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Holiday

All Things Home

setting a proper table & creating a thanksgiving centerpiece | HGTV articles

Those who have been reading my blog for a while are familiar with me mentioning writing articles for HGTV.  I have been writing for them now for almost 10 years and have written over 200 articles and tutorials. It’s an amazing part of my job that came out of simply sharing my work online.  An editor reached out to me to write a few articles for her and coached me through the process.  I still write for that same editor and have written for several others over the years.  Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, I wanted to share a couple of my most recent Thanksgiving articles (and a couple of my favorites!) how to create a florist-worthy fall arrangement for Thanksgiving This Thanksgiving floral arrangement was designed to be simple, but to look classic and formal. Grocery store flowers are combined with seasonal fruits, vegetables, and even some

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All Things Home

how to dry & decorating with orange slices

This holiday season, I am in the mood to do some crafting…even more than usual.  Last year, I had a lot of plans, but most of them went undone.  It was a busy year and I just had to continue to let things fall off of my to-do list.  But, this year, I’m excited about creating some homemade holiday decorations, so I’ve started early!  Saturday morning, I sliced up some oranges to turn into decor and I thought I would share how to dry and decorate with orange slices. how to dry orange slices Preheat oven to 170°.  Slice fresh oranges into about 1/4″ slices, discarding ends.  You can also use blood oranges, grapefruit, lemons, or any citrus fruits.  I’ve even done this technique with apple slices to make an apple cinnamon garland. Arrange on a cookie sheet.  I was able to put about 8 oranges, sliced, onto two cookie

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Holiday

Maple Sugar House Cookies & Finding Home Farms

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by .  I’ve known Laura of Finding Home Farms for years and I’m so pleased to officially partner with her family’s business.  As always, all words and opinions expressed are honest and my own.  There is a coupon code at the bottom of this post to help you save on your holiday shopping. We need to rewind back to the very early days of blogging for this story.  Laura Putnam of was one of my blogger peers.  We did blog-hops together and linky parties and met up at blog conferences.  We also were both vendors at the very first Chapel Market in Pike Road, AL.  Laura is actually standing directly behind me in this picture! (Oh man, what a crew!  I’m still in touch and friends with so many of these people.) I even have her book!  It’s DIY Rustic Modern Metal Crafts. At that

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All Things Home

Casual Blue & White Holiday Table

Disclosure: This casual blue & white holiday table post is sponsored by   As always, all opinions and words are my own. I have some more fun goodies sold exclusively at to share with you today!   Of course, I’m inspired by classic blue and white color palette.  They are definitely speaking my language.  As I was looking through their home items to decide what to share today, I kept coming back to these playful blue and white dishes.   Most of the pieces I use for my own table settings as well as ones for photoshoots are vintage or antique, which can then be more of a challenge to duplicate.  For this casual blue and white holiday table, I thought it would be fun to use dishes from and other accessories and decor from so it could easily be replicated. that inspired this casual blue and white holiday table… I started

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Holiday

pre-lit christmas tree review

I just set up my pre-lit Christmas tree for the fifth Christmas and I figured I would share a review of my specific pre-lit Christmas tree as well as my thoughts about buying a pre-lit Christmas tree in the future.  This post isn’t sponsored, but the Christmas tree was originally a part of a sponsored post for Balsam Hill.  You can read the original post HERE. The prelit Christmas tree I have is the 8′ Noble Fir by Balsam Hill.  It came pre-lit with incandescent bulbs. (These pictures are of my tree from 2020.) To start this pre-lit Christmas tree review, let me state that I think expectations are generally unfairly high when it comes to prelit trees.  I can say this because my expectations were unreasonably high.  The tree can be well made, the lights can be high quality, and the design is perfect, but an incandescent bulb is

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crafts

collecting & pressing leaves & flowers

Over the past few days, I have become acutely aware of autumn’s waning beauty and how it will all soon be covered in snow.  We’ve had some unusually warm weather in our neck of the woods, so I’ve done a bit of foraging on my walks.  I don’t always know what I’ll do with the bits that I gather, but I don’t worry about that too much.  I just carry a small bag and gather the things that attract my eye.  I collected pinecones to use for Christmas projects and decorations, some pods and thistles that might be interesting to draw, grasses that can be used for making brushes, acorn caps that can be used as little natural paint pots, sticks that can be brush handles and dip pens, and leaves and flowers for pressing. I also took advantage of a pretty afternoon and got the garden beds in the

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Fall

simple fall simmer pot

This week, the temps started to drop and we only recently had our first frost here in Minnesota.  It’s actually come pretty late this year and we haven’t even seen a flake of snow, yet!  But, I am ready for fires, slippers, hot chocolate, and for the house to smell like fall.  So, yesterday, I made up a simple fall simmer pot with what I had on hand. I started by filling a 4 qt. dutch oven with water and then dropped anything in the simmer pot with a yummy, homey, fall scent.  Sliced apples, dried cinnamon sticks (these were out of a Christmas decor bin from last year), fresh rosemary, and a few drops of clove essential oil.  I thought I had some whole clove and all-spice, but I only had ground, so I just used what I had.  It really is hard to go wrong with a simmer

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All Things Home

How to Make a Fall Wreath

Disclosure: This post on how to make a fall wreath is sponsored by   As always, all words and opinions are honest and my own.  This post also contains affiliate links. Let’s talk about some fall crafting!  I have a confession…I have had the same artificial boxwood wreath hanging on my door for the past year and a half.  I didn’t even swap it out for a Christmas wreath last year!  I haven’t gone bit with pumpkins or anything else, but I decided to make a fall wreath and share how to make one yourself. For supplies, I shopped on .  Not only does Walmart have a wide array of home products, but they have a , which I’ve shared in past posts.  (You can find some of my Walmart craft projects HERE.)  No matter the time of year, I’m drawn to the supplies they carry that allow me to

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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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