Summer Mantel

Summer has officially found its way to the beach. Sunny blue skies, ocean breezes, and hot, hot temps.  That means it's time for me to change our Spring mantel to a Summer mantel.  I love changing my decor but, I want it to be as easy and quick as I can make it. So, switching the Spring mantel over just took a couple of changes and it was done in less than 30 minutes. This is how it looks for summer.

Valentine Mantel

It's hard to believe but, Valentine's Day is next week - where has this new year flown to already.  I know we have had a very busy beginning and am hoping it slows down a bit so I can do more sharing here.  But, for today I thought I would share our Valentine mantel with you all.

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Spring Mantel Done in Blue and Yellow

Spring is in the air and I am so happy to finally see it here.  It seems like this has been the longest winter for us even though we did not have the mounds of snow and sub-zero temps that many of you had.    So, to celebrate this I put together a pretty blue and yellow Spring Mantel. I love how it brings so much color and cheerfulness to this room. 

Winter Mantel with DIY Yarn Pom Pom Wreath

I'm writing this today as I sit next to the warm fireplace listening to the wind chimes tinkling outside.  It is a cold and windy day here for us as well as for many of you.  We are having a winter we usually do not experience here in the South.  Freezing temps in the teens (breaking records), measurable snow lasting 3-4 days (almost unheard of), and ice that closes down schools and stores keeping us all hibernating in our homes.  So, when I began taking down the Christmas decorations this week ( yes, I am quite slow this year),  I decided to just embrace this season and put together a winter mantel with my DIY pom-pom yarn wreath and a few other snow-related items.

Fall Mantel with Wood FALL Sign

 Although we have escaped the worst of Hurricane Irma - I have to say it has been a roller coaster ride this week.  Our evacuation orders were rescinded, however, we still received some winds, rain, storm surge and tornado threats - much better than what they were predicting at the beginning of last week.  We lived in central Florida for 20 years and have many friends and family still there - my heart goes out to them - let's remember them in our thoughts and prayers as we go about our day. Let's also pray Hurricane Jose stays out to sea - it's way too soon to go through this again.
Besides the weather threats here we are also having some much awaited cool temps and fall-like days.  I have been anxiously awaiting these.  With these cooler days, it feels more like Fall so I thought I would share my Fall Mantel decor with you all today.

Pastel Spring Mantel Done with Books

Good morning friends. 

 I don't know about where you are but Spring is in full swing here and I am all about bringing some of that bright color and sunshine into our home after this long winter.  I have been busy adding small touches to our decor to reflect the beautiful pastel colors of Spring. I started this process by adding a lot of pastel color to our mantel in a very simple way - using books.

Fall Mantel for 2015

Good morning everyone.  Cooler temperatures have found their way here and although it isn't cold it's definitely better than the high 80's we were having.  Fall was far from my mind this year as most of you know. However,  I love Fall so much I had to incorporate it into our home. So simplicity was my main goal.  Today I am going to share our 2015 Fall Mantel with you.

Patriotic Mantel

Good morning everyone. 

I have finally been able to start putting some summer touches in our decor but with all the activities going on here it's been hard to get much done.  Today I want to share our summer mantel. I decided to do a Patriotic mantel to celebrate all our summer holidays - Memorial Day, Flag Day, 4th of July and even Labor Day.  That way I won't have to worry about changing it again for awhile. And with the goings on around here that's great news.

Spring Mantel 2015

Before I get into today's post I need to address an issue we just discovered.  Remember signing up for Vintage, Paint and more's emails so you wouldn't miss any of the projects and tutorials?  Well, we just discovered that they were being blocked due to a technical issue.  But with the help of an expert in this field we were able to get that issue resolved and now you will be receiving those emails just as you signed up for them.  Thank you so much for your patience in this manner and if you have any questions just ask in the comments below.  I will get back to you.

Good morning everyone.  

Hope you all are having some beautiful weather where you are as we are here.  It has been so pretty we have been able to be outside most of each day this week just enjoying the sun and the ocean breezes with these wonderful warm temps.  I would have to say Spring has arrived.  And with that let's get on to today's post.

DIY Valentine Mantel

As I said in Thursdays post I really don't do too much decorating for Valentines Day.  If I had my way I would probably skip it all together but Miss A likes to see the different holidays decorations and enjoys helping with them. So I do just enough to satisfy her and no more.  Today I am going to show you our very simple Valentine mantel.

