Donna may cringe if she sees my results, but I was inspired by her December 5th post on Funky Junk Interiors. I live in a 100+ year-old farm house in the Midwest. The rooms are small, and I don’t have a fireplace. My entertainment center (predictably) serves as my living room’s focal point. I use the top as my “mantel”.

This is the way it looks the other eleven months of the year.

I worked on a (failed) project to fill the wall, but I just didn’t have the items I was envisioning in the garage. The freezing temps and windchill prevented me from shopping the barn. I had a brainstorm, but I needed to run to the shop where I store my finished crafts. In the meantime, I created the “landscape”.

I added a wreath and a bit more greenery to the birdhouse.

Lastly, (drumroll please) the finished masterpiece! The window frame is the added piece I needed from the shop, and the barn star was already in the room, just in another location. No, my display is not all natural, nor all rustic, but it’s not supposed to be a copy of someones else’s work, just my interpretation of the idea.
Okay, Funky Junk Donna does it much better, but she inspired me to use the junk I already have. And, I like it. That’s really what matters.
I do love her blog and ideas, but the inspiration I am drawing from her is using things I already have to create a display. I am using things that I have out everyday, incorporating a few of my garage/finds, my crafts and Christmas decorations I normally use, but never have in this way.

I didn’t notice any snowmen, Santas or other Christmas characters in her displays. I love my collections, so that will probably never change. I did find a fun way to display my snowmen. The ladder tree on her post gave me the idea. I have a large decorative birdcage that I stuffed a tree into. I then squeezed my snowmen between the branches.

I love it, and a big plus is…the cage takes up a lot less real estate than the way I used to displayed my collection.

Thanks for the wonderful ideas, Donna!