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Antiques
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
Antiques

favorite things | antique overshot coverlets

As I’ve been sharing our living room makeover over the past few weeks, several people have asked about the blanket over the back of the sofa.  Even though it sometimes annoys my family, I’ve always liked having a quilt, coverlet, or throw folded over the back of sofas and chairs.  Not only does it add a bit of color and give me another place to display some of my favorite antique textiles, but it helps extend the life of the piece of furniture (or the slipcover between washings.)  The blanket on the back of our living room sofa is sadly not something that I can simply link to.  It’s an antique overshot coverlet from the mid-1800s.  But, since you may have never heard of any overshot coverlets, let me tell you a bit about them, share some tips on where to buy them (and how much to pay), and give

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March 7, 2024 19 Comments
All Things Home

wicker market cart

One of my sweet readers has been asking me for several weeks to share more about the antique wicker market cart in my kitchen and I looked for a blog post about it and couldn’t find one!  I have had this piece for several years, so I thought I wrote a post about it at some time, but I haven’t.  I decided I would fix that today and share the details about this charming antique shopping trolly. I bought this particular wicker market cart about 10 years ago at one of my favorite PA antique shops.  I think I paid around $90 for it, which I thought was a good price for the condition of such a functional antique. A wicker market cart like this one would’ve been used during an age or in a culture where you walk to the butcher, then the baker and the greengrocer to hold

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February 15, 2024 10 Comments
All Things Home

antique cane stand & collection

I blame the cane collection on my six months in a boot when my foot was broken in 2022.  I bought a couple of them to actually use when I was getting used to walking on both feet again, but I bought most of them because I thought they were little works of art.  Some of them were handmade out of wooden sticks while others are more refined.  With a small collection of canes, I was looking for a stand for about a year before I found one I liked at a price I was willing to pay.  I don’t mind splurging on things, but I want to splurge where it matters and a can holder, which is purely decorative, isn’t a place I want to splurge unless it makes my heart flutter.  So, I found this one at a local antique store at a nice price. I had a

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January 23, 2024 27 Comments
All Things Home

adding a new shelf to an antique pine hutch

When it comes to knocking projects out, I have learned that it helps to pay attention to the tools and materials I have out and try to hit projects that need those same tools and materials.  For example, while the sewing machine is out and threads are all over the floor, it makes sense to work on several sewing projects on my list.  If I have ceiling paint out, let me complete a couple of ceilings instead of just one.  It can add a lot more time to a project that might’ve been short and sweet, but it does save time and sometimes money in the long run.  So, when we were buying pine boards for the mantel project and had our job site table saw set up on the driveway, I decided to pick up a rough pine board to make another shelf for the antique pine hutch in

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November 28, 2023 28 Comments
All Things Home

the replacement priciple

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.27.0″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”] For those who don’t know, my husband, Jeff, is a pastor. So, he prepares and gives sermons each week and one of the topics that come up in sermons (and in our home) is the replacement principle.  Replacing harsh words with kindness.  Replacing complaining with gratitude.  Replacing selfishness with generosity.  You get the idea of the replacement principle.  Of course, that’s good stuff, but I’m not writing about that kind of replacement principle in this blog post.  I’m talking about the replacement principle I learned from my Oma. On the middle of the dining room table, my Oma had a bowl of plastic fruit.  That plastic fruit was a nice stand-in for live fruit until she discovered alabaster fruit.  They are beautifully painted and have a luminance that

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November 6, 2023 33 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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