Christmas mantle Simple and Understated

I love Christmas!!!!  I love the decorations, the lights, music, the spirit of caring, giving and love.  It seems to bring out the best in most people.  Oh and did I say the smells of Christmas, yummmm.......   This year I went with  simple and a bit of sophistication.  I love how it turned out.  I wish I could have each of you over so you could see it in person with all the lights on!

All the candles are battery operated with a timer.  What will they think of next!

Last Christmas I found these candle holders at Goodwill, they were brown pottery looking things.  Spray paint can do wonders!

some mercury glass mark down from last year.

I use to put these red bead on my tree.  I have had them for 25 years!

Merry Christmas!

An Apothecary Jar and a Cloche

There are so many beautiful ways to display your favorite things.  Two of my favorites are an apothecary jar and a cloche.  I was able to find this great apothecary jar at TJ Max for a mere $12.99 and thank heaven for 50% off glass at Hobby Lobby for the Cloche.  I'm very fond of pretty vintage things.  A few years ago I scored on these shinny bright (name of the ornaments) on ebay.  I didn't want all of them on my tree so there they sat in their box until now.  I think they look so pretty, almost like candy.  They bring back happy Christmas memories.  The ones from my youth are hanging on our tree.

Now for the cloche....  My inspiration came from a pintrest pin from brabournefarm.blogspot.com hers was in an open dish.  I thought it would be fun to see what these ornaments looked like under glass.  My daughter Kelly saw it sitting in my room and mentioned how pretty she thought it was.  I knew then it was a winner.  She's not always supportive of all my "stuff".

 I love these silver, white and of course mercury glass ornaments.

The magic of Christmas is in the air!!!!!!

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She's crazy bout that Mercury glass....

  I love love love mercury glass!!!!! It is right up there with depression glass.   So when I saw that Anna over at  takethesidestreet.com had made her own and of course "Martha" has too!  I thought, I need to give this a try. After all a girl can't have to much mercury glass especially at Christmas time!  Here is my tutorial on making your own mercury glass candle holders.

Decide on what you want to use for your candle holder or vase.  Remember if you are going to do a vase it needs to be a container that you could put another vase inside to hold the water and flowers.  If you put water against the paint for long periods of time it will make the paint peel off.  I bought these at the Dollar Store.

Cover the outside of your container.  The paint will only look like mirror from the inside out.  Make sure that you tape right up to the edge of the container.

I was lucky and found the spray paint at Wal-Mart.  It was almost $9.00 a can.  It doesn't take that much paint.  Make sure that you shank the can well and use short quick shots into your container.  I found that the paint is very liquid and would run to the bottom of the container.  I would swirl it around to cover where I had missed places. 

After the paint has dried for a few minuets I used a spray bottle with white vinegar.  I sprayed the inside where there are beads on the sides, then let it dry.  This is the long part.  I'm an instant gratification kind of gal and this was hard for me.  I had to spray several times. For me this was not a one day project.  At one point I even ran my hand up and down in the container and it took off some of the paint(that is what I wanted).  This is the part you will have to just experiment with to get the look that you want.

The finished product!  

I'm very happy with the way that they turned out and I will be making some more for my Christmas decorations!

I hope you will try this!

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Happy Harvest!

What can you do with a blank slate?  Just about anything!!!!  I went all out for Halloween so I thought that I would tone it down for Thanksgiving.  But just wait for Christmas!!!

I think it turned out nice.

I love all the red and orange.  The Pilgrims add a nice touch.  Next year I need to start early so I can find an Indian couple.

I love these jeweled pumpkins and the large acorns.

thanks for looking and I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving!!!

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The Little Red Toolbox

My good friend over at Magnolia Bend Dr her husband Mr. Jeff made me two of these great tool boxes.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them.  When Glenda suggested that we split a can of Emperor's Silk my first thought was the tool box.  I love red, but I'm afraid to use it in my house.  This gave me an opportunity to see what I can do with this color.  I saw a version of this on Annie Sloan's website.  I like the rustic feel of the box.  I'm thinking the other one needs to be Turquoise!!! 

this is a great box.

A.S. chalk paint "Emperor's Silk

I did 2 coats of the red.

I painted one coat of AS graphite

This is the box after I have ruffed it up.

I wanted the inside to just be red.

It is now ready to be waxed.

I'm amazed at what the was does to the depth of the paint.

I think she's look good.

It's all about the wax.  I think it really tells the story.

I even waxed the inside.

I'm happy with how it turned out.  The box really does look old and now has some character to it.

Thanks for looking.

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Pier 1 inspired

I ran across this pumpkin in Pier 1.  I thought it was so unique. I really wanted it until I looked at the price tag ouch!! they wanted $79 for it.  Even now on sale it is still $39.  Not in my budget even though it would be a classic decoration for years to come.  So why am I posting about something I wouldn't buy?  Well on one of my shopping trips to Hobby Lobby I saw this wire pumpkin candle holder and Bingo! the light went off.  If I got this I could fill it with orange colored Christmas balls.  Hummm!

 I went to check out the ornaments and half way up the wall (where you have to have the ladder!) were some orange colored ornaments.  Was there someone to help?  "NO" so I only bought the wire pumpkin, it was half off making it $11.00.  Thought I would get the ornaments at another time.  Well I was there another time and still the prospect of finding someone to help was going to take to long.  Then this weekend I was out estate saleing and my journey happen to take me right by Garden Ridge.  I found a painting that I love for my dinning room and they had a box of orange ornaments for $4.99.

  I couldn't wait to get home and put it all together.  Take a look and tell me what you think about my version!!!!!  I love it and my biggest critics (my children) all seem to approve!!!

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