Decorating the Mantle for Christmas

I live in a lake cottage, a kind of odd-shaped lake cottage at that! My house is an octagon. Well, originally, in the early 1900's it was built by a sea captain in the shape of an octagon. Since then, a kitchen wing was added and about 18 years ago, my husband and I enlarged the kitchen wing and added an upstairs to it. So, the original part of the house still has the angled walls. It makes for interesting decorating challenges.

The Mantle

The fact that our house is on a lake in the woods, and that my husband is an avid fisherman from Wisconsin, and my 22 year-old son is a professional bass fisherman are the main reasons there are fish on the walls in my living room! ( my son's sport and profession is catch and release only, so he is not contributing bass to our walls)

Most of this really has nothing to do with decorating my mantle, except that I felt like giving you a little background on my unique, funky, vintage home and why you see the big ole' Tiger Musky above my mantle.

I like to make my mantle lush and woodsy to fit the cozy-lake-cottage-in-the-woods theme of our living room. (See my post on how to build a lush, full mantle for Christmas) So, a few days ago I headed out onto our property with a bucket and my branch snippers to gather some boughs for the mantle and other areas in my house.

It was only about 9 degrees F! Cold!!! The lake was starting to freeze. It was bright and sunny though - that helped! 

I have a little stand of Ponderosa Pines out on this point that could use a little pruning, so that's where I headed.

A little close to the edge, but I got it

I filled my bucket. It took me several trips

This one was a little close to the edge of the cliff...

Now, back to the house

The house was warm and cozy because of the fire in the fireplace...

Not really! I had On Demand Yule Log playing Christmas carols on the television

Janie and Bear had been patiently waiting for me to get back inside and they were very intrigued. They both seemed to love the scent of pine. I tucked a few in my favorite vintage deer vase

She happily posed because she knew her eyes matched the color of the pine

 Bear wanted his turn too

This is one of my favorite things

Back to the task at hand...

All the sniffing and jumping and being told "no" every two minutes wore the poor guy out. (He was stealing sprigs of pine and running with them, chasing Janie, and basically being a normal puppy)

The back of the sofa was irresistible

Sweet Bear - I love him...

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! I would love to see your Holiday decor. If you have a blog, leave me a link in the comments.

Follow Debbie's board A Comfy Cozy Christmas on Pinterest.