My 2011 Winter Mantle

Winter white.....with a bit of black, beige, & turquoise thrown in for good measure :)
After I packed up all of my Christmas decorations, I was left with a blank canvas. SO Refreshing! My mantel was the first to receive a winter revival & I love how it came out. It is admittedly a bit sparse, but I think having all the pretty Christmas "clutter" out for the whole month of December left me in a bit of a "minimalist" mood. I have plans to add to it for Valentine's day and I think that will give it just what it needs.

I found some branches at the park down the street from my house and gave them a face lift with some white spray paint (btw, I am head over heels in love with spray paint and all that it can do). I'm always very inspired by nature and it's fun to have elements of it sprinkled throughout the house. This is just a simple glass vase from WalMart with a fun fabric "coozie" around it. I layered a beige linen fabric, with a hand pleated black and white striped fabric, and finished it off with some sweet turquoise yarn. I can't really sew yet (it's on my to-do list for 2011), so I made the pleated ruffle by folding the fabric by hand and hot gluing it in place. Super easy to do :)

I made this pretty pom pom flower by using a tutorial I found over at Sew Chatty for inspiration. I pretty much want to make a billion of these and put them everywhere! Blogland is FULL of awesome ideas and tutorials....only one of the many reasons I love being a blogger :)

I love the look of the branches in this up-shot. I added a few paper flowers to the rustic branches to glam it up a bit, ha ha.

The elements are all a bit simple and a tad matchy-matchy, but once I add the pink for V-Day, I think it will all come together. Stay tuned people!!

linking up at Domestically Speaking :)