It's Cinderella again......

I worked and worked and worked to get my mantel in order for this week's....

 

Unfortunately Fairy Godmother never showed up, so I was on my own. The first thing I needed to do was get rid of the non-mantelish items that were taking up my space. And now I'm going to do something I NEVER thought I'd do....show everyone on the World Wide Web my crap. *deep breath*

Another problem I have with this area is that the wall is two stories high and has a mirror of sorts, but the middle piece fell off the wall about....um......8 years ago. Yup! That's right. Eight years ago! I have been hoping "someone" will take the rest of it down, but alas.....nope.

And these pictures really weren't taken in 2003 - gotta change that problem on my camera.

Let's continue. I do have some cobalt blue hurricanes that I purchased with some birthday money a few years ago from Home Goods.  And since I have other cobalt blue in the room, I thought I'd start with those.

Next I added a mirror that I got from Lowe's last year (for a bathroom upgrade project and lost the receipt for and is still sitting at my the house).  I really like the mirror and I think it is a good addition for the "mantelfication" project for now. I'm not sure how long it will survive since it's only leaning on the fireplace wall and there are plenty of balls that fly around here.

I added another piece of cobalt that my mom gave me. (How do you tell someone you don't want anything else added to your collection 'cause you don't want to dust it???) I love this piece though - it has some nice definition to it. I don't know what it's really called, so I'll show you a close-up of it and you can help me out when you write your really nice comments for me and tell me how proud of me you are ('cause you know my Fraps aren't going to be telling me!).  :)

Yes, that's my naked Christmas tree. Still standing in the living room. Still waiting for "someone" to pack it up.  Someday my prince will come....

I did add a couple of items to the fireplace. The candlesticks are from Costco (from 6 or 7 years ago) and the candles are from some ritzy spa the Fraps and Mr. Coffee sent me to for my birthday a few years ago.

I think the mantel is pretty simple and I'd love some ideas on what to add without making it look cluttered. Thanks for stopping by the Frat House and thanks for your help and ideas on how to improve the mantel and fireplace area.