A few weeks ago, I started messing around with my mantle, and I put a vase up there with sticks.    It was so sad.  Here it is…

My cousin and forever friend Terri McCroskey came to the rescue. Very tactfully, she offered me some of her willow branches. I very gratefully accepted and went up to her house this week and picked them up. If you like this type of thing, you’re going to be jealous….here they are…I would almost call them “majestic” especially when comparing them to my sticks!!

I enjoy them every time I walk by…and I think of her sweetness in giving them to me.

I went shopping around the house and added a few other things. Mostly gourds and some blocks I already had. I think they look pretty good.   Gourds from the garden…I didn’t have too many this year, but I did have a few.

I have an ivy topiary in my RiverCliff Cottage header. It’s dried up, died down and come back. It doesn’t look like a topiary any more but I think it’s still pretty. It was outside most of the summer recovering. I love a live plant on the mantle.

The blocks are kind of shabby….

Also on the mantle is one of last year’s pumpkins that cost me nothing. It’s full of Walmart bags and pinto beans!!

I also made a little vignette for the foyer with blocks and gourds. I made these upstairs in the loft when I swore to Mike I was cleaning. I really like them.

And here they are again…

Hope you have a wonderful fall weekend. I’m off to finish cleaning the house!!