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All Things Home

All the details for Lucketts 2017

Lucketts 2017 is just around the corner!!  I know May doesn’t seem that close, but when I have to fill a 5,000 square foot pavilion, it is right around the corner. Lucketts will be entirely different this year.  Well, not entirely, because it will still have awesome antique dealers, makers, food vendors, beer crafters, and music.  It’s different because it’s moving to a new location. If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know weather is always a factor at the Lucketts Spring Market, since it’s an outdoor event, and our parade was definitely rained on last year.   So much so, that the event had to be closed on Sunday due to ground saturation.  Cars were stuck, booths were literally sitting in inches of water, the mud…oh, the mud was terrible.  And, even if you’re amazing at putting on an event, as the Lucketts crew is, there is only

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All Things Home

my favorite craigslist search terms

If you haven’t picked up on it, yet, I am an avid “craigslister”.  It started with one dining room table about 9 years ago and it has become my go-to place to browse for furniture and other miscellaneous things. I love that I never know what I’m going to find.  I love that you can weed through all of the junk and find some real gems for a good price.  I love that I can shop from the comfort of my sofa.  I think it’s all-around awesome. I shared a bunch of my best tips for shopping craigslist HERE, but I wanted to update and expand the search terms I use, since I was asked and that it can change depending on trends and what I’m into. Before I share the terms I use, I want to mention that I aways search in all “for sale” categories.  People put stuff in

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All Things Home

personal shopping | quilts & coverlets

I hope you had a great weekend!  For the most part, I stepped away from work, so I could rest up for the busy week ahead. Anyway, I browse for cool things online pretty regularly.  I particularly like Etsy, eBay, and craigslist.  I sometimes trip across really great buys that I snap right up, but I’ll also find pieces that are a good price, but not a good enough price for me to resell and I don’t have a perfect spot for them, so I just pass them up. Sooo, I thought I would share some of the things I come across with others who might want to buy them. Today, I hunted around for some well-priced quilts. I paid $125 online a few years ago for the one in the picture above. When I’m shopping for quilts, I look for ones around $150.  Of course, less is better, but I

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a slice of life

my favorite things lately

I have found that there is an ebb and flow to the things that catch my eye.  Of course, there are constants, ironstone being the most obvious, but there are pieces that I have found a new or renewed interest in… baskets  Baskets is one that has been the most surprising to me.  I haven’t paid much attention to baskets and was even slightly annoyed with the stacks of baskets that seem to be everywhere in secondhand shopping.  But, over the past few months, I have changed my tune. These utilitarian gems bring so much texture to a space along with stylish storage. What I look for in a basket… The older the better.  That’s the case with a lot of things for me, but I’m looking for pieces with a nice patina and age to them.  I especially love old splint baskets. Market-style or laundry-style baskets.  I also like ones

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All Things Home

shopping guide & T’was the Night Before Lucketts

This is it!  The official guide to shopping the Miss Mustard Seed booth at the Lucketts Spring Market in 2016.  I wish I had more pictures to share of how everything is laid out, but that just didn’t happen this year.  The weather was beautiful today and I could almost hear my booth calling me to come and play, but I had a lot of errands and last minute things to do, so it’ll have to wait until morning. This is Lucketts second year as a three day event, so I feel like I know more of what to expect, although this year feels like there is more anticipation leading up to Friday.  Maybe it’s just me, but that’s how it feels. Here are some tips, suggestions, information, answers to FAQ’s, etc… PARKING I was at Lucketts on Thursday and, even after all of the rain we’ve had in May,

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All Things Home

updated tips for shopping craigslist

If you’ve read my blog for any amount of time, you’ve probably caught on that craigslist is one of my favorite places to shop for furniture.  I’m often asked about it, so I thought I would share some updated tips along with my craigslist strategy and how I sort through the trash and treasures. First of all, I know I’m in a “good area” for finding furniture and antiques.  I live in south central PA and it’s not a very transient area.  Families live here for generations.  They don’t move, they add on.  We’ve lived in our town for almost ten years and I still feel like we’re relatively new. This is also a rural area and an old one, which means lots of old houses and barns.  All of those things combined means that there are attics, basements, spare rooms, and outbuildings filled with old things that eventually end up in

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All Things Home

keeping & letting go

I was going to go shopping for more antique goodies today as well as some supplies for building pieces, but instead I stayed home to get some “stress-relieving stuff” done – computer work, e-mail, paperwork, cleaning & tidying up the house, etc.  It was all much needed. Unfortunately, in all of my tidying up on my computer, I somehow managed to remove all but 400 photos from my Lightroom software.  I would call it a disaster, but it’s not really a disaster in the grand scheme of things.  It’s an epic inconvenience, though.  I still have all of the photos, but they are in their RAW, unedited state, so if I need the photos, I need to edit them again.  All 8,000+ of them.  So, that stinks. I suppose it will force me to go through the pictures and weed out ones I won’t ever use again.  I am a

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All Things Home

$100 Kohl’s Home Giveaway

You know me.  I prefer to buy old things.  They just speak to me in a way that new things don’t, but it’s not always practical to buy old.  Sometimes you need a chair that people can sit in without wondering if and when it might give way.  Right?  Sometimes new things can work really well with all of the old, making your home a bit more functional. When Kohl’s contacted me, asking if I would work with them on promoting their home department, I was honestly a little unsure.  I’ve bought towels and sheets and a frying pan there before, but I never thought of it as a place where I would buy a piece of furniture of a decorative accessory for my home. I’ve always loved shopping at Kohl’s, though, so I decided to look around and see if I could find things that fit my style.  I

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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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