summer mantle

I didn't plan to do this post - I have a few other's up my sleeve - but there is a mantle party going on, and I've just changed mine around, so here it is.

When I was doing it, I wasn't thinking summer.
I had almost forgotten about the summer as we have had so much rain here recently. I just needed to change it because the last mantle was too difficult to dust (therefore I didn't, for ages !).
I started with the idea of doing it all white, but it kind of evolved.

I used things I had (some of you will have seen them before), mixing the textures and keeping the colour palette pale.

Old books, an oriental postcard and a piece of metal (found at the beach) have the perfect colour to tie everything together.

On the other side of the bird cage, my galvanised planter has lovely shades of grey, and the dried moss, raffia and driftwood tie in with the items on the other side of the birdcage.

At the end, a white corbel from my old office and a wire basket, that I usually keep in the garden.

Another little postcard, an oriental fan with a fish. I put one in the cage too - a little bird hung from a clip and some string.

I loved the last (dusty) beach junk mantle, but I think I love this one even more. The colours go so well with the rest of the room. I wish the photos looked as good as the actual mantle !

Before I go, I just want to show you something else.

This isn't a pond in our garden, this IS our garden. Virtually our whole garden was under water. That's how much rain we actually had one Sunday. Well that's the UK for you, and why I forgot about summer.

(It's also one of my many excuses for not making the garden pretty !)

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