some inspired decorating...

today, i took a little break from art making and did some decorating on my mantel, as it has been quite bare since christmas was taken down a few weeks ago.  the mantel in my living room is an ever changing display of whatever mood i happen to be in at the time.  i'm generally pretty thrifty about it - i never buy anything just for this purpose.  last month i hauled in a giant branch from the backyard and decorated it with some of my book page ornaments.  but i usually never do the same thing twice.  so, off to the cellar I went.  I found some lovely old frames and i was thinking of maybe just displaying the frames empty, as i've seen that before and i like that look.  however, when i turned them over, they were all closed up with wood and brown paper.  too complicated to empty them, so i left them as is and decided to display the back instead.   i like the look of the old brown paper and the nails and wire and string.  then a nice stack of books without covers.  i did make some lovely journals with those covers - still a few in my shop.  my favorite old bottle, a bit dirty and just right.  a sprig of dried plants that my daughter found for me.  i don't know what this plant is called, but my grandmother always had some growing in her yard and it reminds me of her.  a couple of bird nests that i have found recently, as they tend to fall out of the trees in the winter.  the frames needed a little something so i tucked in an antique envelope and postcard from my growing collection of mail ephemera.  an old tin ceiling tile, which used to be a clock (a few of displays ago), but i decided to take the clock parts out and that left a hole, but i had some nice butterfly tape - a piece of that over the hole - perfect.  what else...  last was the big crane.  i folded up a crane, much bigger than my usual size, out of some brown shipping paper.  all done.  love it...