Spring Mantel Reveal

Winter in central Pennsylvania overstayed its welcome this time.

Several weeks back, in the midst of the gloomy gray days of lingering Winter, I announced to the husband/lover/best friend that I was leaving to go buy me some Spring.  He doesn't always hear so well. I watched as he gave me a funny look, and then he shrugged his shoulders and went about his business.  Afterwards he told me that once I had gone, he got a stab of fear that I had simply gotten into the car and driven south.  Way south.  Like Florida south.

Well, I did drive south, but only about ten miles or so, to the nearest Michael's craft store.  I had three Spring-ish colors in mind - purple, orange, and green.  I wanted my next mantel design to be a profusion of flowers and Spring-like colors.

I simply found a collection of vases in different sizes and shapes, in those three colors.  Then I looked for a variety of flowers and weeds that appealed to me, again in my color theme.

Really the hardest part of this project was removing the sticky  price tags from the bottles and flowers.

Another difficulty I had was my oh-so-helpful puppy, who wanted to help by tasting and chewing every flower and leaf.  Finally after a stern word from me she left me alone.

Later I found out that she had gone and eaten the decorative flower off my newest pair of summer sandals.  I guess she was just hungry for a floral snack, but for now, she's getting lots of stink eye from me.

I'm sure that the professional interior decorators would have a heyday with me on my Spring mantel.  In a home decorating magazine, I once read that you should NEVER under any circumstances use artificial flowers for decorating.  The article said that fake flowers are just so tacky, and should never be a part of one's home.

I beg to differ.  And frankly, I don't care what the pros say.  I will decorate my home in whatever way makes me happy and is sensible/centsible to me.

When I look at some of the home decor magazines that are out there, sometimes I have to wonder if the decorations they feature on those glossy pages really do appeal to anyone.  Often I think that most of what I am seeing is downright hideous.

Things are still pretty gray when I look out my windows, but when I look up at my mantel, I feel happy.  No matter what is going on outside, Spring has sprung in here.

Now Dizzy Dick, don't you be worrying about me.  I'm not dead, I'm just heading up into the mountains for a few days.  I'll be back to blogging again soon.