So Not Pottery Barn

I'm frustrated with my mantel. It's space has been mostly vacant for the last 2 years that we've lived in our house. The design-lover that I am has had a hard time finding the "perfect fit," and I feel like it's such a potentially-attractive focal point if I could just find something that looked good. I've tried gathering odds and ends of what I have to find something fitting, but to no avail. Today I went to Pier One and Pottery Barn in hopes of finding just the right thing. I don't really know what I want though, so that probably doesn't make the decision process any easier. I liked this fall decor concept that I saw, but figured I could just make the items or find them around my home instead of spending money (you know me).

Here's my attempt that sadly failed. It doesn't look at all like what I had hoped. I even went out on my dimly-lit street out front to pick up tons of acorns and carry them inside in my 'shirt bucket.' And I went to our log pile and got two big sticks and had Chris cut them on a large bias on the saw...just like at the store. And I had some of those fake, polished rocks that I threw in there to go along with the natural scheme of things. And I threw in my little sparrow statue because what's more trendy than birds right now, right?? Bad. All I can say about this is "U-G-L-Y. You ain't got no alibi. You ugly, yeah, yeah, you ugly."