Spring Mantlescape 2013 (and other things)

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. 

No? Me neither.

I'm not happy. No hand clapping here. I am so burdened with the recent events, how can one blog? When is the appropriate time, how much time should elapse...I haven't blogged in over 2 weeks, does that count? I'm not blogging about the tragedies, does that make me a bad person....that I like to hide my insecurities and bravely show the world my accomplishments? 

If you can call a mantlescape an accomplishment, that toys are not strewn about and dust bunnies are dethroned for the moment an accomplishment.

Believe me, I am praying and have a broken heart for my fellow Americans, and I am NOT part of the camp that maintains that if it didn't happen to me it didn't happen at all....I'm one of those people that have to be reminded to carry on. Lord, I could go from 9/11 through Newtown (and prior, I know) and discuss the effects but (and here I go again) since being diagnosed with a incurable disease, I know that you have to put one foot in front of the other and move forward because we have to learn from the mistakes....don't we? Yes. We have to sustain. Yes.

I've gotten hardly anything done on the kitchen project and I'm and not ashamed. Between chemo treatments, blood transfusions and of course recuperating, not to be confused with sleeping....I've been going to the movies and shopping for my booth. What really gets my goat is that I have not done any wreaths for my Etsy. That really ticks me off. Wreaths are one of my most favorite things to do!! I have not learned to balance it all and it is so frustrating.

I have had , for lack of better word, a blank mantle since Christmas-egad! Use to, I'd have changed it 3 times by now.....no since thinking about the the 'use-to's' in my life...this is the right now and present and I got a  mantlescape. Ta-da. I can still decorate, cancer has not taken that ability, thank God...It's not like I've got math to fall back on.... 

I found these beautiful peonies, silk, of course, and they inspired me....along with the brass findings. Will I ever buy new again? ;) The mirror never changes, that bugger is too heavy...but I did more of a collected look than my normal formula.

The turquoise vases, you remember those right? I had those in my bedroom and brought them back out....this time with no curly willow and flowers in one....I just left the lids on.

And books, I know, old school right? Been done a million times, but I'm getting such a nice collection of old books going and the mantle is certainly a place to showcase them. I love reading through them, if you are with me an Instagram, you saw a passage from  an old book, c.1935, called The Falmouth Survey of Professional Practices (oddly the Falmouth Institute is in Boston, Mass.). It discusses personalities in professional settings and the studies that go along with it...I found it very interesting. It has a list of introvert characteristics (among other things) and believe me, they haven't changed much...#13. The introvert daydreams a great deal. Truer words have...well, you know.

I don't know how I got off on that....accessories! Brass. A dirty word to me a few years ago.....although I was knee deep in it back in the 90's but somehow I became anti-brass....I suppose the ebb and flow of the design world....but now, I have no problem mixing metals...and old brass is what I'm gravitating towards. My MIL is still in shock, you have no idea how anti-brass I was....however, I still exhort that shiny stuff...I'm talking about the old worn, tarnished stuff that you find on the bottom shelf in the back of the antique mall. Case in point; that loverly brass tray: Hello! Little brass etched vases: How you doin'! Said in my best Joey voice.

The fuchsia peonies look fantastic in brass as well, and then of course you can't beat fuchsia and turquoise together.

 

Am I weary of orange yet? Nope, not yet, it's still a present color in the way of accessories and such. 

I found that graphic pillow at Big Lots. It does a great job of lightening up the charcoal fabric on the chair....not to mention speaks to the grey on the kitchen walls that are oh-so-close.

And straying away from the mantle for a moment, the coffee table....accessorized with a Threshold (Target) tray, a couple of books, coral and a brass shell that opens. Logan hides his candy in there. I've got to be a bad parent when the kids are hiding candy....like I wasn't going to find that.

That little butterfly specimen is vintage too and real, my MIL found it for me along with a couple of others. I really like that one, Lord knows how old it is. It reminds me of The Butterfly Place in Branson, anyone been there? They have a large population of Blue Morphs. Man, I am all over the place today.....

 I might change the curtains, or I might not...I honestly just didn't have the energy to change them to the springy ones I made last year...oh well.

I hope you've gotten a little inspiration for a mantle, I know most everyone has created a spring mantle...I'm late to the party. This will probably stay like this till summer. Speaking of summer, I am going home again this year, which I am really excited about. My nephew is graduating from East Carolina University( Go Pirates!) and I will not miss that! I have less than 20 days until I leave and I'm just hoping chemo doesn't screw things up. ;)

And speaking of chemo, I have that on Monday, so there will probably be radio silence for a while again. I want to talk to you again though, so we will chit-chat later. Just keep swimming!