the 'after Christmas' Mantelshelves

Hello Friends!  You know, the days just simply pass by far too quickly.

Next thing you know, a MONTH has gone by.

Where did it go?  Work?  Movies? Friends? Family?

Everything!

...my gosh

So, I've wanted to share with you my after Christmas look, something NEW that I have been working on.  I have a few favorite bloggers that I LOVE to read all the time, and have worked to somewhat emulate what they do, to work with what I do!

The bloggers that I look at almost daily are:

Layla and Kevin of The Lettered Cottage

Jennifer of The Old Painted Cottage

and

Donna of Funky Junk Interiors

I really love all of these... they are so inspiring and fun!

I look at others too, and I will share those too.

But these are the ones that currently inspire me the most.

So, that said, you know what I spend a lot of my TIME with!

Yeah, looking at other BLOGS.

I've shared with you before about our Mantelshelves.

Since we do not have a fireplace... no mantle.
And most of you that know me know that I LOVE to decorate!  And I love STUFF.

The Mantelshelf provides me the perfect medium to do just that.

After Christmas I emptied my shelves, and left 'em BARE.

You see the little kitty up there?  She is our NEW addition to our family!

Her name is Ariel, and she loves to be photographed!

Her and Billy Bob (our other kitty) have taken a LONG long time to ...ummm... get to like each other, and still, after about two months, are ... well, hissing at each other. We keep hoping.  We thought about letting her go, but we just love her too much. [sigh]

I searched my house... high and low... to come up with this!

(I only purchased ONE thing, the 'LOVE')

Terry got the old shutter on a clean up job that he had!  I screamed!  ha

...a few closeups...

...now you know why I broke down and bought the LOVE?

I don't have just the ONE Mantleshelf...

I have another one, temporarily, on another wall... in the livingroom.

THAT wall will eventually become a large bookcase type feature.

But for now, it has this:

 You can see the large shelf (bottom of it) that is the high shelf that holds Terry's carvings, to keep them from being all over our home!   It's a great home for them!  The wall is really high, so they are not looking so much like a 'feature'.  When we do the bookcase... it will move to my/our craftroom.

This 'stuff' is from my decor that I had in Oregon.  If you've never seen our Oregon home that we built, and sold (sad) here is the link.

I really love this stuff.  But it no longer works here, I think. ???

I like the whites much much better.  So these, will, eventually work their way out.

Terry is sad about that.  He is, after all, a mountain man, you know.

More close-ups...

So soon, it will be goodbye red candles... and red berries... and more.

THEN, our dining room has been making me crazy!

Terry sits there... it's his 'office'.  Everyday when I come home, it is covered with ... papers!  Every type, every kind.  And books, magazines... ugh

So, Kari and I did a trade.  Again!

This time I got a buffet!

It's wonderful!  Love it!  I do need to do some work on it.

Antique it, add knobs, ruff it up...

But I getta USE it to store the JUNK now!  Yay!!!

I'm trying it out on a 'we'll see' trial run.

So IF we like it, we will move the chandelier... but for now...

I'm slowly but surely changing furniture and STUFF to WHITE.

It's really quite fun.  Just takes time, and the right weather. [sigh]

See the crate on the right? Got that at a junk sale we have here in Sierra Vista, for just $4. It's a 7-Up crate!  Perfect for our magazines!

You can see Billy Bob on his 2nd favorite perch, the windowsill.  And you see his #2 spot, the kitty tree!  Nothing new, other than the crate.  Just 'stealing' stuff from other parts of the house.  Yeah, I do have a lot of 'junk', huh?

 Terry made the 'EAT' letters for me.

I'm REALLY liking my new look... 

the whites with a bit of RED.

Eventually... less RED.

One step at a time.

You can see the chalkboard... 

my 'baby' (youngest son) came to visit.  It had been about a year and a half since we've seen him!  I took a week off of work... and had SO much fun with him!  I miss him terribly.  But he has his life and job and all... in Oregon.  sigh

thanks for visiting!

danella