Mantle-morphosis

HA! I thought it was funny.

September 1st Mantle: Welcome Fall!! I had almost everything from last year that was placed elsewhere for the holidays. That "garland" is just a bunch of leaves stuck behind everything to look like a garland. I did get a bag of those mini pumpkins at Lowe's that Andrew begged me for so that Alex could have some pumpkins, too. The squirrel, Miss Suzy (Yes! From the book, if you read it when you were little. Such a cute story for little ones!!) is actually a salt or pepper shaker from Target (part of this collection, but cannot find it anywhere online...) But that is all I bought this year! Go me!

October 1st Mantle:  Let's Get Spooky!! Again, I pretty much had everything. Actually, in the picture there is nothing new! Nice! I got the Sleepy Hollow book from the bargain bins at Books-a-Million the year before last. The pumpkin wizard is from Hobby Lobby.

Other items:
Mantle shelf - Hobby Lobby
Black candlestick - Target
Apple - Hobby Lobby
Green stand - Part of the Willow Tree Nativity scene - gift from Jason's mom
Antique backgammon board - gift from my mom at one of her go-to's for awesome old stuff :) Mom, what is that place called???
White candle (has an autumn song written on it) - Target, last year on clearance
Small yellow pitcher - Hobby Lobby

Back-to-School Mantle

Yep, it is that time. Time to start putting some of the summer things away (Thank God I live in the South. I do not want winter...70s are perfect. 90s, yeah, ok...not so much. But NO SNOW) and time to start pulling out the school supplies and go through the fall clothes. I'm sure some people might be ready to put out pumpkins (Ahem, Hobby Lobby needs to slow it down. They already have Christmas stuff out...), but us? Not just yet. A change in decor was needed a bit, though.

Here is what our summer mantle looked like these past few months:

And, here is out back-to-school mantle! 

And the awesome thing? This was a $0 change!!

Things used:
Mason jar filled with letter tiles and some floral branches from the vase in the first picture
Fake apple - it was on the top of my cabinets in the kitchen.
3 window frame filled with flash cards - from from previous gallery wall in living room; flash cards from a deck I used last year with Andrew.
Candle holder - switched it out with another item on the top of the kitchen cabinets
White candle - under the sink in my candle stock

No money, no problem. You what you have in the house!

**linking up with**

Thirty Handmade Days

The Grant Life 

Tatertots & Jello
Miss Infomation 
Skip to my Lou
The NY Melrose Family
Lil Luna - All Things Good
Southern Lovely
Tip Junkie
Home Stories A to Z
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Mercy(ink)

Spring Mantle

I know, you are wondering, "What mantle?" since we now have a new living room set up. It's all good, I have a shelf in the kitchen that is claiming to be a mantle. I actually did this back in January when we were doing all that reno in the living room, but this is all the Spring you see in the house for now. I have a bit more to take care of around here :) And, since I did change up the decor in the kitchen, I might as well show you that while you are visiting. So, grab some sweet tea and pull up a chair!

Like my Hobby Lobby shelf - ahem, mantle? Got it for $12 instead of $25 during a sale last summer.

The pear is from a set that my mom gave me as a housewarming gift when we moved here after our wedding. In the picture below, you can find the other two (yellow and white) hiding on the top of the cabinets.

Turn around and this is the view of the kitchen :)

And, walk down to the door and this is what you see looking back. 

So there is my Spring Mantle, plus a bonus tour of the kitchen! Have you started decorating for Spring? Today is the 1st Day of Spring! For some inspiration, check out what a few others have been up to in their homes:

Also linking up with:Thrifty Decor Chick

Christmas Mantle

There's a Christmas Mantle Party going on over at House Stories A to Z this week! I love Beth's blog - definitely one of the top 10 :D She has such a cool house and some amazing decor! Love!

Anyway, this week Beth is hosting a Christmas Mantle Party. And since the kitchen no longer looks like the attic exploded, I can share my Christmas-y goodness. YAY!

