summer "mantel"

i love mantels, and have no fireplace in this house....
but that has never stopped me before :)
i just used a newly "antiqued" shelf as my mantel

up against the newly hand-painted wall paper wall in our spare room,

added some things i had around the house
like my reusable spring wreath,
 a few of my vintage finds from a few weeks back,
and some canvases that i modge-podged with cut out pictures of norman rockwell prints (from an old book).
put it all together and...
voila! 

not too bad considering it was just a white wall a week ago.


i seriously cannot contain my excitement about it being summer (almost).
it sure feels like it around here (it was in the 90's today and humid)
i don't care though...
summer is my favorite!

if you look closely at the prints you'll see many of the things i love about this season:
swimming (and the beach of course--countdown is T-16 days!)
fair (i'm a 4H girl at heart),
fourth of july,
and
evening drives in the country, just naming a few......

what do you love about summer?

and linked to:

oh and don't forget.....tomorrow is "photo friday." 
come share your "anything photography-related" post from this week.
all photography levels welcome--believe me.....i'm as amateur as they get!