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a slice of life

a slice of life

February 2022 favorites

Can you believe it’s March already?!  We’re creeping towards spring and to the end of another school year.  We’re approaching spring cleaning, gardening, and beach trips.  We’re hunkering down for the last breath of winter.  A few sunny, warm-ish days have lured me outside on long walks and given me energy for more projects.  Sometimes I think I run on solar power, which is why I tend to slow down in January and February.  I love the cold, but I enjoy the longer days, more sunlight, and more time outside.  My beloved hoodies and wool socks get folded up and put away for a while, but it’s a tradeoff. I know winter isn’t over here in Minnesota, but there is a whisper of spring in the air. I was planning on doing another no-spend February again, plus purging and organizing, but the month really got away from me and I

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a slice of life

hearty lentil soup with sausage | recipe

My mom has been making a variation of this lentil soup for as long as I can remember.  If you haven’t noticed, I prefer creamy soups.  I just enjoy them more than brothy soups and they can still be healthy with just a few adjustments (like cutting just a little bit of cream with milk and mostly broth.)  But there is something about this hearty lentil soup that makes it “eat creamy” to me.  I think it’s the creaminess added by the lentils, maybe?  Whatever it is, this is a soup I made a few times during the winter.  It’s healthy, hearty, and can easily be adapted to be vegetarian or vegan. I average making a pot of soup each week, so it’s nice to have something a little different in the rotation.  (You can find more of our favorite soup recipes HERE.) I’ve wanted to share this lentil soup

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a slice of life

January 2022 Favorites

Even though I wasn’t posting regularly through January, I still kept a list of some of my favorites when I would notice them.  I’ve learned that if I don’t write them down, I’ll forget all about them!  Sharing my favorites each month has encouraged me to pay attention to things I enjoy – what I buy, experience, watch, eat, listen to, or create.  It reminds me to pay attention to the little pleasures in life.  Even if you don’t share online, I would encourage you to do the same.  Keep a little list of your favorites each month and maybe share them with your family.  I have found that sharing this list with you each month helps me be more appreciative, which is always a good thing. Here were some of my favorites from January – a smattering of small pleasures, pretty music, yummy food, and enjoyable creative endeavors. book

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Art

a collection of the best art books (over 300!)

If it isn’t completely obvious to you already, I’ll just lay it out there plainly… I’m a collector. I don’t know if it’s genetics or upbringing or just a personality trait, but I have that drive to hunt, find, collect, and curate things of interest.  It doesn’t matter if I’m taking a walk on the beach, looking for shells and sharks’ teeth, or scrolling online to score an antique that will fill a hole in a growing collection. What I collect has changed over the years.  While I am an avid collector of whatever currently excites me, I have gotten better about curating those collections more intentionally and knowing when I have enough and can just pick up a rare find here and there.  And then I move on to the next thing.  Art books have been my fastest-growing collection in the past couple of years and I have amassed

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a slice of life

chocolate chip walnut oatmeal cookies

I have felt like baking lately.  Anyone else?  I’ve always enjoyed baking, but I tend to shy away from it because…well, I like eating things I bake, too.  I have discipline in a lot of areas, but not so much when it comes to eating baked treats.  But, while I was on my winter break, I didn’t worry too much about that and did some baking when I felt like it.  I got the hankering one day to make a batch of cookies, so I started looking through my cookbooks for a recipe that I could make with ingredients I already had on hand.  I stopped myself and went to Rosa’s Cookbook, a collection of recipes my mom and I put together in a book last year.  I should try one of her recipes!  So, I did.  I baked a batched of Rosa’s Chocolate Chip Walnut Oatmeal Cookies.  I actually

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Antiques

books, antiques, and yarn | stillwater outing

I was hoping to take a few day trips during my break to check out some new antique shops, used book stores, and local craft boutiques, but I just didn’t have the kid-free days to do it.  Jeff could tell that a day out would really be good for me, so he took on school/kid duties and I took a day trip to Stillwater, MN.  We went there in the fall (you can read about that trip HERE) and I loved that town!  There are several antique malls, an amazing used book store, and a yarn shop that I didn’t go to during our previous visit. It was 2º and windy, so it wasn’t exactly a delightful day to be walking around outside, but it was still refreshing to get out of the house and soak up some inspiration that comes from being in a different environment. I tried to

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a slice of life

Bavarian Pretzels (Bretzels) Recipe

For Christmas, I got a cookbook called .  It’s an excellent book if you’re interested in learning about or improving your bread baking.  As I read through it, I was surprised to see a recipe for German/Bavarian soft pretzels (bretzels.)   These delicious soft pretzels spilled over the German border into France and were adopted by the region of Alsace.  For those who don’t know, I’m a military brat who spent most of my childhood in Germany and soft pretzels were my very favorite thing.  I was excited at the idea of being able to make an authentic-tasting recipe at home, so I made my first batch on New Year’s Day. Over my winter break, perfecting Bavarian pretzels became one of my missions.  I think I ended up making five batches over three weeks and I tested, tweaked, and tasted.  Lots of tasting!  I don’t want to say they are perfect

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a slice of life

winter break recap

I’m back from my winter break and I thought I would kick things off by sharing a recap of what I did while taking time off of posting on the blog and social media as well as my observations about that time and what I gained from it. First of all, when I planned this time off, I imagined it being sort of an extended, at-home creative retreat.  It would be a time to play, create, read, study, plan, and rest.  As a large part of that idea, I pictured having the house to myself for a few hours each day while the boys were at school and Jeff at work.  That would be the time I would fill the house with my music and flit about working on whatever I felt led to without interruption.  I would also take a few day trips to get out of the familiar

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I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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