Blue & White Spring Mantle

I have so many things I want to show you that it was hard to pick what to post about first!!
I figured I should go ahead and share a spring-related post since it's finally starting to warm up and feel spring-y here!

This was my first attempt to really decorate the mantel in the new house. 
Christmas was a bit of practice, but to be honest, I didn't have a lot of time or patience to work on it like I wanted, so next Christmas will be a different story :) 

After christmas came down, I wanted something that could stick around for a little while- work for Spring and possibly through Summer. 

We have so many parties and other events during spring/summer, I don't like to have to worry about switching over the mantle completely until Fall. 

I usually do tweak it a bit though. 

Anywho. Let's get to talking about spring. 
Here's what I ended up coming up with: 

I really wanted to go somewhat neutral and bring in lots of whites & light wood tones. 

The whole house is painted in a beige with those crazy dark red floors so I didn't want a ton of color this time around. Although I always have to add in a splash of my beautiful blue that I love. 

Can you believe that the wood sign in the middle was completely handmade? 

Sometimes I outdo even what I think I'm capable of!!

I wanted a beautiful & huge sign hung in the middle and made all kinds of excuses for a while before I finally just decided to try it. 

I'll give more details on the how-to another day but I'm just in love with it. 

I found the cute (and free!) floral print on this pretty little blog.  I printed it and then just stuck it in an extra frame I had lying around, it has linen wrapped around the inner piece to serve as a pretty backing. 

One of my favorite things on the mantle this go-around is that pretty little print of the horse drawn carriage in Central Park. Me and the hubby bought it off a street vendor for like $1 when we were in New York City this past October. It's a pretty reminder of the amazing trip we had. And yes, we did pay a million dollars to take the carriage ride into Central Park. Totally worth it for the memories made :)

I'm so glad to have it up where we can see it everyday! And baby M loves to point at it and say 'neigh' every few minutes because horses are her current obsession. 

When making the huge sign for the centerpiece, this song immediately popped into my head. It actually says "All I need in this life is your crazy love" but, hey, nobody's perfect. And really, world just fits better :) 

Me and hubby love the song and he is learning to play it on the guitar so it's playing a lot in our house. 

I decided to go with a paler blue than I used in the main part of the old house. 

I wanted it to go with more things, be a little more neutral and also just have a soft appearance. 

I'm obsessed with the 'mint whisper' in the nursery so I've slowly been incorporating that color more into the rest of the house, playing with varying the shade a bit. 

The mint whisper is a funny color to work with though, and was wayyyy too light on this sign to have white letters against it. It looks so blue most of the time but when I painted it all Mint Whisper at first, the white letters barely stood out. 

I ended up mixing the Mint Whisper with several other blues to create a darker base for the white letters to stand out against. 

It was hard to capture in pictures but in real life, it's gorgeous. 

Drop on by & I'll show you :) 

I used a darker blue to dry brush over it and I feel like it gives it a watercolor finish almost. 

My birds have somehow become a family favorite since the kids deem them my 'watch birds'. The white cutie is from Michaels and sat on top of our wedding cake :) 

The chunky blue candlestick was a Homegoods find. I spraypainted a few branches white from our tree outside and stuck them in. 

The white frames are all ones I keep on hand- we have such an amazing storage room in the garage! I get to keep all my extra decor, party supplies & random pieces in it and it's probably one of my favorite things about this house. 

So I have a whole box dedicated just to extra frames :) 

The cute little chippy candleholder was a flea market find and the tree slices are ones I've had for several years now from when my dad chopped down a tree in his backyard. The birch looking ones were roadside pieces! 

The wood pieces just ended up working somehow and fill the space underneath the sign perfectly! I love the neutral colors the wood tones bring in!! 

I'm crazy in love with the huge wooden sign though! 

I'm thinking I need to find a more permanent place for it after the Spring mantle comes down this year. 

I'm loving all this warm weather and it has us completely inspired to get to work on some bigger projects. 

Plus little man's bday is fast approaching and I'm having so much fun preparing for it too! 

Hope your monday is smooth & fabulous!!

See you again soon!

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