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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Cozying up the Mantel

I finally put away Christmas this past weekend, and the house was looking a bit bare.  It was a wee bit too early to be putting out Valentine's Day decor(it's not even MLK Jr. Day yet,) so I thought I'd do a nice winter mantel.  A winter mantel can be hard, because you don't want it to look like you just forgot to take down Christmas, so red is out.  At first I thought I'd go the blue and white snowflakes and snowmen route, but there's plenty of that outside, and inside I wanted something cozier.  Like flannel cozy.

I grabbed a couple of flannel scarves from my front hall closet(which I'm still working on making beautiful) to lay across the mantel and soften it.  I grabbed the double runner skates that I showed you outside my house at the entry here during my Christmas Home Tour, and removed the red bow and placed them on the mantel.

The brick is rough enough to grab the laces so they look like they're hanging from something.  Wonder what's under the skate in the back?

Legos.  What can I say?  The rest of you ladies have decorative boxes.  I have Legos.  Initially I just placed the skates on the mantel.  It didn't look right so I did a quick glance around and spied one of the Lego boxes.  Luckily we have so many of those little plastic bricks, I could use a few and the boys will never notice they're missing.  It only took a minute to make this little riser and the one on the other side of the mantel.  Most of the Legos are from when CG was a boy, and the sound of me rustling in the Legos box drew him out of his office just like I was blowing on the pied piper's flute.  He's such a kid.

For the middle of my mantel, I grabbed a long narrow basket, filled it with floral foam and topped it off with some moss.
I trudged out in the snow and culled some branches from the woods and sprayed them white.  I wanted them to look snowcovered, so I wasn't real fussy about covering them completely.  This is the spray paint I used.
After spraying each branch, I quickly brought it inside and sprinkled on some glitter.
I used a white glitter vs a metallic, because I wanted it to sparkle subtly like new fallen snow not shine like a Vegas showgirl.  The effect was pretty much impossible to capture with my mediocre photo taking skills, but trust me it sparkles in real life.
I found a pair of onyx candlesticks at an antique store years ago and felt they'd be a perfect addition to my natural, cozy, winter mantel.
I added a paper bunting that I made just like the Thanksgiving one I made here.  And here's my winter mantel in its entirety.

Thanks for popping in and checking out My Winter Mantel.  I'm linking this up to The Stories of A to Z's Winter Mantel Party.
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15 comments:

  1. NICE. I can definitely relate to the use of Legos! (Although I know a certain prince in our house who might not be too happy about it.)

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  2. I love a fireplace. Just the place to be after ice skating. Ah, that is what one does with a huge tub of Legos! Wonder if I could built my pantry shelves out of Legos. Did James May's series "Toy Stories" on BBC? They built a full size house out of big Lego blocks.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nqmlb

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  3. Very wintery for sure. If I did that it would still be up in July. LOL. Thanks for stopping by. Jane

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  4. Your branches are perfect and I love the cozy feel of it all!

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  5. So beautiful!!! Great pictures! I am your newest follower. Saw you on CSI project!
    Bonnie :)

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  6. Thanks for the compliments, everyone!

    The vast majority of the Legos were from CG's childhood so we have tons of helmets and space stuff from the lunar collection. We literally have 2 giant rubbermaid totes of Legos as well as a little tote of minifigures. He knew about the full sized house built out of Lego blocks, though I'd never heard of it. I'll have to look it up. CG had wanted to be a Lego engineer "when he grew up." Now SB has that same goal.

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  7. I love to use sticks to decorate with...Great Job!!!! Love the banner!!!

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  8. This is simply adorable:)

    Blessings,
    Jen

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  9. Your fireplace looks great. Love the ice skates (makes me which I had kept mine!) and branches. The scarf really warms things up. Cute banner too!

    Allison
    Atticmag

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  10. I love the ice skates on the mantel!! Such a cute idea!

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  11. How cute is that! I love it. My Mom just found me one skate this winter, she said they were selling them like that, so she scored one for me...I love it too. Hey I am going to add your blog to my side bar I would love if you did the same:)

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  12. Gorgeous! I was confused when I first saw the Legos, but now I get it. : ) What a fun idea!

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  13. Soooo very cozy...love the look you have here!!!

    Blessings,
    Linda

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