HOLIDAY MANTLE DECORATING

My beautiful and super skinny friend Sarah LOVES candy. Not to eat, but to decorate with. Which makes sense, right? Candy is gorgeous!

For my birthday a few years ago, she brought me this super cute flower in a vase filled with chocolate covered almonds. By some kind of miracle, I only ate 70% of the candy while I used it as an Easter decoration and the rest of it survived in my craft room as a permanent year-round decoration:

Sarah is like me in that she doesn't like to clutter her house with lots of cheesy holiday decorations. But, the kids. Oh, the kids how they love those cheesy decorations. Sarah found a solution that works for her and decided she would focus her holiday decorating to one spot in her house -- she chose the mantle above her fireplace.

 

When I was at Sarah's house this month it made me smile to see that she was decorating with candy in jars in her house, too. I love everything about her homemade Valentine's Mantle.

The topiary tree is made from crepe paper roses, the love letters are modge podge and paint. The wreaths are made from felt circles that are folded and pinned into the heart foam wreaths. She said all of it was super simple, it just took time. I'm sure you'll agree with me though, it was well worth it!

STAINED CONCRETE BASEMENT FLOORS

First of all, it is all I can do to ONLY tell you about my friend Brittany's amazing stained concrete floors in this blog post because there are a billion little details in her house that are even more crazy amazing than these floors. If you can imagine. Seriously. I adore what she has done to make her house a home for her cute family.

Just wait. You'll see.

But for today, you can drool over these floors. I had heard of staining your basement concrete but I couldn't imagine that it would actually look good. I was skeptical until the moment I saw it with my own eyes. How nice does this look?

Brittany hired a sketchy guy from the classifieds that luckily turned out to be pretty much a concrete artist. He drilled the lines and filled them with grout to give it all the appearance of tile. And though the concrete was already beat up with paint splatters and cracks and all sorts of imperfections, it now looks like it all belongs.

You probably won't believe me unless you stand on it yourself, but the concrete doesn't even feel cold. And the rich color makes the feel warm and inviting. A nice, big carpet rug warms up the center of the room even more, and the rest of the floor is perfect for her house full of boys. She lets them dribble basketballs, ride their scooters, and just be BOYS down there.

It makes me really, really wish I had been this brave when I was finishing my basement. It's beautiful!