IK4T: fireplaces & mantles

Okay so it has been a while.  Like a pathetically long while, so I am going to go with an installment of I'd Kill 4 That that we all are faced with every major holiday, particularly the one that recently past that I am not the biggest fan of anyway.  Humbug, y'all.

Fireplaces -- such cozy inviting things that complete a room and fill it with an ambiance nothing else can.  A simple Pintercrack search for "fireplace" yields some really stunning places with an astounding fireplace as a focal point.  For the purposes of this rant, er, I mean post we shall focus only on those that are indoors.  We will tackle enviable outdoor spaces in another rant.  Post, I mean post.

So here we have this lovely little bright pop of color ...

Lets ignore that I envy how anyone can use color like that without it feeling like a kider-classroom or just visual vomit.  I guess it is the restrained use of color, *nose up in the air* but seriously, it is awesome.  If it were my house, that much white would be covered in hand prints and boogers.

Moving on ...

Don't you just want to sit down with a book and a cup of something warm with your woolly socks and Snuggie?  No? Just me?  Okay.  (For the record, I would like it noted I do not own a Snuggie.)

One of my fave blogs to read had this how-to on it and I totally heart it.  I want the mantle, the candles, oh and her plank wall.  I desperately want that plank wall in my house somewhere but that is entirely not the point of this post.

For those people out there who are actually festive -- unlike yours truly who wants to be but is simply too lazy -- you can do some awesomey things with fireplaces and mantles round holiday time.  For example, werk the cute-yet-spoooooky factor like this:

Or pine cone and foliage it up!

Or these icicles, this one might actually make me less of a Scrooge ... 

That one and this next one both made me think "Narnia" though I am not totally sure why ...

I love this one with the corner thing its got going.

And then there is this, maybe my favoritest of them all ... sigh ...

But then I saw some like these next to, and my inner geek actually gasped out loud ...

... oh my gawd ...

Yes! YES! YESSS! (totally said like an Herbal Essence commercial!)

So now that you have all those breathtaking images in your corneas, let me smack you with a dose of reality. My fireplace and mantle ... which I, of course, decorate faithfully to match every season and holiday with perfect Martha-esk skill ...

Oh, wait, that's right!  My fire place and mantle are about as real as those decorations.  I don;t have one!  None at all, not really something you need or miss in a desert climate, but still.  Makes me sad.  Especially now that I realize I could be stashing books in there too!

So yet again, drat you Pintercrack for making me have the sadz and being all full of envy!