From This to This

This weekend was a very fun, and productive weekend.  My longtime girlfriends came up, and that is always a wonderful time filled with stories, and laughter.  I was blessed to be able to have my good friend Stacey stay a couple of extra days with me, and for those of you who don't know Stacey I'll tell you a little about her.  She is one of those persons who could make anything look cute, and she has so much talent and ability with decorating, and creating things, it would just make you sick (or at least it makes me sick).  So I asked her to help me with decorating this mantle below.  Remember it?

 We decided to stay with the rustic look, since that is the feel of the house.  Why fight it?  I love all the bright and fun colors, but I don't think that is the style of the house.  She helped me figure out what would look good, so off we went shopping.  We found some good buys, and shut down 3 stores while doing so.  She then arranged all of the things below

To get the overall look of this:

And I just love it!  It makes the room feel warm, and cozy don't you think?  I could never have pulled it off without her.  Thank you so much Stacey, I owe you one!  I think she needs to start a blog, don't you?