4 Pinks & A Blue: Red, White and Blue (no cost) mantle

Please ignore the patches in the wall...we need to repaint! (blush)

I wasn't really gonna do anything patriotic in the house simply because things have been so busy lately, however, at the last minute I decided to throw something together. I wanted to only use things that I already had because going out to shop was just out of the question for two reason:

#1. our transmission just went out on our van and it's a pricey fix (wah)

#2. it's like 100 degrees out today! (blech!)

So, indoors bound we are. I looked around the house and found a few things that I thought I could use. Now this mantle isn't as nice as some of the others I've seen floating around blogland but being only my second mantle fix I thought it came out pretty good. (Our first was Father's Day that I've yet blogged about!) And at a price tag of $0 I'm not complaining!!!

I took this little top I made almost three years ago and framed a portion of it. Just because it needed "something" I put a hairbow that I made for my daughter's 4th of July outfit around it. Kinda cute.

Then I took this comfy dress that my sister had given us a while back and cut strips from the armpit area
down. We then wrapped the strips around a wreath form that I've been planning to use for a few seasons now. I didn't want this to be permanent as I plan on reusing so we tucked the ends under each other and taped the end with packing tape. Worked like a charm. Then I simply tied a hairbow around it for a quick "bow". I was going to make a flower for it but this was MUCH quicker.

Then I scrounged up some other things to use:

glass jar filled with inexpensive ball necklaces
milk glass vase with flags
books from our home library-I highly recommend this series
birdie salt and pepper shakers
fabric scraps for the garland (not sure if I'l keep that part up) with a little star center...my son's touch!