Thanksgiving Mantel

Happy Hump Day one and all.  It is countdown to Thanksgiving and it is one week from tomorrow.  One week, 7 days.  Are you ready?  I am working on all preparations since my mom and sister will be here this weekend from our home town and we will celebrate Thanksgiving with them on Saturday.  Next week will be just Nashville family.

This is such a tricky time of year because not only do we have Thanksgiving to celebrate, but I am also mid Christmas preparation - making gifts and decorations which sort of takes over the entire house.  There is glitter everywhere, glue, paper, ornaments, and the kitchen table is piled high with every manner of crafting equipment.  I do have a craft desk in the back bedroom, but there is not enough room to do everything in there, so the kitchen table makes up the additional space I need.  Do you have that issue?  Not enough space?  It really gets perplexing at times.  I hate cleaning off the table every night when it's dinner time, but that's just the way it has to be.  Everyone finishes dinner with glitter on their face.  The guys love me for that.

For our mantel this year, I reused the banner I made last fall and the beautiful glittered trees that I bought.  To make it look different, I added 6" burlap ribbon, white lights, lots of small white pumpkins and colorful gourds and candles.  It looks so inviting and warm and it makes me happy.  Needless to say, the day after Thanksgiving, it all comes down and Christmas replaces these decorations.  Although, I am considering keeping some of it for Christmas and changing out the gourds and the banner.  I especially love the burlap ribbon.  What to do, what to do?  Every day at this point, I change my mind.  Nothing is written in stone until the fat lady sings as they say.

The picture above was taken at night so you can see how lovely the lights look.  Here is the same picture in daytime.

Our living room tends to be dark this time of year because of the covered porch that shades the light coming in the windows.  So, I have been leaving the lights on all day and through the evening.  I really like the ambiance it gives the room.

The center of the mantel is anchored by this lovely mercury glass candle holder that is round and beautiful and reflects the light in an awesome way.  You can see the burlap ribbon snaking across the mantel and it helps diffuse the glow of the lights.  The beautiful little copper candle holders came from TJ Maxx and they hold tea lights.  Don't  you love the little gourds which their crazy stems?  They add a lot of texture and color to the vignette.

Here, you can see the lights in the bottom of the "tree" and more of the gourds and candle holders on the mantle.  I made the candles by stamping tissue paper with a stamp that looks like French handwriting.  Then, you wrap the tissue paper around the candle and heat it with a blow dryer (or heat gun if you have one) until the tissue paper adheres to the candle.  They are really beautiful.

There are also several more mercury glass candle holders on the mantel.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE mercury glass and TJ Maxx has lots to choose from for a very reasonable price this time of year.   The clear candle holder also came from TJ Maxx and I paid $2.00 for it in the clearance section.  ALWAYS look in the clearance sections for bargains!  The tall clear candle holder in the picture above also came from the clearance section for $3.50.  My kind of price.

I had already taken all the pictures above when I added my Harvest angel candle that I made.  It looks so lovely on the mantel right at the left tip of my big white star.   Have I told you how much I love stars?  Yes, I know - about a thousand times, but I do love them so.

Here is the mantel from further back which shows some of the other decorations at this end of the living room.  It sort of makes me sad when things look just the way I want, and know that next week, it will all change.  But then again, there is the challenge of rearranging and making everything look different.  It is my decorating A.D.D. I guess.  I like changes.  Really, I do.  Do you like making changes or do you like things to stay the same?

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

I approach decorating like life, it's all about changes and accepting them when they happen.  Nothing ever stays the same.