My First Christmas Mantel

 I have never had a mantel before. Until this summer. Want to hear the story?

As we were driving home from church one sunny, hot day I spied something over a fence in someone's back yard. (I had also seen the "garage sale" sign, so this wasn't just a random house!) I quickly told (okay, yelled) my husband to stop and I ran to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me or not. But no, I was awarded promptly by the sight of this mantel sitting all lonely in the back yard with no one near it. Now people, I have been longing for a mantel in my home since we moved in 3 years ago... but you know how expensive these suckers can be and my husband is handy... but not quite that handy. This was too good to be true.

I asked the man how much he wanted for it and he said $20. I was shocked, and he saw my disbelief which he took to mean he had priced too high. So then he said, "OK, how about $15?" Need I say more? And- I didn't do a thing to it. It came all glazed and pretty like that! That sweet mantel was in my house as quick as we could get it there.

I did debate about using it as a headboard in our bedroom but no. I wanted to see it every day and and enjoy it all the time. So, here it sits in my living room all pretty but alas, we have to have the TV on top of it. Mind you, this is not my cup of tea to have the TV on the mantel but we don't have many options. And you know what, most people have a TV in their main living room, so I figured, why not embrace it until we can figure something else out?

So, here it is, in all it's glory with the TV smack dab in the middle.

And here we are... Decorated-For-Christmas-Mantel.  My first.  What do you think? By the way, can you tell I am a minimalist when it comes to decorating for holidays?