The Mantel

Hey guys....I continue to "nest" here in the house.  I can not help myself.  I'm like the Energizer bunny on chocolate lately!!!  So, the mantel.  Always a test to one's decorating skills.  Especially if yours is like 3 feet deep and has a half moon shaped window in it!  Yes, I said that right.  I totally forgot to take a pic before I filled it with my Grandmother's mirror.  But seriously it's the strangest thing I've ever seen.  And thus far, every house I've toured in this neighborhood has this window mantel thing.  It must have been the builder's "signature" mantel.  Urgh.  I've got big plans to have it stack stoned and close the "hole" in eventually.  But for now, this is my simple solution.  The trick to this mantel is layers.  So I started with the mirror.  Which I do believe weighs as much as I do.  And somehow it hung on the wall in her home until she passed away.  Dad asked me if I wanted it and I said of course!!  And now I have a safe place to rest it. 

The next layer is this adorable wooden shelf unit that was hanging in the kid's bathroom at the old house.  On it I have all our names in typography letters, a few nest and birds.  A wooden H rests against the mirror.  Just one of the growing collection of H's.  My favorite part of this vignette are the old clocks.  I saw an idea one time where you put on a broken clock the time your children were born.  I've literally had these clocks 5 years and finally looked up their birth times.  Which look.....Mailey was 6:40 and William was 6:42!  How in the world does one have two children at practically the same time?