When I first put this heater in my family room, I thought I would have lovely knick knacks and decorations on it and, possibly, some seasonal displays.  No such luck!  It was commandeered almost immediately by the dolls for the display of new, incoming goodies.  Whatever I brought home seemed to end up on the mantle where all of us could enjoy it.

I know that a lot of people leave their new purchases in the boxes and store them, but I am a mad deboxer and have to get out almost every new doll and play with it.  I also constantly bring home used items which I sometimes refurbish and sometimes use as is.  Most of this goes on the mantle for at least a few days or a week.

The display I have right now is a lot more coordinated, and much simpler, than some I've had.  Sometimes it is a hodge podge of unrelated items. 

The display shown here happened because I bought (another!) couch from Van's Doll Treasures.  Then I got some pillows from Amber of Bashette Iron Works.  I took the back cushions off the couch and put in those Amber had made, for a different look. (Love Vanessa's couches because they are so versatile!) I had also just found the two new tables- the brass one on the right and the curved one on the left- at a thrift shop.  The vase was a garage sale find from last week.  The outfit on the doll is new (used) clothing as well.  The china cabinet on the left is a Bespaq piece from a while back that I ordered and then stuck in my bedroom where I promptly buried the box in a pile of books.  When I was cleaning a few days ago, I found it and brought it out so we could admire it.  The doll, the clock and the rug, I already had.

This mantle is one of the most fun things in my house.  The displays, which consist of whatever I just dragged home, morph constantly without a plan of any sort.  Anyone in the family, or even friends who wander in, can move things around or add things.  My friends, and my daughters' friends, always check to see what's new when they come over.  I have several diorama displays around my house, subtly placed in bookcases or on the tops of furniture, but they were planned and only change occasionally.

Those on the mantle are all spontaneous.  The girls and I just put together groupings or mini dios out of whatever is new, sometimes adding in an older piece, as I did the clock above, to finish the look.  Sometimes the things I drag home are pretty wild and those make really fun dioramas, though occasionally they have to be taken down when company comes over.  The one with the statue of a semi-naked Greek guy wrestling someone, disturbed everyone for some reason; though I thought it was a great, really classic piece of sculpture (and I have every intention of using it in a diorama, somehow!)

Anyway, I gave up on the plans I had for the mantle and am really enjoying the constantly changing displays that keep happening.  You may be seeing more pictures of these, since I have decided that many of the groupings we've made should have been recorded, whether for beauty or weirdness, and shared with other doll lovers.  The one I photographed here was rather classy and very simple, but who knows what it will look like by the end of the week.  It is, after all, garage sale season!