Recyle My Christmas Tree (round 1)} Winter Mantle

This morning M came down and said to me... The kids go back to school today, it's supposed to be sunny all day, I expect to come home to a happy wife!

Don't you dare think for a moment he comes home to anything but that! Every. Single. Day. :}

Indeed I have enjoyed the sun shining today, but nope, the kids didn't quite go to school today. Well, they started there. We all got up together this morning, I made lunches, got G and O on the bus, then came back and finished getting Q ready. I took she and E to the dentist for an 8am appointment.

After that, which was wonderful... I checked Q into school late. E and I came home, I exercised, showered, got E lunch, then got a phone call that my little G had thrown up at school... alright then. I went to get him, dropped E at pre-K, came home got a few things done, went to get E from school and right when I walked in the door the phone was ringing. It was Q saying she didn't feel well. So I went and got her too. She just threw up.

Nice. So, I'll keep yet more children home with me tomorrow!

Is this reason enough to not be happy wife my hubs hopes to come home to?

To give you any idea of how grateful I am the sun is shining today...

I don't even care that the kids are sick, that I had to clean up the vomit of my 11 year old (aren't they supposed to make it to the toilet by this age?), that two kids are needing snuggles and G-rade and something at the same time... the sun is shining! All. Day. Long.!

Don't underestimate the power of sunshine... in Buffalo!

Yes, my hubs will come home to a happy wife, as long as he does it before the sun sets!!!

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Forgive the photo overload... are you ready for this?

As I took down my tree this year I had already determined that I wanted to recycle it somehow.

I intend to show you how I did that... over a few posts!

First way... my winter mantle featured here below!

After we brought the tree out I clipped all of the branches off of it... I had a ton of branches!

This is my bald tree!

My first endeavor was to reuse the greenery... I'll show you the many ways I did this.

My first way, for our family room winter mantle.

I had M cut a couple of larger pieces of trunk for this and I also used some greenery.

I sprayed it all white and silver with sparkles on top!

I also did this with many pinecones I had bought last year on clearance. I had hoped to get to those done before Christmas and didn't, but it's fine, these now feel fresh for winter!

The boughs are dry, and I wondered if I'd be cleaning brittle needles constantly. They seem to still be holding on, though, and I think the paint on top of them help.

I kept my silver and white trees out, added my boughs, pine cones and trunk pieces.

I just purchased these lattice mirrors from Michaels. They were Christmas clearance, perfect!

Love it! This is my first 'winter mantle'. I usually just clean up after Christmas. I really like it though, makes winter time a little more special.

Here is more from our family room...

I got this fun new clock during the break, love it for this room. We like to see it from both the kitchen and the family room.

I put up a blue bead garland and brought our white tree into here.

I found this printable. I love this saying, so true.

via... AKADesign

This owl is new too, I got him at Joanns, clearance of course. He's perfect for a winter vignette.

Have you had enough yet? Well, I'm going to post our Christmas living room, before too much time gets away from me! Normally I do the brights in this room, but this year I did gold, silver, white and red. It was nice, I liked it, and I've said it before I love changing things up all of the time, keeps my creativity flowing!