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Antiques

a slice of life

field trip | emporium antiques in Frederick, MD

Yesterday, I drove down to Frederick to meet Jodie of The Past Restored to drop off my oil paintings for the Lucketts Fall Market with her.  You can read about that spur-of-the-moment partnership HERE.  I had to pick Marshall up in a couple of hours, so instead of going home, I decided to poke around an antique store for a bit.  I shopped at Emporium Antiques years ago when I was an antique dealer, but I hadn’t been since moving back to the mid-Atlantic region.  I decided to spend my free time checking it out.  It was very much as I remember it, which was nice to see.  It always makes me sad when once wonderful antique stores fall into the decline of booths filled with NASCAR memorabilia, novelty candy, collectible shot glasses, and creepy dolls wearing a half-inch of dust.  Sometimes those stores can be awesome because you can

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All Things Home

antique empire buffet

When I painted the dining room ceiling a few weeks ago, eagle-eyed readers might’ve noticed the new buffet in the corner under the plastic dropcloth.  I haven’t shown that corner of the dining room often, so it may have been overlooked entirely.  I recently acquired the beautiful antique Empire buffet from a local consignment shop after hunting for just the right piece for that corner for over a year. And here it is!  Isn’t it a beauty?  I spotted this handsome antique Empire buffet when I stopped in a local secondhand store on a whim just to see what they had.  It’s a well-kept shop with a nice rotation of inventory, but the prices can be all over the place.  Some really nice pieces are a bargain and others are more expensive than I would expect, but I’ve learned from buying and selling that pricing is always subjective when selling

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Giving an antique whirligig a makeover

 A few months ago, I decided to check out an antique store I hadn’t been to in a while – the Fayetteville Antique Mall in Fayetteville, PA.  I used to go there regularly when we lived in PA, but I noticed more vendors were leaving over and the quality of the merchandise was going downhill.  But, I’ve learned with antique malls that it’s always worth checking it out.  Even one or two new vendors that carry things I like can make a place worth visiting.  Well, they have really stepped up their game since I was last there.  There were more vendors with quality antique pieces.  The store was tidier and more pleasant to shop.  I bought a nice collection of things and liked many pieces that I just didn’t have the right spot for.  I’ll definitely make regular visits!  Anyway, one of the things I bought was this antique

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two antique watercolor boxes

We’re going back to April when I first took these pictures and started this post-draft.  You see, my birthday is in April and, even though I just turned 46, I still celebrate my birthday like I did as a teenager.  It’s not just my birthday, but my birthday month which means I can splurge on a few things and buy goodies I happen to come across in very specific searches on Etsy.  It means treats, gifts, cards, and well-wishes are welcomed the entire month of April.  I’ve already shared a few things I bought with my birthday money or received for my birthday as well as some treats I bought for myself, but there are two more things I haven’t shared yet.  I found both of them at the end of March and bought them in anticipation of my birthday month.  They are both antique art supplies, which probably doesn’t

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antique French drawing box & other goodies

If you can believe it, I added a few antique art supplies to my collection earlier this year (timely happy-birthday-to-me purchases) and I haven’t shared them here on the blog!  I’ve been so busy with other things that I haven’t written about them even though I took pictures a while ago.  Anyway, today is the day I’m going to introduce you to an antique French drawing box I purchased from Julia of Ponder & Purchase.  I used to order a box of goodies from her a few times each year, but I was feeling pretty stocked with antique art supplies, so I haven’t ordered what we jokingly call my “P&P subscription box” in over a year.  I have some very nice art boxes, palettes, brushes, and all sorts of pens, pencils, and rulers that I’ve gotten very picky about what I buy.  This French drawing box was like nothing else

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Antiques

vintage ribbon & trim haul

Last Saturday, Jeff walked into the kitchen as I was making breakfast and said, “It’s too hot to do anything outside, but I don’t want to sit around the house all day.  Let’s go somewhere. Let’s check out some antique stores you’ve never been to.”  Now, I rarely sit around the house all day, so I already had plans of painting and working on this and that.  But, Jeff also rarely suggests going to antique stores, so even though I was mentally geared up for a day at home, I agreed to the proposed outing.  We went to Cumberland, MD, which is a beautiful area but practically the entire downtown area was a construction zone, so many of the stores we would’ve visited were temporarily closed or it was just too hot to do a lot of exploring on foot.  Fortunately, we had stopped in Hancock, MD first to check

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antique iron plant stand

One of the things on my Lucketts shopping wishlist was a plant stand.  I was open to the style of plant stand, but I envisioned a tiered wrought iron plant stand and I know it would be hard to get that idea out of my head.  I saw a few at the Lucketts Spring Market that were just what I was imagining, but they ran in the $300-400 range.  I had already spent a good chunk of my Lucketts budget on antique concrete planters and a boot scraper, so I was hoping to find a plant stand at a lower price.  I didn’t bring a plant stand home the day of the market, so I decided to keep an eye out on Facebook Marketplace and in local second-hand stores.  One was bound to turn up sooner or later. When I was out running errands a couple of days later, I

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Lucketts Spring Market 2024 Purchases

I shared a recap of my day shopping the Lucketts Spring Market this year HERE, but I wanted to share what I purchased and where it ended up in my house.  You can see my wish list for the day HERE and, I must say, I did pretty well on my list!  Lucketts doesn’t disappoint.  The number one thing on my list was concrete pieces for my garden.  I already have some beautiful antique planters that belonged to my Oma and great-grandmother along with some other pieces I’ve acquired over the years.  I love concrete furniture, planters, fountains, birdbaths, and statues in a garden.  To me, they are timeless and I love how they get better with age.  The more staining and lichen the better!  I don’t even mind chips and missing pieces as long as they are still functional. So, before I even got to the event, I was

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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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