course it is not scary or bloody enough for my son. I have to remind him his younger sisters don't like to be scared nor do their friends that stop by to play (and I don't like the bloody creepy stuff either, but for now I will blame the girls).

I found the crow candle and all the glassware at Home Goods last year. The purple flowers were on clearance from World Market last year. The chevron picture was a DIY I did recently.

I love how my "BOO" turned out. It was the first time I free handed a chalk picture. I usually get inspiration from Pinterest or something.  I may have to try to be more creative in the future.

And every house should have some paper bats, so fun!

I love the bats on the wall. I found a great template last year here. I just used black card stock and put them on the wall with Handi-tak.

That is about it for our Halloween decorations. Do you decorate a lot for Halloween? Won't be long and it will come down for Thanksgiving decorations. This fall is going to fast.

I hope you have a Wonderful Day!


Linked up at: A Glimpse Inside, Imparting Grace, Liz Marie Blog, The 36th Avenue, Life Inspired, The Happier Homemaker, The Silly Pearl

It's Fall Y'all

It was another perfect fall weekend. We went apple picking, which is always a favorite. My four year old has been begging to go. We now have an over abundance of apples, so it is time for apple pie and apple crisp and applesauce. I also love that the kids can just grab an apple from the bowl and if they don't finish it, which is most of the time, I don't even care. Plus a bunch of the apples are smaller, just perfect for the kids.  I love fall, it just needs to last longer.

I have been tweaking my fall mantle, I just wasn't happy with it. Actually I am just sick of the picture hanging over the mantle. It is too dark and is going against my plans of lightening things up around here. So for now it goes into the basement.

Here is my updated fall mantle:

Much better and brighter. Here is how I made the chevron picture and I will show you what I used to make the chalkboard this week. It was something I had on hand because I was too lazy busy to go to the store.

Here is a before and after shot. Just switching out the artwork make a huge difference. Of course now I have a empty shelf on the the other side of the room, but I will worry about that later.

I made these little velvet pumpkins last year, pre blogging. I loved them and got a little carried away, I made a bunch of them. Maybe this year I will make some bigger ones.

I love wheat bundles, perfect fall decor.

Happy Fall Y'all!!!

Linked up at: Skip to my Lou, I should be mopping the floor, Thrifty Decor Chick, Cherished Bliss, Imparting Grace, The 36th Avenue, Shabby Creek Cottage, The frugal girls, A glimpse inside, Balancing Home, Tatertots and Jello, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Lovely Crafty Home, One Project Closer