March Mantel or Madness?

I am here to educate, enlighten and basically share facts about things that i previously had no clue about...

Did you know…

Every year on March 17, people celebrate a holiday of which the history has been lost. Many people throughout the world celebrate this holiday decked out in green, trying not to get pinched, and looking for a leprechaun hoarding a pot of gold. In all actuality, this holiday serves a greater purpose of recognizing a man who faced a lifetime of troubles, trying to help people for the greater good.

The original history of Saint Patrick’s Day goes back over a thousand years to Ireland. The holiday was originally celebrated as a religious feast to commemorate the death of Saint Patrick. Today, many don’t even know who Saint Patrick is. Patrick also was one of the first in the church to speak of women fondly as human beings,

and he thus became a saint of “the downtrodden and excluded.”

To me the real interesting part about St. Patrick is that he wasn't really from Ireland--nope--he was English. So I guess that's why it's OK for all of us non-Irish people to celebrate this day. Know what else? They didn't really eat corned beef--they were pork people. Only when the Americans got a hold of this holiday did we change things up...

I have never actually decorated for St. Patricks day,
I have always honored the food tradition though.
We always know what we are going to eat on March 17th,

but this year i was wanting a change.
Why not decorate a mantel for the occasion?
...only problem is

you have to have mantel,
and since we are a fireplace free house
i had to settle on a small shelf instead.

I could have gone small and simple,
starting with one or two things

but why?
WHY go small and simple?
It just isn't my nature.
My mantra is
"go big or go home"
or in other words
"if one is good, ten are better."

Hard to believe, but somewhere among this mess
I found my creative, crafting MOJO.

It would have been nice to have actually worked in my office instead of the kitchen table,
but that room is even worse off.
At least when i work at the kitchen table,
i know that at one point or another
it will get cleaned up and put away

Since i have no IRISH blood (that i know of)
i did not want my mantel to scream that--

instead i wanted to focus on the LUCK part of the holiday.
To start off my creative juices i was feeling "LUCKY".

I knew i wanted to start with that word,
and have that be the center piece of my shelf.

This is what I came up with.

I think it turned out pretty cute
They were some plain old letters that i bought from JoAnns...

(I sat on the floor trying out different combinations until I found the one i liked)
I painted them all black and then mod podged on the paper
and trimmed and sanded them.
I intended it to be a four leaf clover on the "L",
and i think it turned out more like a green flower...
Cest' la vie--
(can you use a french phrase when talking about an Irish holiday?)

Originally i had chosen another wooden "U" but i fell in love with this one.
I thought it had a horse shoe like shape--
only problem with leaving it black (as to mimic a horse shoe) was that it sort of got lost with everything else on the shelf until I put the frame behind it
(I had planned on printing something to put in the frame,
but we ran out of ink...turned out i liked it blank better)
The cardboard made it pop out--
I LOVED IT

My next creative genius
(honk, honk....yes that is me, tooting my own horn)
came when i saw these plain paper mache' hearts around Valentines Day.
For a buck each I knew i couldn't go wrong.
A little green paint and various buttons from my vast stash
and i came up with this cute (if i say so myself) topiary.
I finished it off by putting it in a pot of gold
And what is a pot of gold
if there is not a leprechaun to protect it?
I thought he was pretty cute,
and it is only appropriate
that he sat on a block that said blessed.
(the block is another addition to my shelf that i can change monthly
--flip to the word that fits best)
Simple candles needed to be jazzed up so i wrapped them in paper, tied them off with white burlap and made some shamrocks out of my heart punch and some more buttons out of my stash--WA--LAah

I then transformed a frame from a Thrift store in to this cute little sign.
Just some shamrock paper and cut letters from my Cricut
(thank goodness my daughter can work that since i still have never really played with it)


I finished off the shelf by hanging the
four leaf clover that i had made earlier

add a little shamrock tree to the side

and TA-DA

I love the way it all turned out.
Just like i had envisioned it.

more than anything else this shelf really reminds me that
i am LUCKY
more than a pot of gold
i have been blessed with these wonderful gems in my life

having them reminds me daily
that i am lucky
that i am blessed
and any gold that i might have....
will be spent by them