Mantel Decor and Weekend Progress

Paperwhites/Narcissus From the Garden (yes, I know, the white background is not ideal for white flowers)

We had a week of grey, overcast days (no rain, though), last week.  But the weekend has been sunny and bright.

The paperwhites narcissus flowers have started to bloom in the garden and I had daughter pick three stems to bring indoors.  They have a lovely perfume which permeates the air and makes the house smell wonderful.

After I took the picture, I realized that I really like the colors in the picture, too - white and green.  Something very soothing and restful in that color combination, I feel.  And so, I thought, I might use that color palette for my January decor (not that I have a particular color or decor for each month; I basically have the same blue and white with touches of pink decor throughout the year).  But, perhaps, this is the year of doing things differently.  Why not change the decor a little bit by season, if not by month?

I don't have a lot of green in my decor, and I am not likely to go out and buy anything, either.  But I am going to see what I can pull together for a mantel display for the rest of this month.  I came up with several possibilities.  Take a look - what do you think? 

This one?

Mantel Decor 1

The clock, although it doesn't really go with the color scheme, has to stay.  The mantel and the mirror are too big for the small grouping of green objects to be displayed by themselves.  Besides, the clock, like so many other things in my house, has a long history behind it, and there's a reason why it's displayed on the mantel with pride.

The china figurine of the Man in the Green Coat belonged to my mother.  She had bought him and a lady partner when she was in her late teens or early twenty's.  If she bought him when she was 20, he'd be 76, this year!  I don't remember ever seeing the lady, but I remember the man from my childhood home.  My mother, who disposed of the contents of two households before she packed whatever bits and pieces of her belongings that would fit into two suitcases and emigrated, had decided the Man in the Green Coat would accompany her on her travels abroad.  And so, even though my mother has been dead for almost 10 years (this February), I continue to keep and cherish the Man in the Green Coat.  His hand, holding the rose, broke off, once, and I glued it back.  He's usually displayed on a bookcase to the right of the mantel.

The glass vase with green stripes and pink roses was hand-painted by my half-sister and given (with fresh roses) as a Mother's Day gift to my mother (my half-sister's stepmother), one year.  And the other green object, a small jar candle with a butterfly perched on the top, was a Christmas gift from my supervisor at work, one year.  The cut glass candle is a one from a set of three I bought once and I just put a green candle in it to go with the decor.


 Or, this one?

Mantel Decor 2

The Man in the Green Coat, the jar candle, and a little glass bird that an aunt gave as a gift many years ago.


And, this one:

Mantel Decor 3

Which simply has it all!  LOL.

Daughter tried to improve upon what I had done, so far, and came up with this one:

Daughter's Mantel Decor

Which is very neat and regular, distributing the green items evenly, instead of clustering them as I was doing.  I was clustering the few green objects to create an impact, but she might be on to something, here.


Obviously, the one item that can give a lot of green to the mantel will be some leaves and branches from the garden!  However, we have to remember that I have a cat who thinks that anything green that Mummy brings in and sticks in a vase is OK for him to eat (he loves broccoli leaves, cauliflower leaves, spinach, bok choy, etc.)  I don't have a lot of cat friendly greens growing in my garden, so, all houseplants, most of which are very unfriendly to cats, etc., have to be kept out of his reach.

But, he seems to leave the curry leaves alone, so I was inspired to pick some from the garden, in the evening and try this one:

With Some Greenery

Currently, this last one is the decor in place.  I think I need to trim back the greenery I placed in the vase, as it seems to be a bit too much.  I considered a lemon or orange branch, with or without fruit, but apparently, the citrus oil in the leaves are poisonous to cats!  The stray cats in the garden don't ingest them, but Dancer won't know not to eat them. 
 
And, carrying the theme to the coffee table:

Coffee Table Decor

My mother's crochet, a traditional brass urn which symbolizes hospitality and plenty, the other two candle holders from the set of 3 (with green tea lights, in them), and a pile of green colored books on gardening.  I've other books, too, that have green covers, but I thought a few on gardening would be best.  What better time than now to plan the garden?

I guess I can always move stuff around a bit, between the mantel and the coffee table, too.  Nothing too tall and delicate that a cat can knock over and break on the coffee table (one of his favorite perches), but carrying out the white and green color scheme.  

Anyway, as a result, the mantel and coffee table, both got dusted and wiped; a few knick knacks got washed and rearranged and I was motivated to see if I have any green fabric in the stash to make a set of new cushion covers! (Yes, I've both a dark green velvet and some green cotton fabric; not quite up to sewing cushion covers, right now, but the fabric is there if and when I choose to do so.)  

I felt a bit better, yesterday, but still not as well as I would have liked.  I had an asthma attack in the night and woke up with a headache, this morning.  The inhaler took care of the asthma and a Tylenol took care of the headache.  And I've felt a lot better, today.

Other than arranging and rearranging my mantel, I did a load of laundry and a sinkful of dishes over the weekend, distributed the last of the Christmas/New Year gifts, chatted with one of my cousins and a friend, chatted with two of my neighbors, went for a walk around the block in the afternoon (hadn't done that during the week when I hadn't felt quite up to it), pottered around the garden for a bit, and called a friend to offer her a bag full of curry leaves I picked off the tree when I was picking a few for the vase, above. 

Daughter went grocery shopping again, for me yesterday (we seem to go through a lot of bananas and I had a craving for crusty bread!), put gas to the car, bought me a new cell phone (my old one, a flip phone I've had for about 7 years, if not more - we think daughter was in 1st year of high school when I got my flip phone -  finally died on me!), and went to see a movie with a friend of hers.  Today, she met with another friend of hers for lunch, and she's now gone over to a neighbor's house with their holiday gifts and to say goodbye to them before she leaves for Berkeley, tomorrow.

Yesterday and today, I am grateful for:

- Feeling better!
- Energy level of 6-7 (on a level from 0 to 10; have been on energy levels 4-5 the past week)
- Getting the living room mantel cleaned and decorated (and redecorated)
- Getting the living room coffee table polished and decorated
- A walk around the block in the sunshine
- Chats with neighbors
- Chats with family and friends
- Getting the laundry done
- Getting the dishes done
- A new cell phone (not a very expensive one, but a "smartphone" nevertheless, with camera, texting, internet access, etc.!  Just have to learn how to use it!  LOL!

How was your weekend?  Do you change out decor and colors by season?  Which mantel decor did you like best?