Back to School Mantel (September Decor)

Back to School Mantel (September Decor)

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banner, chalkboard, decorations, fall, kids, mantel, seasons, wreath

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September is here which means one thing to us:  BACK TO SCHOOL!  Shout it with me, sister!  I decided to celebrate the event so I decorated our mantel in a school motif!  

 Ellie starts PreK on Friday and Molly starts on the 9th. Everyone around here is getting very excited to start, including me. Even though I don't return to a classroom every September any more I still get that yearning to decorate my classroom, pass out brand new spelling books with glossy covers not yet smeared with fingerprints and jelly, sharpen a million boxes of pencils to precise, exact points, and to feel that anticipation the night before the first day!  Will they like me?  Will they be able to pronounce my name?  Sigh. So while I can't do all that, I do get to stuff my kids with a yummy breakfast, stick one on the school bus and the other in the car, and serve up a big cup of coffee to my newly stay-at-home-mom friend. Can't wait!

I didn't really want the mantel to scream back to school as much as just school. I want to leave it up all September and I didn't want something that says welcome back or whatever.  So the other night I went shopping around my house and pulled together a few gee gaws to stick up on my  mantel which I hate much less since I white washed it.

The wreath is simply rolled up construction paper and book pages which I hot glued to a paper plate. I hot glued a ribbon loop on the back to hang, and a mini chalkboard to the front. Took me no time at all!  Then gathered up some children's literature (Ok, Jane Eyre isn't children's literature but the color was cool. That's really what matters, y'all.), a few fake apples, new pencils in an old blue mason jar, and the stamps I used when I was a teacher nestled in a crystal bowl.   I spent $0 which makes me feel like I got one over on The Man.

Isn't that banner cute?  I found it on a favorite blog of mine, The Cottage Market. If you haven't visited I urge you to head over right now!  Andrea is the force behind it and she is uber generous and shares so many freebies, fonts, and printables.  I printed the letters on regular paper but card stock would work best. I just didn't have any and I was in a "Ineedtogetaschoolmantelputtogetherrightnow" mood. But I will for next year since I love these burlap and chalkboard letters! So fun!

What else, let's see. I can't find a backpack for Ellie. Target, Walmart, Five Below, nothing. I don't want to pay a lot and I want it to be age appropriate. It also needs to be large enough to hold her perfect SAT scores and Ph.D dissertation, I mean preschool projects. Any suggestions?  

Thanks for stopping by, my friend. I appreciate how many of you come by to visit, comment, etc. It makes my day!  I started blogging because I have a hard time being idle and now I blog because of the community I cherish. Thank you!

Cheers!

Jenny