I hope you were sitting down... it has been a while since I've dusted off the keyboard for a post. Halloween has me inspired, as always. I'm thinking this may be my most favourite mantle of all. Plain and simple. We started with a well aged window, appropriately dusty. Once cleaned and the remaining three pains of glass were Windexed, it was anchored to the wall just to be safe for the upcoming Halloween party. ...

Happy Halloween decor time friends! ...

Source It's January and that certainly means ice skating in Canada. I remember going down to the rink at our elementary school (or the toboggan hill behind our house) every night after supper. It didn't quite look like skating on Lake Louise , Alberta, above, but it was still magical. Wilhelmina isn't one to miss out on the fun... ...

We just recently finished painting our living room and dining room, laying hardwood, and flipping our living and dining rooms around. It feels like a whole new house. It was a happy, happy day when we tore out the carpet that came with this place. The dining room reveal will come in the New Year... ...

New, and maybe improved for 2012, here is my paranormal portrait mantle. I added two new pictures and therefore needed a bit more elbow room. Set up was a bit tricky on our wafer thin mantle, but we haven't lost anyone over the edge yet. A near miss on installation, but that disaster was averted by a quick moving 10 year old. We had the pictures up and ready for the annual party on the 19th. Eight giggly girls kept me busy Friday (said girls AFTER some major fun on PicMonkey -- the moustaches and fangs weren't added in). If that wasn't enough Mr. CF and I installed hardwood in the master bedroom on the weekend.  Source Well.... this isn't really our bedroom, but I assure you it looks darn good. This was our third -- and smallest job ever but somehow my body feels like I just laid hardwood in an arena. Ouch! I did manage to get my legs moving and set up the tripod and take some photos of the 2012 mantle. My favourite new addition is this cut......

Here it is, another mantle decorating season and I still have my unsightly Canadian Tire sconces, wafer thin mantle, and the fireplace is yet to be updated. Those changes are getting closer to the top of the list though, thank goodness. My easy-on-the-budget mantle display used items I had on hand.** **With the exception the curly top white pumpkin that jumped into my cart at WalMart this morning. Who could resist it's crackly goodness and wacky stem? (The flour and sugar in my cart needed some seasonal company anyway.) I found my dad's old  tackle box  last month while up in their attic. I also found out that it is very hard to do a happy dance when you're in a confined space. The antlers were from the attic too and this pair were left 'au naturel' for now. The painting was a gift to a friend of the family in the early 1920's. My dad and grandfather about 1942 -- the pre turquoise tackle box era. I'm not sure who took the ph......

2006 Canada Day is just around the corner and we are looking forward to it as always. My 'little' girl just turned 10 and as soon as that birthday rolls around I know our next big celebration is not far away. Last week I got out my trusty ole fence boards and made a new sign for the mantle. Yes, I still have those hideous Canadian Tire sconces and the tile fireplace. They are closer up to the top of my hit list than they are on Mr. CF's hit list. Sigh.  Start by selecting old fence boards from your carefully cataloged and meticulously stored stock from under the deck. I screwed two flat pieces of scrap board vertically to the back to join the boards. Our flag has a 1:2 ratio and the centre white square is the dimensions of the height of the flag. I was happy to learn this when making this sign; I'll be sure to get that right on my future mini flags! My boards measure 17x33. Technically it should be 34" wide, but I didn't want t......

I made a new sign for Sunday... a little tweaking of the spring mantle and we're ready for our annual Mother's Day brunch. At least the mantle is ready. The grocery shopping has a ways to go yet. Easy, peasy and total cost: $0. I used the font LD Petticoat Black, printed out and transferred to one of the old fence boards in my stash. I used craft paints that I had on hand and dried well using my high dollar drying station, pictured at right. Sand and voila! I enlarged and printed the photos at home and picked up the clothespins from Mom last night. They are the same ones that I used to pin the clothes on the line back in the 60's and 70's when we were much smarter and used clotheslines. I printed photos of everyone that will be at the brunch with their mothers. My mom, my dad, my daughter, my husband, my aunt, my mother-in-law, hubby's aunt and our neighbour. We're all there and DD knows who everyone is in these old ......