WHY DO I DO IT?

My dining room mantel was beginning to look pretty pitiful...

Why do I let things just ......BE ?

Is it because I see it everyday and don't realize how BLAH...

and pretty much UGLY it really looks?

Wonder why I wait until I know someone is coming before

I REALLY take a look at things around Sweet Nothings Cottage

?

I wonder if anyone else does this?

I found these AWESOME iron work pieces years and years ago

at a junque store....for free !

I used them for a couple of years and grew tired of them.

They've been in a back closet for about 3 years....

and then I remembered them.

I decided to try them again and

I love them more now than I did when I found them.

Could it be because they remind me now of

NEW O'LEANS and the FRENCH QUARTERS....

Ooh La La...

I THINK SO !

They are actually a tad too long to hang over the mantel

so I have them just leaning.

Now, some of you might call these CHRISTMAS lights

but those of us that BELIEVE, call them FAIRY lights....

and we use them all year long....:))

The ideal thing would be to have

FRESH FLOWERS

every day to go on the mantel...

but alas...

I heard OPRAH say once that there was absolutely NO reason

to ever have faux flowers...that you should have fresh flowers EVERY DAY.

That pretty much shows you that she can't possibly relate to

us ole workin' folks. !

A darling .........hmmmm......what DO you call this pretty  thing, covered in fruit, full of whiteness.?

It has a slot for a spoon...

perhaps for jams and jellies?...altho it's pretty large for that.

Well, whatever it may be, I bought it at

♫♪♪ GOODWILL ♪♫♫

for $1.29.

O....AIN'T LIFE GRAND

I need to plant more cutting flowers in our tiny garden...

then, I could at least have a few blooms during the growing season..

come wintertime, however,

it's

F.A.K.E.S.

Sorry, Oprah....

I put a few of these sugar bowls full of white sweetness

on the mantel for a little change...

It's ok to have sugar bowls and such in a dining room.......

heck, I use these little beauties all over the cottage.

Isn't it wonderful and full of grace to have material things that

bring you a lot of joy?

I love little fairy lights...

I love sugar bowls with little arms and a little lid.

Some of my little strays have the handles and no lid

or the lid and no handles....and I love them anyway.

French Hollyhocks I planted last summer

and the dry, hot wind whipped them to pieces.

I doubt they come back this year...BUT...

if they DO, they will be pretty, long stemed and in pure white vases..or pitchers..

or a huge Ball canning jar....

all of which will look pretty on my

dining room mantel.

Let's have a glass of wine, a little tart, a few grapes,

served in the SOUTH OF FRANCE...

(ok, by the grapevines in my back yard, last summer)

and talk about it.

hugs and kisses,

 bj