Carnations

I never cared for carnations. Whenever they showed up in the mixed supermarket bouquets or in corsages and boutinneires I'd always think that a nicer flower could be used. I guess I considered them too common. More recently I realized carnations are a treasure! They last quite a long time, are inexpensive, and come in a variety of colors. They are perfect for home decor. I've been purchasing a few bouquets to use around the house the last couple months (I've only purchased 3 bouquets in the last several months - they last that long!). I keep some on the kitchen table as in the above photo. I like to group them together by color and trim them short so they just peek over the top of the container.

I've also been using them on my fireplace mantle. The green bottles are plain old Pellegrino bottles (Jeff really can't stand that I'm using them as decor but I'm quite happy with them). I think the pink carnation resting on top gives it a perfect pop of color.

This is a full view of the fireplace. I've given it a face lift of sorts. The icky brick still remains as Jeff is quite opposed to painting it. I don't think I'm going to win this battle and I've toyed with the idea of painting it while he is out of the house and then SURPRISE! when he gets home but I think he would freak out. He has floated some ideas for changing the mantle and adding trim along the sides and perhaps tiling over the brick. I'm open to all of these ideas. Now just finding some time to do it is another thing...

I decided to simplify a lot of the accessories in the house. With all the baby stuff and toys I'm feeling the need to clean up the accessories to have less visual clutter. I've noticed my decorating mood changing to more of a modern clean look. The two white candle sticks were originally brass, just gave them a good coat of glossy white spray paint. On the other side are my remade birds. I'd like to change out the fireplace tools, perhaps when the rest of the fireplace gets a makeover. We had a log holder that I really didn't like and wanted to replace years ago with a basket from Crate and Barrel. I was overruled on that one too but when I saw this basket at Target a few weeks ago I jumped on it. Luckily Jeff likes it too. Score!