Christmas 2013 Mantel

I'm so so so excited to share our fireplace mantel with you! It may not seem that exciting to you, but let me tell you, I'm ecstatic about it!

If you read this blog, I'm sure you've gleaned that we try to be very frugal. We will wait..and wait and wait and wait...to buy things until we have the cash saved and it makes sense in the priority order in our budget. I've had a vision in my head for years now of how I want our Christmas decor to look. Little by little, we've slowly purchased different elements to make that vision come to life...almost always on after Christmas sales where we scored some killer deals. One year was the star for the tree, another year was the beaded garland, another year was a giant box of silver ornaments, and so on.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, this year, all of the elements we've been collecting for the past few years came together and the vision I had in my head came to life. It's exactly what I wanted and was worth the wait!

I just love it! The antique window is by far my favorite part! We tried to make a window frame with super cheap wood last year, but the wood was too cheap and wouldn't cooperate. It kept splitting and ended up going in the trash. Lesson learned--don't be too cheap when buying lumber. :)

My friend Julie mentioned that I should check out a nearby antique shop and see if they had any window frames. She, my friend Amy and I met at the antique shop and found this awesome window! All of the glass was in tact and it was only $15! My sweet hubby spray painted it white for me to freshen it up because the paint job was pretty beat up. I plan to keep it up all year and change out the wreath according to the season. I love it!

I made the Christmas trees last year and stored them in a closet inside the house during the year. They held up really well! The boxwood wreath is from Trader Joes and was only $10! Thanks to Chelsea from Two Twenty One for posting about them on her Instagram feed! I've been wanting a boxwood wreath for years, but they are usually around $40! This will be an everyday wreath for in here, even after Christmas is over.

I found the stockings after Christmas at Kohl's last year. I love the cozy cable knit! They actually have an initial on them, but Kohl's only had a couple letters left and not the ones we needed. Since the letters aren't really our initials, I just turned them around. I wasn't too worried about the letters being correct because these are just for decoration. Jeremy's mom cross-stitched our names onto stockings and those are the sentimental ones that we use.

The vase with flowers is an after Christmas clearance steal from Pier 1 several years ago. The sparkly frame was a cheap Michael's find from last year. We picked up the garland where we bought our Christmas tree and added a strand of lights. I love twinkle lights!

So cozy! Love it!

Linking up to Ten June, Thrifty Decor Chick, and the Humble Brag Link Party!