Ok, now I feel really bad....

When I posted this picture of my mantle the other day...

I honestly wasn't trying to convince any of you that I was in the process of some-sort of new-fangled decorating project.

I was just walking through the living room, saw the aluminum foil, and thought "Hey, how lazy weird is it that the aluminum foil is still covering my mantle?" And decided to take a picture and post it.

I was so ashamed of myself for the way I posted it, for a while I tried to think up some cool, hip reason for why I would have a mantle covered in aluminum foil....

A new, inexpensive way to do silver leafing?

The newest European decorating ideas for Valentine's Day?

Aliens?

In the end, I just thought it would be best for me to be HONEST (which I always try to be with all of you) and tell you the REAL reason why my mantle is so shiny.

Y'all remember my post about Snowmageddon 2011?  Well, hubby was called the Friday before the snow was to start on Sunday, and was told to pack enough clothes to be out of town for at least 5 days once the snow and ice started.  Ice storms and power lines do not mix well, so my husband's employer was planning for the worst.  We were all in a tizzy, worried about making sure we had everything we needed to survive for several days without electricity and without Marty being here.  I am pretty independent, but I really wasn't looking forward to the thought of being here in the dark without him here.

Anyway, one of our biggest concerns was keeping warm, especially since the forecast predicted several days of extremely cold temperatures after the snow and ice.  We normally heat with an electric heat pump, but are fortunate to have gas logs in the fireplace to use in case of a power outage.  However, we have found we have one BIG problem with our gas fireplace.....

The heat goes straight UP when it is on.

This was a HUGE problem before we had the mantle.  The very first time we were enjoying a romantic, late-night fire, I started hearing an occasional loud *popping* sound.  It took a few times, but we finally figured out it was our TELEVISION making that noise!

Our TV does NOT like our gas fireplace!  It gets WAAAAAY too hot, so we've basically not used it for the past three years.  We thought that once we got the rock and the mantle put up this past spring/summer, the heat wouldn't be an issue any longer.  However, instead of the television getting hot, the mantle takes the heat instead. We have metal flashing to put on the underside of the mantle to try to help deflect the heat, we just haven't gotten around to putting it on the mantle yet.

(Remember, this slacker mama married a slacker daddy....*sigh*)

Anyway, we were facing having to use the fireplace for several days, so we needed a way to deflect the heat from the mantle and the television.  I decided the cheapest and easiest solution was to cover it with aluminum foil.  It worked fantastic and literally took a minute to put on....

But obviously, it takes someone lazy like me, to wait FOURTEEN days before I took it back down.

So there it is....the real reason why I had aluminum foil on my mantle.  I am so sorry to disappoint all of you who were expecting some incredibly creative mantle decorating going on.

Forgive me?

Anyway, I do have a really good excuse for not having my mantle decorated for Valentine's day yet.

Marty and Jameson decided to work all weekend, and finally got the tile hearth installed!

OK, I will admit....at the time of the above picture, I was COMPLETELY freaking out!  There was so much grout on the tiles, everything was completely brown.  I kept saying...."Is there supposed to be that much grout put on those tiles?"  Marty assured me everything was fine....but for about an hour, I didn't believe him at all!

Here it looked a little better, but I still wasn't happy.

OK, after the final wipe down, I admit, it does look a lot better and as it dries, it looks better and better.

**whew**

I was REALLY worried there for a while!

Now, I can officially say that every bit of our floor is now covered!

Not too bad considering we've only lived here for three years....

I hope you all have a wonderful and fantastic week!