My entries have been spotty at best lately – but good news! I have a new job and I won’t need to commute two hours a day now, so good-bye putting off entries for a good reason and hello putting off entries for no good reason! Gotta love procrastination.
Anyway, I really love Emily Henderson’s design blog, and she’s just posted a contest for decorating mantels! Yay! If anyone has been reading this blog at all, you’ll know that I love mantels and I’ve been wanting to put one into our apartment for ages. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s going to happen any time soon because lots of furniture + small space = no walls to put it on. Boo.
However, all is not lost, because Emily has graciously allowed us poor, cold, mantel-less individuals to enter with another flat surface! Yay! And I just so happen to have a built-in hutch in the kitchen that I’ve styled below:
I am not the best photographer, so I basically ignored her advice and turned all of the lights on in the house and took the picture. Oh, and I held a pillow up over the kitchen pendant light to reduce glare. But I’m pretty proud of myselfstyling-wise! Here is where everything’s from:
1. Silver tray under the liquor bottles – vintage
2. Green sparkly drink shaker – Bath and Body Works (bizarre)
3. Gold snowflake garland – IKEA decorations from 2011, I just strung them on some fishing line
4. Gold Christmas tree – Homesense (how I love thee)
5. Silver tray – Homesense
6. Green bowl and white decorations – thrift stores
7. White silver-dotted bowl and various pinecone decorations (I am obsessed, ’tis true) – West Elm and various stores
8. Green glasses – Homesense
9. Yellow glasses – My nonna’s vintage
10. Wrapping paper – Homesense (see? OBSESSED!)
I really went all out with wrapping paper this year (it’s also laid as a runner in the picture). Homesense had some AMAZING wrapping paper, so all told I bought approximately 15 rolls. Yeah. I have probably never bought that much wrapping paper in my life before this point. And those are real presents – I’ve coordinated all my wrapping paper with pink, red (for P), gold and white this year, and I’m pretty stoked with how it’s turned out.
So…that would be all, except for one small detail. The only way to enter the contest is through Facebook. Du du DUUUUUUUUUH! If you know me, you probably know that I shun Facebook and always will. I just can’t bring myself to join it again (long story short – I had it back in 2004 before it was everywhere, and I wasted a good 3 years of my life using it. I’ll never get back that time *sniff* and I still hold it against Mark Zuckerberg *waves imaginary fist in his general direction, which I think is south of here*). So now I can’t enter the contest. Harumph.
HOWEVER. Emily has indicated that she will choose her favourite entry, even if it doesn’t win the most votes. So I’m making an impassioned plea to her – please consider my entry, even though I can’t put it on Facebook! I respect and admire your work so much that even for you to look at and consider what I’ve done would be tremendous.
Anyway, *ahem* enough grovelling. I like what I’ve done and I hope you do too. What do you think? Have you decorated your mantel/flat area?
AFC
happypapertrails 