Im still tweaking our mantle.  But who am I kidding, Im always tweaking.  Our corner farmers market doesnt have the good, warty, muted colored pumpkins and gourds yet so Im using what I can find around the house which consists of a few stripped books, weeds from the yard, a stick and some feathers.  Plus one of my dried gourds from last year and a few interesting vase like containers I got from shopping the house.

Oh wait, I found another gourd.

We have a new addition to the mantel family this year.  The mirror is from my favorite local shop, Bebe Gallini. In the two years weve lived here Ive used shutters over our mantle and Ive always loved them. But last month when I spoke at the Becoming Conference, they paid me {!I know, right!} and whenever I do a job like that, I try to use the money for something special.  And since speaking is such a chore for an introvert like me, I knew I wanted to get something from Bebe and be able to point to it and say that was worth all the trouble of speaking.  It was.

So I put some of the money toward the mirror and I in deep love with it.  Mirrors are one of my favorite decorating tricks.  Its like installing a window only easier, and although you dont get to see outside, your house looks bigger.  I didnt know where I was going to put the mirror when I bought it~ its one of my weaknesses.  I figured it would end up on the wall in the landing up stairs but it never made it past the family room.

Heres last years creepy mantle.  My boys requested it about 5 days after I did up the fall mantle. Lucky for me it only takes like 3 minutes to do a mantle.

Heres the mantle in its natural state~how it looked for the past two years but for holidays and fall with the pair of painted thrifted shutters.

Heres the mantle in the summer, I love that sign but after a few hours, most things begin to bother me on that mantle.  Its a sickness.

Heres another summer mantle.  It stayed like this for 2.8 seconds.  The older I get, the less stuff I can put up with.  But I have to admit, those shutters were a great backdrop to experiment with different looks.  And as renters, its nice to have a large, architectural pop of color in the room.

And just for kicks heres our fall mantle from last year. I took the blue shutters down and tried our family photo, but I only liked it that way in the fall.

There are over 250 links to all sorts of fall mantles here, and fun side note, Better Homes and Gardens loved some of your mantles from the party from last year and featured lots of your mantles at their website~so if you were contacted this summer by BH&G, go check out your mantle.

Dont forget to link up with Layla today for her fall mantle party!

related posts::

a renters mantle:: how I did that black brick on the surround

10 easy ways to decorate for fall

$5 fall wreath

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