living room mantel

I was struggling this year with what to do on our mantel in the living room. Some years I drape Cedar roping over it. Others, I tuck greens among the glass cloches. Truth be told, I kind of felt like just leaving it untouched this year. I mean the tree is pretty enough!

But it really is a beautiful mantel, and it deserves to be dressed up for the holidays.

Of course, by the time I went to purchase Cedar roping, it was all sold out. So I grabbed the largest bundle of Scotch Pine I could find for all of $14.99, and made my own. I have this really full burlap garland that is about 6 inches wide, so I used that instead of rope, and wired my greens to it. I had to keep it a little short as our youngest would pull on it if it dangled within his reach.

 

I then wove it between the bits on the mantel, tucked a few pine cones in it here and there, and done!

 

The Scotch Pine boughs are very sturdy and hold their own in the garland, which I like.

It also smells heavenly... which I like even more.

 

Spring in the Living Room

I cut some branches from a tree in our back yard this afternoon that have little white blooms on them. I'm actually not sure what variety the tree is, but I had previously thought the blossoms seemed similar to a pear tree. I'll have to do some research on it.

They make for quite a dramatic arrangement on top of the mantel, and feel very Spring-like amoung the collection of nests.

As you can see, we've also found a coffee table. I will get around to posting about it at some point, but it was an antique table that was previously green with orange underneath. Ryan cut the legs down for me and stripped the top which will remain the natural, beautifully aged pine. But the legs were too difficult, so we simply painted them white.

I have been on the hunt for a fixture for this room and just haven't found anything yet.

I also added a smaller vase of blossoms beside my chair.

I can't wait for the orchards in our region to start blooming. I've driven out twice with the intention of photographing them, and on both occasions, came back disappointed. They just aren't ready yet - likely around Mother's Day.

An Autumn Mantel

I'm fairly certain I was enjoying myself so much yesterday, that I was humming as I selected and arranged pumpkins on our mantel.

I just love our fireplace.

I knew I would love the look of it and relaxing by it, but I didn't realize that I would love it quite as much as I do. I spend as much time in this room as possible. In the morning light with a coffee and my study, cozied up with a boy on either side and a book before bed (currently we're enjoying The Indian in the Cupboard immensely!) and stretched out in front of the fire with a throw and the lights off while Ryan is working late and the house is quiet.

You can see in the photo above that we have temporarily put out a rug. It's much too small for the space, but we're waiting for a rug we've ordered from Pottery Barn that will fill the entire space. We just needed something to keep the couch in place,

I went back to the pumpkin stand just outside of town and spend longer than I should have picking through pumpkins and gourds, trying to find just the right shades and sizes and varieties.

I will endure a lot of comments over Thanksgiving for my lack of colour, but it looks just right. I often forget that for most of you, Thanksgiving is still weeks away. We're lucky to enjoy it this weekend!

The seeded Eucalyptus is something I always put in our arrangements at the store as it's whimsical and last forever.

And this nest was from my Oma's patio. She spent a season watching the Robin's putter about it. It was actually my sisters, but it sat around for weeks at the store, so I finally just brought it home. I wouldn't be surprised if I came down one morning and it migrated over to her apartment, which is next door.

Ryan laughed when I told him even the stems of the pumpkins have to be considered; ones with a slight curve, and good length are ideal. They must also be turned in a variety of ways.

He just laughed... But I secretly knew his inner design-background agreed whole-heartedly.

I just love when they have the little bits of stem still on them. It makes them even more charming.

It's so cozy.

Once the rest of the room is set up, I have a couple more things to put out.

Getting Ready for September

I have been patiently waiting all week for my rose bushes to bloom.

Yes, I understand how silly that may seem to many of you, but I'm certain I'm not the only one who feels this way! 

In a garden, there is always something exciting we anticipate that passes all too quickly - the blossoming of the fruit trees. the first fragrant Spring Lilacs, the changing of the leaves... 

Lately, this has been the case for my roses. I have waited for the buds to unfurl for days. With us getting ready to leave for the cottage, I couldn't help but feel as though they would bloom while we were away, and all that would be left would be a sprinkling of petals when we returned.

Fortunately, most of them have opened in the past few days.

They have a delicate frangrance to them - sweet, but more musky than perfumy. It's hard to believe that soon we will begin to put the garden to bed for the winter.

We've also been getting ready for school to begin in just over a week. Today Willen was registered at a new school, and we discovered that he will now be riding a school bus to school - something he's very excited for.

We borrowed a few back to school favourites from the library for our trip. We're really looking forward to one last week at the lake before the summer comes to an end.

Something that I need to keep me organized was a day planner. I'm quite pleased with this Kate Spade one I picked up at Chapters. I love that it's actually a 16 month planner that begins in August. 

I really just like it's simple design.

It's also become quite helpful in keeping track of appointments with contractors, something that has become a big part of our life.

We've recently run into delay in our living room renovation. When the installers arrived for the fireplace, they were completely unconfident in drilling through the stone wall. This of course made us nervous, and quite frustrated. It takes weeks to get an appointment for an installation and after a promising initial inspection (and us making it perfectly clear what kind of exterior wall they would be dealing with), we were so exccited for this huge part of the room to be completed. There are many other little details that can't really be done until the fireplace is installed. However, that being said, we were thankful the installers cared enough to voice their concerns.

Their biggest worry was that once they began chiselling a stone out for the 9" hole (for the rear vent), other stones that are behind the first would be staggered, and therefore more than one would need to be removed, and so on. This could mean that what started off as one stone, could end up actually being a large hole by the time they were finished. And then what do you do to cover up that hole - a hole that is very visible from the outside.

We decided it was best for us to try and contact a historical mason who would have the best knowledge on the type of stone used (Limestone), and who would be familiar with the kind of mortyr.

Luckily, we found a local one, and though he was booked solid for the next half a year, he recommended a corer who could core out a hole. The man he recommended was very confident that this would be perfectly okay for the wall (and old windows!) and that it would provide the installers with the necessary hole they needed to do their install.

Fingers crossed, the coring will be finished this week sometime, and the installation a few days after that. Then it's onto the mantel, finishing the trim, painting and finally, furnishing.

There are some exciting things in the near future that I need our renovations to be finished for, so the pressure is on.