My first house, in Nebraska, had a beautiful fireplace with a mission-style oak mantle. I loved the mantle and enjoyed decorating it. The items on it reflected all sorts of seasonal decor: flowers in the Summer, pumpkins in the Fall, Christmas stockings and greenery, my collection of hand-carved bunnies in the Spring. My first house in New Jersey did not have a fireplace or a mantle and an antique table in the living room served as an improvised mantle of sorts. Sassafras House, which has been home since 2006, has beautiful chestnut wood work and oak floors but there is not a fireplace or mantle. The antique table wouldn’t fit in the living room and over the years I have improvised a place for seasonal decor. Sometimes I used the wood radiator cover in the living room front window. For a few years, I had a mantle shelf. But I have been on the hunt for a better set up. For years, the shelf below the TV held the cable box and DVR. When I gave those up for Roku streaming, it freed up the shelf. And just like that I had my mantle equivalent. This month, it has some of the wooden houses in my collection and light from a digital candle that flickers in a hobnail glass jar. As the seasons change, I enjoy planning a new display for the shelf, which has become a little corner of happy in my world.
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