Let It Snow Mantel

Good morning everyone.  Thank goodness I have finally gotten the decorating bug and just in time to join with several other bloggers to continue on the 

Blogger Christmas Series

TBT - Fall Mantel of 2013

I have been visiting around blogland a bit and have noticed all the fall decor that is starting to show up.  I am still putting mine together - a bit slow this year and have nothing new ready yet so thought I would show you my mantel from last year before I show you this year's mantel.

TBT - July 4th Mantel

Since I decided to not to do a Patriotic vignette on my mantel this year and July 4th is just around the corner; I thought I would bring a couple of pictures from last year's mantel back to share with you.  The pictures are dark because it had been raining for days and our living room is quite dark - almost like a cave, it seems.  

Winter Mantle

Good day blogger friends,

Hope this is finding you all in good health and enjoying this lovely chilly weather -  wherever you are...

I thought I would show you our winter mantel.

I know it's a little late in the season

but, I have been a bit under the weather

and unable to bring it to you before now.

As you can see  blue and white prevailed for my wintry decor.  Of course it doesn't hurt that blue is my favorite color either.  Every thing is either thrifted, handmade or I already had it.  Nothing was purchased for this little bit of prettiness.

The trees I made for our Christmas center piece for the dining room table.  ( You can find that post here )  They are all sitting on thrifted candlesticks.  The stack of books are thrifted books I tore the covers off of and tied with raffia.  The little blue bird - a favorite piece of my Mother's.  The candle came from Dollar Tree.  And the snow ball is a Styrofoam ball ( 3 for a dollar at Dollar Tree) that has been wrapped with white yarn.

I love this little blue bird - he makes me smile every time I look at him.  And that would be several times a day.

On the other side is another stack of thrifted books and two more snowballs.

The blue vase is a Dollar Tree find that I painted with glue and food coloring - I  wrote a post about that project here. I tied raffia around it and filled it with sticks from the yard.  Then I hung a snowflake ornament on it. 

The snowman is made from a thrifted paperback book.  I love making these book page art crafts.  But then I love anything with script on it.  These are so simple to make just like the pillars and pumpkins that are all over blog land and I have a tutorial here you just have to draw a half snowman shape and place it in the crack of the book, trace the shape and cut out.  Then proceed as the tutorial explains.  Then I added a blue fleece scarf - just a 1" x 12" length and cut small fringe at each end. I made the top hat out of black card stock - two circles - one larger than the other and a strip that is taped to make a cylinder.  Add the circles on either end of the cylinder and you have a hat.

Very simple and

Oh So Cute....

The picture I painted.  It's a flat canvas from Michael's that I painted with leftover paints and craft paints I already had.

The base color is a sample pot of Valspar's Nordic Blue that my neighbor gave me.  I then used blues, white, and grey dry brushed over it to mimic a winter sky.  Took all of maybe 10 minutes.  When it was dry I wrote the word winter on with a Sharpie white paint pen.  I first wrote the word on a piece of scrap paper the way I wanted it to appear.  Then I covered the back of the paper completely with chalkboard chalk. ( I read this tip on Pinterest - didn't pin it )  Then I traced the word onto the canvas.  It leaves a faint line that can be written over with the paint pens.  When the paint dried I went over that with a glitter glue.  The two snowflakes are a couple of ornaments that I never used.  I just outlined them with glitter glue.  I glued two lengths of sheer blue ribbon on the canvas with hot glue and then glued the snow flakes on.  I then added a few little freehand snowflakes here and there.

And I have my winter art.

The book page wreath has been hanging there since I made it.  We all love it and it may be in it's permanent spot at this time.   I don't foresee a move for it in the future.  I have written a tutorial for it here

I really love this mantel it reminds of snow and the winters we used to have.  Living here at the beach we rarely get snow and the temps are usually fairly temperate.  I'm not complaining - that's why we moved here - to get away from that stuff.  But as long as I don't have to mess with it I'm okay.  I just love to look at it.   This mantel will probably remain for a few more days and then if I get real motivated  I may do a Valentine mantel.  I am working on other things right now and Valentine's is on the back burner.  We just don't do too much for Valentine's Day.

So, how is your winter going?  Did you do a winter mantel or

did  you just move right on to Valentine's?

Thanks for stopping by - have a great rest of the week.....

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