Well. It’s Valentines Day so this post is right on the boarder of being irrelevant. Actually, it’s probably fallen on the “too late” side. There’s always next year though, right?
We don’t have a mantel in our apartment, but I do have a still unfinished dresser that I’m using as my faux mantel for decorating. And here is the little I decorated it with for this month.
I think it’s pretty fun in it’s simplicity. You know my favorite parts?
First, the brass deer. Those were my paternal grandma’s. Her house was FULL of awesome little tchotchke. When she moved into an assisted living place she went from a 4,000+ square foot house to a 1 bedroom apartment so there was a LOT of stuff that couldn’t go with her. After she chose what she wanted my dad and his siblings went through it. Then whatever was left they donated. There were over 4 moving trucks (4 trucks!) full of stuff left over. I was living out of state at the time so my little brother texted me pictures of things he thought I might like then held onto them for me until I flew home for a visit. These awesome little dear were a no brainer, but a little heavy in my carry on 
. Totally worth it though.
But my very favorite thing, not just in the vignette, but in my whole house, is the large painting of the little girl. That painting was done by my aunt Sue. I never met her; she died of cancer in her early 20′s. But I’ve heard amazing stories about her. She was an artist and clothing designer. This painting is of her mom (my maternal grandma) as a child. It was hanging in grandma’s great room for as long as I can remember and every time I visited (almost weekly!) someone always mentioned how much it looked like me, too. Oh how I loved to hear that! My grandma was pretty stellar. I’ll have to write a post about her someday.
So anyway. That is my lovely little (and slightly late) Valentines Day vignette.