FALL MANTEL

allie • Sep 16, 2013

It’s that time of year again…time for a change. This past winter was a tough on in Minnesota. It went on F.O.R.E.V.E.R. I mean, I never thought it was going to end. I swore to myself that I was not going to wish the summer away and I often wondered why I didn’t live some place warm like Arizona or California.


And then comes September.


And I just can’t help it. Whatever I had told myself before goes flying out the window. And soon apple pies, cozy fires, comfy clothes, and warm soup start whirling in my head. As well as colored trees and leaves falling all around.


And then it hits me. I could not possibly live anywhere where there is not a change of seasons.


Although I love the beautiful weather where you can be outside til 10 at night every night and go to the beach in the day. Where you can get fresh veggies from the garden and plant beautiful flowers outside. Grill burgers on the grill and have corn on the cob….the truth is…I get sick of it.


Sick of trying to keep up an outside and an inside. Sick of watering flowers everyday and weeding the garden. Sick of coming in every night at 10 and having no time to unwind. Sick of go go going all the time. And I gladly WELCOME a change in seasons.


This year is no exception. The first day I started to feel just a tiche of coolness in the air I lit my fall candle and pulled out the decorations. The mantle was first on my list.


Here was my mantle from last year…

and after entering a link party it even ended up on Centsational Girls lists of top Mantles! Yay!


So although I really did like it, and I could re-create it…there’s always something fun about a new challenge. Of course I kept with the same theme of neutrals (shocking!) and I like my Give Thanks bunting too much to not use it again, so there is a little bit of repetitiveness to my mantel this year.


Here it is..

I had gotten that massive grapevine wreath at a garage sale last year for $5 and knew I wanted to do something with it ever since I got it. I tried incorprating it last year and never found it a home. It was too big for my front door and also too big for my other frame I had on the mantle. I got this old window at an auction, also for $5, and it was much bigger than mine from last year. All I had to do was wash the frame a bit and put it up My only problem was tha tthe wreath was so chunky it almost fell off the mantle. Since I don’t want to screw in a bunch of random screws into my planking, I used the one I had up there from the sunburst mirror, and wrapped a piece of wire around it and the wreath. No worries…it’s not going anywhere!

And I brought back the antlers for the hubby, but I”m not going to lie, I love them too! shh..don’t tell him:)

even if he wouldn’t let me spray them white:)

So this mantle didn’t cost me a dime this year. Until….

I found these lights at Target. They were actually whispering my name:) They were 30% off in the summer clearance so at $17 I splurged and picked them up. I love a little twinkle light in the house.

It makes everything feel so cozy!

The seriously best part about these?? I put them on a DIMMER!

You plug this little guy into the wall and then the lights into it and pretty soon you have your very own customizable dimming lights. How cool is that. My sister who works as a lighting manager hooked me up with it. Think of all the possibilities….

Anything can dim!

I got them through my sister, but I did find them online and you can get them here or on Amazon here. They are even on sale. Yay!

By the way, these opinions are completely my own…I have no sponsorship with Lutron, although I wish I did:)

So, here’s how my mantle looks today…just imagine with Norah Jones in the background and a pumpkin spice candle burning..

ahh….

Now to snuggle up and look at a good magazine!

I have a lot of more fun fall crafts to come..and the rest of the house to show, so stay tuned!

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