le green mantel and other preparations

Now I know that some of you want pictures of F-O-O-D ! , and it's not that I'm against the idea, but every time I go to take a picture of a dish I'm preparing, my kitchen looks a tip again!!  I promise you, they will come, by the beginning of the week you'll be fed up with pictures of our party!

In the meantime, my take on a mantel.

We have two fireplaces downstairs, one in the living room and a huge one in the dining room.  In the living room I keep the decoration pretty calm because the tree is right next to it, but in the dining room I like a little greenery or verdure as we say here.  This is how I go about decorating the mantel.

 As you can see from this not very pretty photo, The fireplace is in painted brick and the mantel in wood.  I hammer a few nails into the wood mantel (in places where the holes won't show!) and stretch chicken wire along the whole length.

I like to use ivy to decorate this mantel.  We have loads in the garden, and it has pretty black berries at this time of year.  I push the branches through the wire, starting at the outer edges.  Half way through it looks like this, but it's important to keep going until the wire disappears completely.

I add a couple of bunches of gold berries and hang up the stockings I made last year from antique tapestry.  That's about it, I may add a litte more bling this evening, have to wait ot see it in the softer light.