Home for the Holidays: Mantels Link Party

Yay!  It's party time and today I'm hosting my first ever link party as part of our Home for the Holidays Link Party series.  I'm so very excited.  Fingers crossed that all goes well and you don't have a hard time linking up.

I love decorating our mantel for each season.  I grew up in a restaurant that was in a colonial mansion and my mom used to decorate each of the 6 mantels for the different seasons with dried hydrangea and clippings.  They were absolutely beautiful.

Here's my Christmas Mantel for this year:

Christmas Mantel 2012

It is very simple with green and silver accents.  We gathered pine branches from Norris Reservation the other weekend and used them in our centerpieces and on the mantel.  Conor found so many great branches.

Conor with a pine branch

I love the softness the fresh greenery gives (not to mention the amazing fragrance).  I added some sparkly decorations that came off a wreath from years passed.

Branches & Sparkle

Out came the Crate & Barrel mercury glass from the attic, too!

Each year my parents give the boys a Christmas decoration and this year they gave them these gorgeous reindeer encrusted in sparkle from the UK.

Reindeer

Aren't they sweet?

I added the glitter wreath over the mirror and love how it looks:

Glittery Branch Wreath

A snowman completes the wintery scene.

What does your mantel look like?  I can't wait to be inspired by you all.  If you don't have a fireplace mantel please feel free to link up a shelf or ledge.  I'll share some of my favorites next week.

It’s simple to link up – just click “Click here to enter.”

The rules for linking up your projects:
- The link must be to a post, not your general blog.
- The project should be a project that you did yourself, not a link to someone else’s project.
- The link cannot be to an etsy shop or giveaway.
- We’d love for you to mention our link party on your blog or facebook!