Alex Arranges the Fireplace Mantel

My little sweetie niece helped me with housecleaning. In reality, she reorganized all of my junk displaying places. She's six years old and LOVES art and color and design. I had a copper "hope" ornament hanging somewhere else in the house. When she spied a large white Fransciscan platter that I had with other china she put them together on the dining room table and said, "I think this should be here"...in the middle of the table. So, that's where it is. Believe me, I need the reminder to have hope. She has further filled this out with crystal S&P shakers and a metal bird.

Alex went searching in the garage for other items to put in the house and found a really old electric fan. She cleaned it all up (yes, she's 6) and took it out to our covered deck. Here's what she came up with. The child even went out to a garden to get the daisy's. She liked the daisy's because they pointed every which way and that they looked like the other stuff out there. By this she could've only meant simple or vintage. Those 3 metal stars were here and there, she stacked them and leaned them against the house like that.

The mirror below had been on the mantel. I took it down to clean and when she saw me pick it up she said, "You're not going to put it back up there are you"? I asked why, and she said, "I think that it should go by the door. It has hooks, people could hang stuff on it when they come in.". Believe it or not, as much junk as I have, there was nothing on this wall to the left of the double front doors. Perfect. This was a chippy old buffet mirror found in my grandmother's cellar (the one who owned the aqua Franciscan china), it was going to the trash heap...thank God for my intervention. It's very heavy and I'm the one who added the hooks.

Below is the mantel that Alex did. She chose every little thing and where it went. One of my projects is to paint the bricks...so much painting, so little time...I have six year olds to play with! The two little cat planters were found by my older son on a walk in the country....trash heap. Anyway, regarding that, Alex said, "you know, like hickory dickory dock...cats, mouse!".

She saw this Monet print that I'd just bought at the GoodWill. It's one sold in museum gift shops and large...11x14 I think. She picked it up, put a finger to her chin and closed one eye saying, "Hmmmm, I kow what this is......IMPRESSIONISM"! I stood there staring at her and calmly said "yes, it is". It's not just an impression, I know that she's awesome".