Pottery Barn-inspired Winter Mantlescape

I always feel a little blah in January when I take down my holiday decorations. It feels too soon to think about decorating for Valentine’s Day for some reason.

Yesterday I was flipping through my Pottery Barn catalog and spied this sparkly white mantle-scape. I loved all of the birds, nests and white and I thought — hey, I have some nests and bird things around here somewhere… {I just used what I had and I didn’t have enough silvery things, but I was going for the general idea… }

So I gathered up all a bunch of things from various rooms and put it all up on my mantle…

Before:

After:

And it feels so much more festive and happy!

Then I stood back and thought — it just needs something… I decided what if I put a word on the mantle that encompasses what I want to focus on this coming year? And the word that comes to mind is family. I really want to focus on them this year. They are the most important people in my life. I feel like my kids are growing up so fast that I don’t want to miss out on anything!

So I took a piece of scrapbook paper, cut it down to 8.5 by 11 and ran it through my printer with the word family in courier font (72 point) and out it in a frame I got at a garage sale a millions years ago. I put it up and added some candles and it felt done.

What is your word that you are focusing on this year? Thanks so much for all of the great goals that you shared with me that you are working on for 2010! I got so many great ideas!!! I am going to share my favorites with you when I announce the winner of the giveaway on Saturday!