Better with time

Isn't it funny how things come back in style??!!!

Well, I LOVE finding old things and trying to give them new life by using them as decor in our house! Every now and then I get the itch to go through som eof my grandparents' belongings to see what treasures I can find! My grandfather (my dad's father) passed away when I was a freshman in college and my grandmother continued to live in their house until about 2 and a half years ago. Once my grandmother was placed in a nursing home in 2010, her house was cleaned out so someone else could move in and some of the family went through and took items that they found sentimental or that they wanted most. My grandmother passed away in February and it took me a while to be able to go back through som eof her belongings now that she really isnt here anymore. I used to enjoy telling her how i made new life out of lamps and furniture of hers that i now have in our house. We furnished our entire house with hand me downs of my grandparents and parents furniture... we seriously only have 3 items that we purchased in our house.

I also, love to look in home decorating magazines as well as pinterest for new ideas and things to do in our home. I big thing I have seen lately are large colored glass vessels to place on open shelving or on your mantel... Well I had just the thing in mind and I knew there would be some in my grandparents' basement!

Ta Da! These are old green glass bottles that my grandfather collected to store his homemade wine in! They are the perfect color green to match the decor in my living room! My grandfather collected these color containers becasue he said that the dark glass was better for aging red wine... One of hte bottles was labeled "Black Muscadine December 1980". These bottles were in pretty rough shape as you can tell... So i emptied the contents of the bottles and soaked them in hot soapy water to get them good and clean...

Then i looked at the current decor on my mantle:

It was quite a hodge podge of leftover decorating items that I had lying around the house...
So i played around with a few ideas and arrangements and this is what I came up with... I plan to re-use some of the items i took down in the guest bedroom as well as some switching around that will be happening in the master bedroom ASAP!

Here is the new and improved mantel:

Here are some close-ups of those glass beauties!

The flowers were from my dear friend Ellen's rehearsal dinner this weekend... maybe my hubby can buy me flowers every week once these die because I think fresh flowers are always a nice touch on the mantel :)

My favorite things about this mini project are:
The cost... you can't beat an updated look for $0! I also love that I was able to recycle and use something in a beautiful way that belonged to my grandparents. I really am not a big fan of spending a lot of money on decorative meaningess elements... so this little switcheroo just really makes my day:)