This Perfectly Imperfect Life

Actually, this is about one of my favorite things in our home: the mantle. Many years ago, when I was a little girl and my hometown was still a wonderful community in which all of yours needs could be met without leaving its' one square mile, one of my mothers many purchases for us from the used furniture store down by the hospital on the river was this fireplace mantle.  Back then it was more off white than yellow and the barn red insert was a faux black & white marble.  It also came with one of those light-up electric log sets that had a tiny fan which blew strips of yellow, red & orange cellophane for that "cracking fire" affect.  I loved it!  I remember lying on the livingroom floor in front of it, in the dark, watching & listening to the "fire." Fast forward to 2004.  I'm 29 and Mom decided to get rid of the mantle.  She told me if we didn't pick it up by the end of that weekend, she'd take it apart and get rid of it herself.  ...

A week ago this past Friday, I stopped in Bog Lots with Mom.  I love browsing in that store! I don't always buy something, but I do more often than not. I think my original intention before we got there was to look for books (most are $2 & $3) but I'm easily distracted upon walking through those sliding glass doors!  I love Patriotic decor in our home from May through September 11th (some stays year round as it does in our northern home) and I immediately set out to get a closer look at what they had on display in the center of the store.  (Told ya, easily distracted!) Large glass candles for $8!  Now that caught my attention.  Sniffing candles is dangerous business for me - one bad sniff and I've got a migraine!  But that bright red one... "Apple Cobbler."  Hm...  I chose to live dangerously, pulled the lid off and took a tentative sniff. Instantly I was walking into my husband's family cabin again, in the summer, and greeted by the mu...