Do you have a mantel?

Though I snapped my fingers, for some reason, a lovely fireplace and mantel fail to appear in my great room.

So what’s a gal supposed to do?

Improvise.

You might remember last fall I wanted to decorate a mantel for…um… Fall!   What did I do?  Decorated my sideboard.  It worked. Now that Spring is on the horizon, and no fireplace or mantel is gracing my home, I picked the top of the piano to be my imitation mantel. I think it works.

I know that most people choose to decorate for Spring with daffodil yellow, springy green, and just peachy pinks.  If you’re disappointed that I didn’t fall in line, you’ll have to take it up with the Forsythia sprigs I snipped.

They consorted with my Longaberger Vase Basket and it was so embarrassed that it disappeared.  Off the face of the earth. I think the Forsythia was conspiring with my vintage blue glass canning jars.  I acquiesced and even placed a pretty sash on that tall blue beauty.

Now stand back, and look at that pair all dressed up.  Yup.  They pretty much dictated the rest of the decor.  It was their color family or …. well, I don’t care to repeat such talk, but as you can see, they won.  My dad always said I needed to choose my battles carefully.  Sage advice I’d say.

Please don’t let on.  But, in the end, I’m really quite pleased with my little bit of earthiness for Spring. As you gaze up my faux mantel you may recognize many of these pieces from vignettes of the past.

Remember the popular term “put a bird on it?”  I’ve pretty much done that this year.  It’s all because the Bluebirds made a few quick visits to my window box greens (I think they liked the rose hips.) and scoped out their house at the fence line.  Shortly thereafter, the birds in the neighborhood decided it was high time to exercise their vocal chords, so now I’m greeted each morning with a delightful chorus and a solo or two.

All that bird activity kind of went to my head.  I started cutting out paper birds, right and left, and plopping them down in the most unusual places, like the mini wreath surrounding the tarnished silver sugar bowl. Recently my friend gave us some eggs.  All shades of light tan and grayish light green and dusky pale blue.  We wanted to display them so we attempted to blow them out for scrambled eggs.  Unfortunately, they were not strong and so we only have two of the bluey-green ones.  I wasn’t sure what to do with them.  And then I had an idea when I woke up in the morning.  The fraternizing Forsythia must have been sending me telepathic messages during the night.  Because, immediately upon rising, I snatched the eggs from their resting place and nestled them in the berries and leaves and tendrils of the small wreath on the piano.

I must say that Forsythia has good ideas because I really like the looks of those colors together.  The birds are a bit bright…but I’m winning on that one.

The Blue Heron print on the wall behind these bits of Springtime has a custom mat job.  Not long ago I cut up some dictionary pages and freshened up the mat.  Actually, I repainted the frame, refreshed the mat, and put in a new print.  Hmmm…I need to share that in an upcoming post.  Yes?  But…digress.

There’s kind of a music theme taking place on my faux mantel with the mandolin, the birds, a book on Beethoven, and an old Psalter hymnal.  And I can’t forget to mention the little hand carved man playing the violin, that I picked up when I was in Oberammergau back in my college days.  Rounding out the grouping is a lamp, and the bread basket covering up a large and very unattractive thermostat on the wall.

What do you think?  What would you add, take away, or move?  Be as critical as you like.  Remember it won’t hurt my feelings.  And since I don’t think that silly Forsythia will be reading the blog, I think we are both safe.

For the record….I have high hopes for that unspringy-looking Forsythia. You see after I trimmed the sprigs from their mother bush, I hammered their little feet so they would live, and drink in lots of warm water.

I’m thinking that in a few weeks or less I’ll have lovely yellow blossoms gracing my mantel er…piano top.  And then, I have a hunch, I can bring in lots of color to that little earthy Spring vignette on my faux mantel.  I think that demanding Forsythia will be thrilled as it boasts of its bright yellow. When that happens I’ll be sure to let you know.   “Like” An Extraordinary Day on Facebook so you don’t miss all the fun.

How many days ’til Spring?

Diane

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