Hannie Mannie and Nora

I've been in a wonderful organizing, cleaning and de-cluttering mood. A lot of it I attribute to some inspiring blogs I've found. Handy Man Crafty Woman and Organizing Made Fun are full of ideas, projects and inexpensive ideas for your home.  I've been struggling for a while over accessorizing my mantle. I love the clean, crisp look of the new contemporary homes like you see at Crate & Barrel. But I don't love it for me.

I love stuff. I love eclectic. I like layers and textures and places for my eye to travel. I found this mantel on My Home Redux and I loved it:

So, I used the concept, and though I am not 100% happy with my attempt, I do like it and feel like I am on the right track:

I think I want to layer the mirror and picture a bit more, and maybe turn the mirror up the long way. We'll see. It's a work in progress.

I have a funny hole in my drywall where some speaker wire comes out. The home theater system is long dead, and I don't have a TV in this room any longer. So, this funky wire was coming out of the wall. I really didn't want to cover it up with drywall. I may put speakers there oneday. So, I hung some pictures in a rather unconventional way, but I really like it:

I only have 8 foot ceilings, so the one picture is really low. But I am short and it is ok. It's cheaper and more temporary than drywall. Ha! I just noticed that if you zoom on this photo you can see bits of yarn hanging out of the armoire. Guess where my yarn stash is- and no, it has not benefited from my organizing bug yet. 

Next project; I'm going to make small lamp shades out of some left over wall paper for my dining room light fixture. Here's the before:

I'm smitten with my organizing and decorating with zero dollars projects. Now, if I could just figure out how to do groceries, utilities and gasoline on zero dollars.