Fall Mantle Reveal

I'm staying out of any political discourse, but the reality is......with 

gas prices pushing $4.00 per gallon, life is expensive!

So when it comes to decorating, my options are to {mostly} use what I have.

One thing that I've had for maybe 2 years now is my corn husk wreath...

I used corn husks that I bought at a Mexican food store and cut them into triangular strips.

{Warning....it takes a lot of hot glue and many burned fingers to complete this!}

The next thing that I had was dropcloth, burlap, felt and sticks.

There are many tutorials on Pinterest that show how to make the stuffed pumpkins.

I resorted to my method of using old pillows to stuff them....free, again!

My one splurge was the "wheat"...and it's not actually wheat.  

I used a foam form from The Dollar Tree and hot glued a wheat-like grass 

to the form.  

If I had been patient, I could have gotten it for free in my backyard.....I'm not patient!

{The printable was free from Dear Lillie.}

So for spending practically nothing.....I was able to create a simple fall mantle

out of what was lying around my home and yard!

Do you decorate for fall or Halloween?

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Winter Mantle. . .

After I took all the Christmas decorations down, my mantle was empty,bare....and just plain lonely...

I am always trying to save money....it's just my life....so I really

didn't want to spend anything for a winter mantle.

Yesterday, I showed you how I made these sweater vases from a $1.50 thrifted sweater. 

Now, I had to decide what to put in them...I have seen glittery sticks and 

other cool ideas, but, again, I didn't want to spend any money.

Here's a glimpse of how glamorous my life is.....as I went out on the porch to clean

up the MOUSE GUTS that our cat keeps dragging up for us, I saw our

grasses from the summer....they had turned a lovely soft brown!

I grabbed my kitchen shears, hacked some off some of the grasses and stuffed them 
in the vases.....perfect!  Then, I shopped the house....

My total cost.....$1.50 for the thrifted sweater!

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Sweater Vases. . . .

I am working on putting together my winter mantle and I

just do NOT want to spend any money.....

I've seen these sweater vases and candles on Pinterest and 

decided to try to make some myself.....

Our local Mennonite Relief store has 50% off on Friday evenings, so I 

nabbed this cable-knit sweater for only $1.50!

The only problem was that it was sleeveless......I didn't realize that this was a

problem until I went home and checked out Pinterest and realized that 

people were using the SLEEVE portion of the sweater....UGH!

Time for Plan B...

I decided that I could use the bottom ribbed portion of the sweater

and just hot glue it around my vases......close enough, right?

I wasn't quite sure what to do with the bottom so I just

trimmed the sweater along the very edge of the vase and let it go.

I did start running out of sweater by the end and just pieced

together the one candle, but as long as it is angled the right way,

you can't even tell!!

Tomorrow, I'll show you the rest of my mantle....

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Spring Mantle Idea...

{A little spring inspiration....}

Doesn't it look like it's from a magazine????  It's my friend Lisa's mantle! 

If you'd like to see how she put it together go over HERE to her blog Liza Mae's ReCreations.....I just LOVE all the natural elements that she used to pull it together!

......and the best news of all???  It was cheap!!!  (or should I say...thrifty! )

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