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a slice of life
a slice of life

November 2020 Books of the Week

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  Ours was full and busy with church stuff – I played and sang in the band this week and worked on the painted murals (I shared about the Storybook Christmas on IG Stories a few weeks ago) and Jeff & the boys spent time at the church painting wood for the supports.  I’m basically ready for a real weekend now!  But, I have a full week with decorating the tree (finally), working on blog posts, and getting more paintings done to sneak in one more art sale before Christmas.  I’m sure many of you are experiencing similar schedules as we approach the holidays! Anyway, today I’m going to share the books of the week for November! I have absolutely devoured this landscape painting book!  It’s a different style than some of my other landscape painting books and I’ve enjoyed studying the loose, more

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December 7, 2020 1 Comment
a slice of life

Christmas Gift Guide for the Neatnik

After reading this post, you might be glad you’re not on my Christmas list!  I actually have given steam mops as gifts before, because I think they are so awesome.  But, I’m one of those people who enjoys cleaning (most of the time.)  It’s a good time for me to think and I almost always get inspired when I’m cleaning.  I also love being productive and watching a room transformation from messy and fuzzy to clean and neat.  If you get it, you get it.  And, if you get it, here is a gift guide for my fellow neatniks… I think some things on this gift guide would make nice hostess gifts and stocking stuffers, especially crochet dishcloths and Swedish brushes, but some of these are just good gifts to give yourself to make cleaning a little more enjoyable or easy during the holidays and into the new year.  

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December 1, 2020 32 Comments
a slice of life

cleaning a set of antique pastels

When I shared about antique and vintage art supplies in THIS POST, I also did a bit of window shopping to share some listings on Etsy and eBay.  Well, my window shopping turned into actual shopping when I found this set of antique pastels listed for a great price.  It was purchased by the seller at an estate sale in Scotland and it just spoke to me.  I snapped it right up! Unfortunately, when it arrived, it wasn’t packaged as well as it could’ve been and one of the pastels (it looked like black or close to black) was pulverized and made quite a mess.  It was all over the inside the of the box, the bubble wrap and the interior of the box.  I receievd a partial refund from the seller for the damage to the set, which I was happy with.  I now had to go about cleaning

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November 18, 2020 44 Comments
a slice of life

Gift Guide for the Creative

As the holidays are approaching, I thought I would share a few of my favorite things in various categories in case you need a little help with some Christmas shopping.  I’m often asked about the supplies I used in my studio, office, and sewing room, so here is a round-up of a few things that would make nice gifts for the creatives in your family (or perhaps to put on your own list!)  Here is my Christmas shopping gift guide for the creative…   Gift Guide for the Creative | Stocking Stuffers If I wasn’t able to buy tools, supplies, and materials as a business expense, my stocking would be stuffed with pencils, paper, little notebooks, brushes, and other fun goodies to use when creating.  I rounded up a few of my favorite little things here… All of the products are featured in the slider below, but here are the

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November 16, 2020 23 Comments
a slice of life

soup recipe round-up

If you follow my Instagram stories, you know that I make soup almost every weekend.  We usually have it for an easy dinner on Sunday and then I’ll put the leftovers in jars to eat for lunches and quick dinners through the week.  Since we’re heading into soup season, I thought I would do a soup recipe round-up to share some of the regulars in our soup rotation… (Click on the soup titles to go to the post with the full, printable recipe.) Baked Potato Soup Recipe This one is a classic potato soup recipe that I’ve been making for over 15 years.  Believe it or not, I used to substitute teach, and one day a volunteer brought in a crockpot of this soup.  I asked for the recipe the next time I saw her and this is it.  It’s definitely the richest soup in the round-up, so it’s a

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November 11, 2020 24 Comments
a slice of life

think about such things

I have found myself puttering around during the day more often than usual.  I’m still productive and have plenty to show for my time, but I’m not working with my usual intensity and purpose.  After months of big things…sudden homeschooling, adjusting to quarantine and life during a pandemic, home projects, writing a book, selling a paint line, launches, and deadlines, I find that I am craving a slower pace.  I know so many of you are feeling the same sort of fatigue that I am after running your own gauntlet of challenges and stressors that have presented themselves this year. I wasn’t going to put up a post today, because the world feels noisy right now and it really doesn’t need more words.  But as I was working in my studio, I caught myself admiring the beauty in simple things… A tangled mess of ribbons and hand-cut vintage fabrics in

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November 5, 2020 71 Comments
a slice of life

October Books of the Week

I can’t believe we’re almost to the end of the year and I will have shared 52 books of the week!  I’m going to think about keeping this feature or just switching back to sharing favorites – music, books, shows, clothes, technology, foods, etc.  It’s kind of nice for me to change things up, so I don’t become a slave to creating specific content over and over again.  You also get a lot of variety! Here are my book picks for October… The Organic Artist This is probably my favorite book from the month.  I keep going back to it over and over again to review the projects and ideas and bookmark the ones I want to try on my own. This book is all about making your own art supplies, which is right up my alley.  Art supplies and making things…yes, please!  I know that a stick will never

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November 4, 2020 13 Comments
a slice of life

house plans from a middle school mind

For the eighth grade yearbook, we were asked what we wanted to be when we grew up.  Listed under my picture of me wearing teased bangs and a white turtleneck peeking out of a red cable knit sweater, it read “Actress or an Architect”.  You know, two things that are pretty compatible.  I’ve always laughed at the ridiculous pairing of those answers, but I recently realized that being a home decor blogger is sort of somewhere in between.  I just didn’t know this profession would exist at that time!  As someone who was perpetually in plays, the reason why I answered Actress was obvious.  The reason I listed Architect as a desired profession was because of something I did in private.  I used to draw elaborate house plans while sprawled out on the floor of my bedroom listening to music. It was the more mature way of playing with a

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October 28, 2020 47 Comments

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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