When we completely gutted and renovated our cozy little house, we decided to demo the existing fireplace and add some MUCH needed square footage to the kitchen.
Therefore, sadly, we can’t hang our stockings by the chimney with care. :(
Boo hoo, BUT… we do have this nifty little ledge that has become our make do mantle… our faux mantle… our Fantle!
Our Fantle is simple and sweet and sadly, even THIS space isn’t safe from the two little sets of curious hands!! Davis and Wade both love to ROAM the couch and Wade’s fingers especially love to find things to touch.
In fact, he seemed to find it especially WRONG for the lone little green ornament to be OUT of the bowl, and took it upon himself to put it back where HE thought it should go… IN the bowl with the other ornaments. :)
Of course, NOW, he decides to try put things back where they go… my own little redecorator. :)
I was inspired by Sarah to decorate my candles with ribbon, and I also added a crocheted snowflake last year for some extra pop. :)
My candles slightly singed the babies breath above them during my “photo shoot.” Whoops.
Leave it to me to set the house on fire while I’m trying to take nifty pics of my fantel.
;)
I also have a bookshelf that is high enough to deck out, and I had fun with a Snowman theme.
I so LOVE these little Smores Snowmen with their rad little bobble heads! So cah-ute and very FUN for the munchkins.
This little milk glass pedestal bowl was a super thrifty steal, and I had fun finding Christmasy things to display in it.
The beautimous berries were brand new with tags at Goodwill a while back. I got two of them, and I think they were 99¢ each.
You MAY be wondering why on earth we have a nearly EMPTY bookshelf. Especially in a house where we squeeze the storage out of every possible inch of space, right?
Well, as you may have already guessed… my favorite books on display were particularly captivating for the Davis Man once he started scooting around this place months ago.
Let’s just say I was NOT so ready for him to go mobile.
It became a DAILY game of pull the books off… put the books on… pull the books off…. put the books on. Then we stacked the books on top for a while {very attractively I might add, eye roll}. Until finally, we conceded the victory to the smallest member of the family and just moved them {all but the one shelf} into our bedroom and called it a day.
One day I’ll be able to decorate the bottom three feet of my house again.
I hope.
You can see a peak of our tree on the left too! That is another one of our Davis concessions. :) I miss our bigger tree, but I would much rather not have a repeat of the bookshelf battle all day, every day from now till Christmas!!!
Linking to the Mantle Party at Ten June & Merry Mantles with Rhoda! Come check out all the great merry mantle madness!!!! :)
And these great parties too…Weekend Bloggy Link up, Tatertots & Jello, House of Hepworths, Delightful Order,Bowl Full of Lemons,Organize & Decorate Everything, Reasons to Skip the Housework, This Chick Cooks, Funky Junk Interiors, Craft Envy, Somewhat Simple, Shabby Creek Cottage, No Minimalist Here, Skip to my Lou, Fingerprints on the Fridge,CRAFT,Today’s Creative Blog, the 36th Avenue, Thrifty Décor Chick, CSI Project, Home Stories A-Z, and Someday Crafts. You should check ‘em out!!:
Your Christmas decorations are so pretty. One of my favorite things to do is to put pretty ornament balls in a bowl! I also remember not decorating the bottom of the tree! It actually is still a habit. Our tree is always top heavy. Hey, maybe that's why it fell down! Ha!
Thanks for visiting my blog. Have a super day!
oh, and I am glad to have found your blog. I will definitely come back and read all about you later this weekend when I have some down time. (What is down time? ) Anyway, nice to meet you! :)
Hi Renee,
All of this look so lovely and festive. I like how you make a fantle!
No worries about the bookshelf, I'm sure you'll fill it again soon and then you'll miss when it was empty :-)
Everything is so pretty and festive!
Be a sweetie,
shelia ;)
Cute!!! Great ideas to hang stockings on the ledge!
I dedicated the bottom shelves to Hope's toys– and recently got baskets to fit the shelves…. so at least they're not empty!
Great job, it looks beautiful!
So glad you didn't catch the house on fire ! The glittery ornaments are my favorite.
I love the glittery ornaments too. What is it about glittery, sparkly things…?
Looking at the bookcase, it now looks top heavy and I worry about your wee man pulling it over. (We here in New Zealand are obsessed with unstable furniture etc due to the number of earthquakes we get lol)
love the milk glass bowl – great thrifty find!!
and everything looks great – especially love the snowmen display! :)
laughing at your comment "someday I'll decorate the bottom 3rd of my house again!" too funny!
Yay…glad someone else has to get creative and have a fantle too! =) Your milkglass bowl is beautiful..I love milkglass!
And the picture of Wade totally cracked me up! For some reason Levi is just obsessed with rearranging the ornaments on the tree. It's hilarious because he looks deep in thought like he's contemplating the exact placement of each one. So, yeah, all the breakable stuff is on top! =)
Very cute!
Everything look so festive and fun. This post cracked me up. I love the green ornament story and especially laughed at the baby's breath. Too funny! I wish I could find a milk glass pedestal like that – it is so sweet. Merry Christmas!
New follower here! I especially love your smores snowmen. So cute!
Gotta use the space that you have! Great job on your Fantle, it turned out lovely! And like most everyone else, I love the glittery ornaments too!
Coming over from: http://chasing2monkeys.blogspot.com
Everything is beautiful. In our other home we did not have a mantle either and had the same type of opening that I decorated in the same way. I love your crochet snowflakes. Did you make those?
Ruth
Hi Renee, everything looks so festive and fun. The mantle is darling and all your ornaments are so cute. It won't be long until you can put things lower down, LOL If it's not the kids, it's the animals!! Thanks so much for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris
http://chelencarter-retiredandlovingit.blogspot.com/