If You Must Know, I Don't Have a Mantelpiece

For the literalists out there, I don't have an actual mantelpiece -- or a mantel (is there a difference?) or a fireplace. I picked up the slate fireplace frame pictured here last year at Good Wood, on U Street. (The baubles draped over it are from Pottery Barn.) Propped up against the wall -- like a piece of a stage set in a high school play -- it is my" fireplace." It cheers me.