the semi-frugal life: diy natural spring mantle and paper flower wreath

Can you believe it?? We've been waiting and waiting. And enduring snowstorm after snowstorm and polar vortex after polar vortex. But it's SPRING!! Let's ignore the possibility of more snow next week and a wind that still blows a cold chill from the north. Nothing is going to dampen my spirits - spring has finally sprung!

In honor of this lovely season and all the beauty it brings, I'm sprinkling glimpses of spring throughout the lake house. First up, our little upstairs office/crafty space. This has officially become my favorite room in our place. Why? It's a quaint cottage-like room with cream walls that are not wallpapered [thank goodness] and exposed beams painted white. It also features hardwood floors that have seen better days. Plus the golden light that filters in through the windows every morning is simply enchanting. Oh and it has a fireplace! It doesn't actually work, but that won't stop me from putting the mantle to good use. It's the perfect blank canvas for all my decorating desires.

P.S. If it looks like some of the pictures are slightly tilted, my apologies. I literally had to hold my camera slightly angled to make the photos not looks so tilted. Everything, and I do mean everything, is sloped or warped in this 1800s house. Now let's talk decorating details!

I didn't spend a single penny on decorating the mantle. I simply rearranged and re-purposed things I already owned or bought in the past. About half of the stuff actually made it's first appearance in our wedding. [Yay for wedding details that can be used again! Someday when I have nothing else exciting to blog about I'll write about our beautiful diy woodland/birch-inspired wedding. I was trendy before the trend even hit...but that's a post for another day.]

I chose a simple, natural palette with some pops of blue and green. I contemplated using a purple accents, but stuck with colors that allowed me to re-use decorations I already owned.

The watering can was bought many moons ago at Michael's for our wedding. Thanks to the abundance of wind lately, I had no problem finding a few branches to use for the mantle. I hung origami the hubster made for our wedding from the branches I collected. Yes, you read that right - the hubster made hundreds of pieces of origami for our wedding while I was in the midst of summer reading madness. What a financé!

With the spring season comes Easter, so I sketched and edited one of my favorite lines to the classic hymn, How Deep the Father's Love, in Photoshop. It's printed on natural-colored cardstock and then glued to a piece of rigid cardboard.

The nest was also used in our wedding ceremony to hold the rings. And those charming little blue birds are from etsy. They originally were used as our wedding cake toppers. If you haven't noticed, I'm a fan of the whole love bird theme...

I twisted a grapevine garland from my crafty stash into a wreath and tied it with twine. To keep the wreath simple and natural, I made a small cluster of book page flowers and added a simple burlap ribbon bow leftover from this wreath project.

The tutorial for how to make the ranunculus flowers can be found on Lia Griffith's blog. If you're a fan of paper and beautiful things made with it, than you definitely need to follow her blog. Her paper flowers tutorials are incredible and often include free printables!

The tiny vase holding the whimsical blue pom poms is from Target's dollar spot. A word about that magical little place they keep in the front of Target: do not visit it unless you plan on spending a few dollars for things you didn't even know you needed. Case and point: found that little vase for $1 a few months ago. It was just so cute and white that clearly I had to have it... The pom poms were made using blue yarn, a fork, and some string. Google "pom pom tutorial with fork" if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Next up, one of my favorite pictures from our engagement photos. Insert shameless plug for my SIL, queen of photography, here. If the frame/photo looks familiar it's probably because it usually sits on my dresser, but it blended so well with the rest of the spring decorations that I moved it.

And the jar, as you've probably already guessed, is also from our wedding. I usually fill it with whatever seasonal decorations I think belong inside it. It currently holds Target dollar spot decorative Easter eggs that I bought last year. [See disclaimer above]

Hope my spring mantle inspires you to rethink some of your own decorations and re-purpose them in new ways for spring. If decorating a whole mantle seems overwhelming, just try your hand at a simple book page flower wreath or pom pom "flowers" in a vase. Bonus: neither needs to be watered!