Spring Mantle and Craft Fail

I finally have enough blooms on our flowers to cut some for the house! It's time to put together a springtime mantle. I knew right away I'd be bringing out this beautiful bird:

Around 3 years ago, I bought this watercolor from a local artist. The first thing that grabbed me was the colors. I love combos of blues and reds (any shade). The other reason I had to get it was the name: "Spring's Promise." That's exactly the way you feel when you start hearing the birds singing and see tiny bits of green popping up.  

I added this little nest with robin's eggs. When we were little, Lynn (sis) and I would get really emotional when we found the shells of robin's eggs.  Erik doesn't like birds. They freak him out. Being a biology teacher (and knowing all the germs carried by birds) kinda ruins some stuff.

Then came my favorite part-the clippings. Don't worry fellow Texans, the bluebonnet clipping is from my yard and therefore not from the sin of cutting wildflowers from the side of the road.

The last part of my mantle was going to be a moss letter copied from Pottery Barn. The day I first saw those moss letters I knew blogland would be full of them soon! I picked up some dehydrated moss from the nursery, a big wooden "B," and some ribbon. Here's what I ended up with:

YUCK! How horrible is that? The plan was for it to hang on the mirror. Instead it ended up like this:

Torn apart

I'm saving the parts for another project. I really, really hated my moss letter. Our pocketbook can't just pick up one from Pottery Barn. I'm going to let this one go. 

Here's our final spring mantle:

Simple is good....right?