Here it is! We are going with a simpler look this year since the tree is on the right (I'll share later!) and has a whole lot going on. The stockings are decked out in the Green Bay Packer fashion, of course. Only thing...I am fine with Jason's and mine (the pretty ones on the left), but Andrew's SCREAMS "PACKER FAN!" and Alex's was a last minute thing over the weekend. Luckily there is Pottery Barn :) They typically have a Christmas sale, so next year we will all match/coordinate a little better.

The lantern on the left was $8 at Target.

The Nativity is my most favorite Christmas item of all! I have wanted this for so long and my MIL got it for me Christmas 2006 :) All the others, Baby Jesus is in the little cradle. Um, it's cold outside (I think it is...) and mommy wants to snuggle with her baby. So this one is just beautiful!

The candle is from Bath and Body Works - where else!? Love them! 

And that "Charlie Brown tree" LOL is from Hobby Lobby. I can't find any burlap to wrap around the bottom of it. Anyone know where to get that for a decent price?

 My favorite part of the whole mantle!! LOVE!!!

Have you linked up? Go do it and check out the other fabulous mantles!

Feast of St. Nicholas - December 6th

We "celebrated" the Feast of St. Nicholas. I saw this post on Catholic Mothers Online and loved it! I loved that (when the boys are a bit bigger to understand more) we can learn about St. Nicholas and the story of Santa Claus and - get ready for this moms - we can lessen the chaos of Christmas morning! HA! See, on the Feast of St. Nicholas, we see what has been left in our stockings. Ah, ha!

A little info from Catholic Mothers Online:

Christmas Stockings

The beginnings of Christmas stockings came from one of the stories about St. Nicholas.  As the story goes, he heard of 3 maidens whose father could not afford a dowry.  In order to keep them from being sold into slavery, he threw money for their dowry into the window which landed in their stockings.

You can read more about the stories behind the other fun Christmas traditions here, such as candy canes, chocolate gold coins, and oranges. 

What we did:

We hung up our stockings when we set out all of our other decorations. After dinner on the 6th, while I still had every sitting at the table finishing up (those 2 little guys are ALWAYS on the move!), I read a little story about St. Nicholas. Of course, I chopped up the story. I do have a 2 year old and an 8 month old - what else can you do? I told them about a family who didn't have enough money to have a party for their children. So, when it was night time and everyone was asleep, a nice man from church Nicholas threw some gold coins in their windows. (almost the same - next year I'll change it up again to make it more like the story above in red ) Andrew thought that was pretty cool. He said, "Money!" LOL

Once the story, was over I grabbed the stockings (which were filled during nap time - by the way, since they were already up...it wasn't something NEW and EXCITING to mess with. So, Andrew never even noticed) and brought them to the table. Andrew and Alex were both smiling! It was so cute! Jason was smiling, too - I guess he didn't realize we were opening our stockings! Surprises for everyone! 

Every one got chocolate gold coins and a few small presents. 

Jason's stocking - Gold coins and A&W Root Beer Jelly Beans

Andrew's stocking - Gold coins, Christmas book "5 Little Christmas Trees", a mini Santa snow globe, and his ornament for this year (picture below)

Alex's stocking - Gold coins (no, he didn't eat them. but he liked shaking them in the little bag they came in - picture at beginning), Christmas book "Hello Santa", and his ornament for this year (picture below)

My stocking - That's right, Mama needs a prize, too! Oh, what's that? Dark Hot Chocolate K-Cups?! St. Nicholas is awesome. ;) Kidding...I didn't put those in my stocking. Alex has my gold coins actually. But I did get the k-cups! 

For more stocking-stuffer ideas for the little ones, you can read my post from last year. Do you have any special stocking traditions?

Fall Mantle!

I am addicted to Pinterest and have been trying to find some inspiration for my fall mantle. Well, here was the winner!

Source: 3.bp.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

And, here is my mantle! YAY!

Love it!! And,  I had most of the things already. The pears are from my kitchen. So, I just had to get a garland and an apple. See? Here is my mantle before - a bit Pottery Barn-esque :)

Have you started your Fall Nesting?