Mantle-in-Transition

So now that Valentine's Day is over, I felt compelled to get the hearts down from all over the place.  BUT, it IS still February, so this is kind of a "mantle-in-transition" for right now.  For right now, I have kept the snow in the hurricanes, but when March rolls around, I'll switch out the snow.

 Here are some close-ups of each side.  On the right - I just got these 2 sweet little birds.  I had been hoping to find some little birds for the mantle and was so happy to find these little guys - and for only $11 for both!  I am thinking of spray painting them white or cream, but for the St. Patrick's theme right now, they are perfect in green!

 On the left, I was liking the frame that I had on here from Valentine's Day and I have been loving all the subway art out there in the blogosphere, so I decided to try my hand at making one myself.  I created this in Photoshop in several different fonts & colors of green, and then sized it to fit in my frame.  The green vase belonged to my grandmother and it usually lives on a small table, but I really like to have things in 3's on each side of the mantle, so it was a perfect fit for this space.

And because I like to share, here is the St. Patrick's print I created - just right-click on it and select "save image as" if you'd like to use it too.  It's a square, and I'm not sure how well it will print if you grab it off the site, but if you want to give it a try - knock yourself out!

 

I'll be updating the mantle again soon, but this was certainly a quick fix!  Oh yes - I mentioned here that I would show you my cute $1 find for St. Patrick's Day at the Dollar Tree for the cookbook cabinet. And here it is:

It's a terrible picture, because it's night-time and the lighting is not great, but I think it's pretty cute for a buck! 

Making My Mantle Mirror (try saying that 10 times fast....)

Ok, so I promised more deets on the mirror I made that's on my mantle.  I don't have any pictures of the work in progress, because I am not great at before and after pictures...I'll try to do better....

So you've seen it now....

But the mirror itself started as a builder basic mirror attached to the wall in my powder room.  I wish I could find a picture of it in there, but it was so ugly, I'm sure I never took one!  No frame, just a piece of mirror slapped up on the wall.  PLUS it was not centered under the light fixture and gave me hives because I CAN'T STAND when that happens.  It was attached to the wall with those awful plastic clips like these (yes, these still live on in my master bath, but that's a l-o-n-g post for another day - it's the bane of my existence that master bath....)

So, I took down the clips and PRAYED that it wasn't adhered to the walls....Naturally, another corner was cut by the builder (we didn't build this home) and taking down the clips was all that had to be done.  I had been wanting a new mirror in the powder room and found a FAB one at the Round Top Antiques Fair that is hanging in there now (will share this later as I am about to work on the powder room redo).  But I had always wanted a mirror above the mantle, and I'm a cheapskate, so this was going to work out well.

Now the frame....this is a good story....I work in real estate, and one of the clients on the team I worked for had just bought their first home.  The sweet couple got a great deal, but there were some cosmetic, ummm, challenges, that the previous owners were actually quite proud of!  They had made the kitchen in to what resembled the inside of a barn or old saloon (very Texas!).  It was dark and not at all the style of the lovely new owners.  I have grabbed a picture of it from the MLS when it was on the market, and I'm sure they wouldn't mind if I shared it since it looks NOTHING like this now!

Pretty sweet huh?  That's actually the breakfast area, and there is a cute window seat buried under all that WOOD.  Anywhoo, the sweet couple tore all that wood out of there and invited us over to take a look at the transformed kitchen (it's lovely now!!)  The wood was in great shape, so they said we could take some if we wanted.  Umm, YES!!  I knew I could use it for something better than the above!

Back to my mirror.... I got a piece of pressed board and some Liquid Nails and went to work.  I had the pressed board cut to about 3 inches larger than the mirror on all sides.  I slapped down some Liquid Nails and glued the mirror to the board.  Then I created mitered corners with the wood from the old Texas Saloon, set it next to the mirror and glued it down to the pressed board w/ the Liquid Nails as well.  A little spackle, sanding and black spray paint later, and it's done!  I had planned on doing a distressed finish or putting some polyurethane on it, but I liked it just the way it was (read - I was impatient and wanted it UP ON THE MANTLE!).

Here are some up close looks at it - it's very heavy, and I can't take it down without hubby here, so this is as good as it's gonna get folks!

  That brown is the pressed board.  Here's another view where you can see it just a TAD better:

 And here are the mitered corners - don't look too closely, this is definitely not the finest work out there, but I am satisfied!

I love it and, just my luck, it's just the right width for the mantle.  I believe the whole thing cost me about $15, and I had plenty of Liquid Nails to spare for another project.  Happiness is a huge, heavy mantle mirror for $15!

Valentine Mantle

The time has come to change the old mantle from winter to Valentine's.  Here's what the mantle looks like after Christmas:

The hurricanes are there year-round.  I got them at Michael's several years ago and I change them for each season.  In winter they are full of fake snow, because that's the closest we're going to get to snow here in Central Texas!!  The little wooden Let it Snow and wooden snowflake ornament are after Christmas bargains from Target several years ago.  The wreath is from IKEA and is hanging from a thin piece of brown grosgrain ribbon. It's also up year-round and the mirror will need to be a topic of another post - I made it myself and I am quite proud of it!  The pictures of the girls are perfect for my winter mantle because they are printed were treated with a "retro" action and have a faded blue sort of finish.  I LOVE this look, and am expecting new pictures of them from our photo shoot right after Christmas any day now.

So on to Valentine's.....

The glass vase is one that came from a floral arrangement - you know those vases we all have lurking around.  It's full of some heart shaped ornaments that were part of a set I got at IKEA for Christmas.  You'll see in December the rest of that set in the hurricanes, but I pulled the hearts out and just use them for Valentine's Day.  Some are shiny and some are matte and I LOVE them.  I hung one of each finish from thin, satin ribbon from the tops of the hurricanes too - the snow is still there, because, once again, this is the only snow we'll see, so we make it last!!  Here's a close up of the left side with the hearts in the vase:

And on the right is a framed "love one another" print that you can download for FREE from Becky Higgins website here. I have it in a frame from IKEA (how lucky am I that my IKEA is about 5 miles away?!?) The glass with the candle was a gift from a friend.

 And those sweet vintage Valentine's on the mirror I bought on ebay about a week ago for $6.50 including shipping.  They are so cute!  My idea was that they were supposed to look tucked in the frame of the mirror, but the way it's constructed, you can't tuck anything in.  I am not totally happy with that part - any suggestions?! I have thought about draping a ribbon across the mantle and using small clothespins to hang them, but I'm not sure I can find the clothespins right now.... I used them in Baby A's nursery, which I'll share later, and haven't seen them since then....

You can see in the top photo in the reflection of the mirror, that the girls' pictures have moved to the other side of the room.  I have a second, antique mantle on the opposite wall that I need to share, but I don't love it right now.  The girls will make their return to the fireplace mantle after Valentine's Day. Stay tuned for March when I redo the mantle for Spring....

Linking up to The Stories of A to Z today for the Valentine's Mantle Linky!!