THANKSGIVING #1: New Fireplace, Harvest Mantle, & Thankful Tree

Back in October - beginning, I think - Max tore out the 100% inefficient fireplace in our living room. It used to be a whopping 30% efficiency (or less) but officially died last year. Along with it went the tile surrounding it and the mantle that we both loved (and hoped to put up again once the new fireplace was in). To make a long story short, we decided on a company to install a fancy-schmancy new deal along with tile and a new mantle. Sniff, sniff...old mantle wasn't large enough. Sniff again. Everything was supposed to be done over a week before Thanksgiving but the mantle wasn't ready in time and so the job wasn't completed until Tuesday evening....just in the nick of time! Actually, it was perfect as we'd put off painting that wall (couldn't decide on a color) and didn't get it done until last weekend. All in all, we are totally thrilled with the end result and look forward to never having to re-do the fireplace again. I just wish that the picture we're getting framed was already hung up it's not ready until December 8th so you'll just have to imagine it's there (reproduction of a late 1800's map of San Fransisco). The tile does look a bit different now as the grout has dried...I'll have to post a picture of my Christmas mantle one of these days.

As mentioned in a previous post, I do a harvest/fall mantle in my living room every year. I had it up at the beginning of October but with the "construction", it was moved to my dining room where I had a fall/harvest table instead. I was happy to move everything back the night the fireplace was done. Wish I had taken a picture when I first did the mantle about 7 weeks before as the gourds lost a good amount of color during that time. Oh well...lesson learned. Here's the mantle I put together earlier this week (close up of the above shot):


Lastly, we have our "Thankful Tree". We started this tradition last year and absolutely love doing it. This year, rather than hand-cutting every last leaf, I wizened up and used the die-cutter at a local scrapbooking store to do the dirty work for me. Then, the day before Thanksgiving, my dad gave us several real leaves to include on our tree this year (at the bottom of the picture). They were absolutely HUGE and all just about perfect in shape. I wish they weren't so fragile...I'd have kept them for the future! Below is a shot of this year's tree. I just wish it was on a plain wall instead of that ginormous mirror (coming down someday!) so that you could focus on the tree and leaves instead of the reflection. Also - you may notice lovely little spots of blue around the branch edges. It's painter's tape...we're yet to find something else that isn't a hassle for putting up the tree and leaves and is easy to remove afterwards.


Next up, my Thanksgiving Day report...