Sweet Memories And Fall In The Family Room

Hello Friends!

Is the weather still hot where you are?

The summer heat is still hanging around here, but the humidity is lower and nights are cooler - which makes for nice evenings out on the screened porch. The sounds of cicadas have given way to chirping crickets and that tells us that things are about to change and cooler temps are on the way. 
It will soon be time to break out soft cable knit sweaters and colorful scarves and warm cozy blankets out of big woven baskets.
Which brings me to decorating for Fall in the Family Room.

Spring Mantel

Spring is here...

YAY!!!

ok, not officially, 

but, here at Casa Fanatic, it definitely is.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Spring!!!

Here's where I put the twig wreath I made with all the dead fall from the birch tree in our front yard.

I've already started collecting more branches so I can make another wreath. Here's the link that tells how I made it if you missed it. 

That is, AFTER I get finished getting the accounting and tax stuff  ready for the accountant.

Back to the Spring mantel....

Couldn't resist the cute bunny I found at HomeGoods awhile back.

I already had everything else and just borrowed things from other rooms. The mirror was hanging in the hallway. 

Love all the green in the house...

now if only the trees would green up....

Had to show you the little table I found on ebay awhile back. One can never have too many little tables.

Just love that little bunny. Reminds me of all the pet bunnies we had when I was a kid. We named one of our rabbit's Puff Puff. 

The past several days I've been busy planting potatoes, carrots, sugar snap peas, lettuce, broccoli and turnips. 

Can't wait until they pop up. 

That's what I've been doing to get ready for Spring.

What have you been doing in to get ready for  Spring?

Pam

Winter Mantel

 *this post contains affiliate links

It's  difficult to decorate after  Christmas and before the anticipation of Spring....meaning January.
Today, I'll be giving you a few ideas on how you can decorate your mantel for Winter, using some items around your home and by changing up some Christmas decorations.

Gather Accessories From Other Rooms In Your House
  I did exactly that.  The white pitcher is from the dining room, the branches from the foyer and a few other pretties are from the bookcase.

The Best Part?
I didn't buy those branches, I picked them up in our backyard. If you don't have a tree that drops pretty little branches, go for a walk in the park and pick some up, especially after a big rainstorm!

The large white vase with bare branches had ornaments on it for Christmas. The ornaments were  stored away and the branches kept out for Winter.  

I saved the pine branches and pine cones from our Christmas centerpiece. 

See the large blue Ball jar on the right?

Southern Belle Magazine had a post on their Facebook page awhile back that said 

"Why not start the year with an empty jar and fill it with notes about good things that happen. Then, on New Years Eve, empty it and see what awesome things happened that year." 

As you can see, there's already a piece of paper with something written on it. 

Can't wait to see what great stories and events it will be filled with. 

Leave Up Some Christmas Decorations

Small, undecorated Christmas trees or pine branches with pine cones look great on a mantel, especially when there's snow on the ground or it's cold outside.

Looking at these photos, I'm realizing that a green wreath would look great right in the middle. Guess what I'll be doing this afternoon?

There you have it. 
A few ideas on how to easily decorate for Winter.
I'm sure you have all you need to create a beautiful Winter mantel!

Pam

 *this post contains affiliate links, which means I'll make a small commission should you purchase something from one of these links. 

Spring Mantel

It's time to party and show off your Spring mantels. My mantel also has a niche, so more things need to go into it. Today I pulled together some Spring accessories from around the house.

I'm sure I'll be adding and deleting accessories as the days go by. 

 With the weather warming up here in the Carolinas, we are working on a lot of outdoor projects. Our new raised beds are finished and most of our cooler weather veggies have been planted. We've also been spreading mulch around our yard ~still have about 5 more yards to go. I will be sharing what we've done in the next few day. Y'all know I love my garden!

Will be partying at Fox Hollow Cottage today! Stop on over and see all the fabulous Spring mantels.

Pam

Christmas Mantel

 So happy to share with you the first Christmas mantel in our family room. It's the first because the mantel never got decorated because the tv and other electrical accoutrements were inside the niche and it didn't make sense to decorate in front of that...kinda like lipstick on a pig? lol!

The niche is very large and deep, so two poinsettias were perfect to fill up a lot of the space. Yesterday I showed you the burlap stockings I made.

The book-box and the poinsettias are the only accessories that I purchased. I shopped the house for everything else.

I love old books, don't you?

Remember the Blogger Block Party is  going on all week

Hope you have a great day!

Pam

My New Niche

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a good weekend. So glad hurricane Irene didn't turn out to be as bad as they thought.

We got a little wind and clouds, but not a drop of rain.

Hope you worked on a fun project. We are working on our family room and kitchen area. Mr. Fanatic  put the final coat of paint on the kitchen ceiling Sunday afternoon. 

Saturday he worked on installing a slide out swivel shelf in our armoire for our tv. Our television has been in our tv niche for 11 years and I haven't been able to decorate the mantel because it just didn't look right to put pretty things in front of the dvd player and stereo equipment. Today, I decorated it for the first time.

Here's what  the niche looked like after we took the tv, shelf and dvd player out. It wasn't looking pretty.

Somehow I had to cover all of those outlets up. I did it by covering a piece of sheetrock with some light burlap. I'll show you how easy it was another time.

Here's what the niche looks like now...

This was a zero cost project since we used some sheetrock and burlap I already had.

Gotta love that!

Pam