Christmas mantle complete!

 I did it! I decorated my mantle.  Mason jars, white lights, holly, pine, and some help of course!

I started working on that mantle project I told you all about and of course, I needed a little help! I found a little elf who was so eager to help.  He is a pretty cute elf isn't he?  He did tend to make a little more mess than help but he was too cute to deny.  We had fun together.  Here he is getting into all my ribbon!

Remember what my mantle looked like before Christmas? It needed some major "Christmas cheer"

Here is my mantle after.  I got some extra greens (from what we cut off the bottom of the tree. They also had a large bin at the place we picked up our tree full of scrap pieces of tree branches perfect for making wreaths or decorating mantles. I grabbed lots!)  I decided to use fresh pine because it is cheaper and smells delicious! I soaked my pine branches overnight in the tub hoping they would soak up lots of water (you can also beat the bottom of the stems to help them do this but I forgot). I let them dry a bit than started to arrange them on my mantle. It was a little tricky to get those branches to do what I wanted but in the end I think it looks pretty good!  We have a whole bunch of Holly outside our building (like three bushes full) so I added some fresh holly along with pine cones I found while walking the other day (yes, I am that odd person who picks up "nature" things while walking... I think all my neighbors think I am crazy.) The pines cones just added such a perfect touch.  To finish out my mantle's new "look" I added mason jars with white, glass, Christmas lights. I really like how it all came together.  I don't know if I will do the same things next year but it has been fun to try out.