Mantel Take #2 & #3..... & 4

OK, everyone chime in please, I'm looking for opinions.  The moving items around on the mantel portion of this post is finished.  Voting and opinions still welcome, but I'm not moving that stuff around any more today!!!  I messed with the mantel this morning.  One son is home sick and he had to offer up what he wanted to see.  He wants the Seed Sign back up there.  Last night after the sun went down the mantel looked too dark (see post Mantel Take #1).  I sent Brawn out to the back shed with instructions to find me a window.  He supplied.  So this morning I disassembled, and put together a mantel for take #2.  Then I updated this post all morning with #3 and #4.  The big question really ended up being the seed sign or no seed sign?

Take #2

#3 The Fiona

#4 at least till Feb. 14th

 I linked the Mantel Extravaganza to what else...... 52 Mantels party!

I also linked to White Wednesdays at Faded Charm Cottage, #2 is white right?

Vintage Mailbox Towel Holder Boys Bathroom

I was inspired by a post on LittleMissMaggie's about her folk art mailbox, so today I'm going to boldly go where no woman should go - my boys bathroom -  so I can show you the vintage mailbox I turned into a towel holder.

16 years ago.

Back then I'm pretty sure everyone who saw it thought I was odd hanging an old mailbox anywhere, let alone in a bathroom.

Advertising Tins

My name is Bliss, and I am a tin-o-holic.  But I do not want to recover from this, no siree.  Not just tins, but any sort of item that has advertising on it or interesting letters.  If the re-decorating fairy fluttered through my house, she better keep her magic wand away from my tins.  They stay.
No matter what.  But she could drop more off.

 

Not all the tins I have are old.  Well intentioned friends often give me cute ones that look vintage but of course are not.  Doesn't bother me but I do have a fondness for the antique tins.

 

I like the Shinola tin above.  It still has stuff in it and it makes me laugh.  

Sometimes I don't look inside the tins I find because I'm not sure what I might see.  And in the case of the Shinola tin, that old saying had to come from somewhere, so why chance it?

 

Dust mop in a can?  Hmmm.  

I think this is the kind of thing those elixir guys sold out of their traveling wagons along with snake oil.  Look, it even has sort of a snake charmer guy as a mascot.  I haven't read the fine print on it, or opened it.  It has the word "dust" on it, and with my luck I would release what's inside, and Lord knows I don't want any more dust!  If it looks a little familiar to you that's because I turned this 'ol tin into my 

Bliss Ranch Button on the my sidebar. 

 

This Rolled Oats tin isn't even a tin.  It's the old fashioned version of cardboard.  I wonder if someone was sitting around their antique shop when they picked the name for the Golden Gophers Football team in Minnesota.  The oats are from St. Paul.  

This is also one of my favorites from my collection.

The tins I have are far from perfect, they won't be heading to any museums.  But somewhere sometime they were in someone's home, and if they could only talk.  Like this little Baby Talc tin above.  If you look close you can see pencil scratch marks all over.  Some little Victorian tot with a chaffed butt maybe took it out on the tin?  This one has stuff in it too.  

I have fought the urge to smell it.  

Linked up to:

Knick of Time Tuesday