Wow!  
A week with NO below zero temperatures!  
A week with NO new snow!
When the temps hit 40° all the kids on the playground shed their coats!
It must be SPRING!
I took a couple of minutes to brighten up the mantle this week!
My inspiration was this gorgeous painting I found on a wonderful blog!
Eat Drink Paint by Kim Rempel is pure visual candy!
Source
Since I can’t spend the money on the painting (it is sold anyway!)
I decided to create an arrangement that mimics the art piece!
I had a spray of artificial Forsythia and some Pussy Willow branches saved from last spring!
I use to try unsuccessfully to create arrangements by bending the branches of artificial flowers while they were still clumped together on that big plastic stem!
I finally learned to treat the artificial spray like “REAL” flowers and cut them to size!  
That red handled tool in the picture is a real godsend…..it clips through the plastic and wire “like butter”!

I didn’t have any of the dry floral foam you are supposed to use for artificial arrangements….but since my motto is “use what ya got”… a block of fresh floral foam (used dry) worked just fine for this project!

Cutting the branches apart allows for an freer and more natural arrangement of the Forsythia!
Then it was just a matter of adding the Pussy Willow!
By the way….did you know that the fuzzy gray thing on the branches are actually called “CATKINS”?
The floral foam was showing…..so a little Spanish Moss was added to hide it!
Now the mantle looks a bit more seasonable!
Now if only the snow outside would melt…..the real signs of Spring could start to show up!
Have A Great Day!