Tweaking Mantle/Mantel

Hola darlings!

I did a little tweaking the past few days.  I didn't take photos of my latest coffee table tweak (I bought a pretty lantern with battery-operated candle inside at TJMaxx, added another "Carnival" squash so there are three now, Do-Re-Mi, added a couple of green scented candles which I know are bad for my health to burn but they smell so darn good, and moved the squash to an old woven plate-basket I've had for years, they fit better).   I knew I was on-track with my design for the coffee table, and I knew I was slightly off-track with my design of the mantle/mantel.  Here are a few photos of the mantle/mantel final tweaks:

Here's the "before" pic - no here's no "before pic" because it isn't saved on this laptop, it's on my other laptop and I'm too tired to go through the whole routine of moving to a different room and getting that one going, etc. etc. and (see comments at the end), BLOGGER IS THROWING ONE OF ITS HISSY FITS THE PAST FEW DAYS.

You can see there's not that much of a change but visually, despite my not so good photos, it makes a world of difference.  The additions added (is there a different way to say that?) much needed height to fill in the wall space and "link" up the arrangement below to the metal version of a Native American "threshing basket" that holds center place above.  Guess what I used -- okay, you never will so I'll just tell you.  They're the dried up stems of my day lilies that put forth their last blooms in August.  I cleaned them up on my "hookey" day this past week.  Yes, I wait this long because they're so much easier to pull out without the necessity of bending over and clipping hundreds of them when the bottom part of the stem area closest to the ground is still green. LOL!  I'm a lazy gardener - and a wise one :)

I pulled out several day-lilly stems, poked them around in the vase I'd been using, it just didn't work.  So I swapped out vases to the one shown in the pic, above, made out of the same mosaic materials.  The extra inch or so depth and the slope of the sides somehow made everything work.  I slightly rearranged a few of the "autumn leaves" elsewhere on the mantle/mantel and that was that.  I'm so happy with how it looks, especially at night when the battery-operated tea lights and candles are alight! 

I tried a few close-ups.  I'm sure no photographer!

This one shows the extra "stems" and branches I added from the back yard, adding
necessary width and height. 

A close-up of one of my favorite pieces on this mantle/mantel -- my acorn pepper shaker, LOL!  My sis Debbie bought
a set for me a few years ago, consisting of a squirrel attired in winter garb (salt) and this acorn (pepper pr).  I love the pretty paisley pattern in the tablecloth I spread across the top of the mantle/mantel.  This is "Dad's plant," a take-home from
his funeral around Veteran's Day in 2002. Incredibly, it's alive and well after all these years and it hasn't yet been
transplanted.  Notice the sparkly rust-colored "leaf" inside the plant's leaves?  It fell off the shiny leaf garland I bought
at Family Dollar a few weekends ago and I tucked it into the plant.
 

That's it for tonight.  I am having SEVERE issues with Blogger, this totally sucks!  I cannot easily insert photos/images, I have not been able to change text in my "gadgets" (what a bullshit name for the equivalent of a text box, geez) for several days and I AM SICK OF THIS.  AAACCCHHHHH!

Maybe it is time for Wordpress.