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Antiques
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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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July 9, 2024 4 Comments
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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June 27, 2024 19 Comments
All Things Home

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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June 5, 2024 22 Comments
All Things Home

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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May 30, 2024 17 Comments
All Things Home

Lucketts Spring Market 2024

Friday morning, my mom and I set off early to hit the Lucketts Spring Market Early Bird day.  I had scouted out some large terracotta pots for my espalier apple trees that were only available at the Winchester Home Depot, so we stopped there on the way to pick those up.  I’ll share about them in another post, but once the pots were purchased and loaded, we drove the rest of the way to the fairgrounds in Berryville, VA.  I didn’t have any large furniture pieces I was looking for, but I still felt nervously excited.  Antique markets just do that to me.  There is the tension of knowing most items are one-of-a-kind and you don’t want to miss out on something you like, but you also don’t want to jump at the first thing you see, knowing there are many more vendor’s wares to explore.  I felt that tension

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May 20, 2024 28 Comments
All Things Home

My Lucketts Spring Market 2024 Wish List

This Friday, my mom and I are heading back to the Lucketts Spring Market!  It snuck up on me this year because I don’t have any huge items on my wishlist, but going to the Spring and Fall Markets is always a highlight.  I get to spend quality time with my mom, rub shoulders with some of my old antique vendor buddies, and come home with some treasures.  It’s also an amazing, well-curated, well-produced event that is a delight to experience.  The folks at Lucketts do a top-notch job.  Think of amazing Anthropologie displays colliding with your favorite antique shops, and a day at a country fair.  There are fiddle groups and everything.  It’s not too late to get tickets or to drop in for an enjoyable day.  HERE are all of the when, where, and how details. When we went to the 2023 Spring Market, I was on the

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May 15, 2024 14 Comments
All Things Home

the new man in my life

The day after my birthday earlier this month, Jeff and I went to breakfast together and headed to Carlisle to find some birthday goodies at one of my favorite antique stores – Bedford Street Antiques.  I had a few things I was going to keep an eye out for, but I really just wanted to find something that made my heart flutter and would be a memorable present.  I used to spend my birthday money on clothes or little things here and there, but I’ve decided that each year, I’m going to spend it on something special that I would likely keep for years if not decades.  I have several birthday presents that are some of my favorite things – an ironstone cake stand, a custom leather art bag, an antique watercolor box, and Jeff even got me a tattoo for year 39.  I had picked up a few fun

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April 22, 2024 96 Comments
All Things Home

favorite things | antique transferware plates

I have loved antique transferware plates for years, decades even.  I think they were one of my earliest yard sale purchases as a newlywed.  I remember reading a magazine article that showcased stacks of mismatched antique transferware plates that had been collected over time and I fell in love with the idea of having a set of dishes that wasn’t a set at all.  I also subscribed to the idea early in my decorating journey that pretty plates and platters made unique and inexpensive wall art and I’ve been hanging them on the walls ever since. Even though I have well over 100 plates and platters (it’s probably closer to 200), I still am drawn to them and find new excuses to acquire them.  Well, these would be perfect for a still-life painting, so I can buy them to use as props.  If you’re a collector, you understand that some

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April 8, 2024 13 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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