A Very Simple Winter Mantel

I love bare twigs, snow, snowmen and Cardinals.  This Winter theme was inspired by the Frosted Mason Jars I painted last month.

I painted this simple Winter scene yesterday evening on a 24x18" canvas.

I love the way Red Cardinals look against the snow white theme.  We have many Cardinals flying around in our yard.  If we ever get some snow, I hope to take my own picture of a Cardinal in it.

So, I'm so embarrassed to show our fireplace stone.  We use our fireplace all Winter long.  This soot is so hard to take off.  The areas that are dark and heavy with soot is where the heat is the most intense but the heat has also disintegrated the stone.  It's no longer smooth in those areas but full of sharp craters which makes it very difficult to deep clean.  I tried all kinds of cleaners to no avail up until today....  I think I found the answer.

Now, it really doesn't look like I hardly did anything to it and you're right.  I'm going to wait until after early Spring before I can give it a good deepcleaning with odorless, oven cleaner.  This is as far as I got and I'm really encouraged.  BUT and that's a big BUT, if I'm not 100% satisfied in the late Spring, I told hubby I want to demolish it and rebuild a new one.

I hope and pray you're enjoying the New Year.  Be blessed!

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