Ye Olde Mantel

PSSSST...I'm no longer blogging here!

You can now find me at

www.acottagegirl.com

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Yes, dear readers, the holly days are upon us and I started the decorating festivities with ye olde mantel.  

Last year I glittered the crap outta it and decided this year would be a more natural, woodsy feel.

Not that the glittery yumminess is banned to the bottom of the red and green plastic bin....

nay, it will find a home elsewhere, if not a bit more subdued.
Ahem.
Here we go.

I went with IKEA lanterns used in my back porch vignette last year,

Twiggy trees picked up on sale at JoAnn's:

Faux greenery bought a couple years ago at Hob Blob.

Threw in some wee white birds, ginormous pincones in painted terra cotta pots, my smallish shabby star and the twiggy wreath that seems to always find a way up there.

Oh yeah, and the white mirror hubs and I built awhile back.

Speaking of pinecones (was I?), they're the reason I've been kinda gone from ye olde blogge of late.
Every day for the last 6 weeks I've been crafting for my daughter's wedding.
(See engagement pics here.)

(Gee, see any pinecones?)

We're doing a rustic chic winter theme, so I'm up to my eyeballs in pinecones and burlap.
200+ yards of the stuff, and 12 boxes of cones in all shapes and sizes, which I baked in small batches to kill vermin and open them up.
Did ya know you needed to do that with cones you find hither and thither?
Me neither.

(other biggish barn star, with twiggy, pineconey goodness next to our entertainment center)

So, the last week I took some much needed time off from wedding crafting,
and snuck in some Christmas crafting as well.
For starters, the stockings:

I never set out to make stockings every year (see past mantels here, here, and here),
but somehow that's what happens.
Only this year, I used ready made ones from Dollar Tree and just embellished with some ribbon, wee twig wreaths and green metallic painted wood initials.
(couples share stockings. One of the perks of staying single.)

You could say I sorta cheated, and I would have to agree, although I don't give a flip.

Last year's glitterfied burlap versions are a hit on pinterest these days, and I've answered so many ding dang emails asking "do I sell them, would I sell them, how do you make them, etc."
The definitive answer is "maybe next year, yes I sold them to a pinterest follower, and no not this year."

Anyway, I festified some other corners of the room, with woodlandness too:

I exchanged the blue beadedboard doors for the brown painted shutters,
since I wasn't using the blue mirror on the mantel this season.

And filled my empty frame collage with a bit of rustic embellishment.
Seeing as I had some pinecones laying about and all.

View from the fireplace:
(thinkin' that tiny pinecone sway needs some friends)

So that's it for the family room.
I love how warm and cozy it looks.  I even dug out a couple down throws for the couch.
All ready for an evening of hot cocoa and Elf.
(smiling's my favorite)
We'll cut our tree this weekend and get busy decorating that, but everything else is already dressed up.
I'll reveal those areas in the coming days.

Lots of holiday linkys to join, so I'm motivated to dig out from the pile of burlap and pinecones, get my Christmas decorating mojo on, and fire up the camera.

And I pinky promise to show you tons of wedding pictures of all our craftiness the day after,
which happens to be New Year's Eve.
Then I'll take a long winter's nap.

I'll bring my mantel to the parties in my side bar link as well as these seasonal linky's:
(links will be live the day of the party)
From My Front Porch to Yours Dec. 5th
TenJuneBlog Dec 6th
Uncommon Slice of Suburbia Dec. 6th
Southern Hospitality Dec. 7th
Homes Stories from A to Z Dec. 8th
Funky Junk's Saturday Night Special Dec. 9th
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See Crafty Christmas Vignettes HERE
See Glitterfied Rusticness in the dining room HERE
See the Tannenbaum Trio HERE
See how I wrapped the crap HERE