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All Things Home

April’s Theme – Deep Spring Cleaning

February sort of flowed into March, so I didn’t set a theme for that month.  This whole theme thing is going to be pretty loose, anyway, but I loved how we were working on projects together throughout February – my posts encouraging you and your comments encouraging me.  It felt like more of a conversation and I really enjoyed that, so I’d like to set a theme for a few months this year.  We can work on things together, spur and sharpen one another, but it won’t be the only thing I post about.  I’ll share about it once or twice a week depending on the subject, but try to gear my content around the theme. So, April’s theme will be Deep Spring Cleaning! Several ladies mentioned this as an area where they needed to focus and I need it, too!  I felt so reactionary last year…unexpected homeschooling, stocking up

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a slice of life

Christmas 2020 recap

While our Christmas break was quiet and slow, it was also full.  We have spent Christmas with family some years, but it’s not out of the ordinary for it to just be the four of us, so this year didn’t feel sad or lonely.  We did miss the school Christmas concert and church staff Christmas party, but it was still a sweet season.  We ordered our yearly Christmas Eve breakfast out and ate it at home.  We had our candlelight Christmas Eve service on the sofa in our jammies.  We watched movies at home instead of going to the theatre.  We met with our family over Zoom to open presents and play games.  But we still had a wonderful time of celebration, reflection, and rest. (Yes, the top string of lights burnt out just before Christmas!  Ugh!) And Christmas morning was still a flurry of activity and excitement as the

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a slice of life

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas Song

About 8 years ago, I snuck off into another room a couple of days before Christmas and played the guitar and sang I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas for my blog readers. Unfortunately, that video was accidentally deleted a few years ago. Since that first song, we’ve done a song for Christmas almost every year.  We’ve done duets, group songs with friends and family involving preschool toys, kazoos, and popcorn-tin drums. It’s been so much fun and I know my blog followers have enjoyed seeing that different side of me (and seeing more of my family.)  Every year, I receive messages asking if I’m going to do a Christmas song and I try to pick a fun song that we can perform for you. I didn’t last year because I was recovering from shoulder surgery, but I felt like this year needed a song.  It’s been quite the year! We

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All Things Home

Christmas Dining Room 2020

Last year, I didn’t decorate my dining room for Christmas, because it was just too much to try to do as my shoulder was still healing from surgery.  This year, though, I was right back to dressing our dining room for Christmas!   I kept it pretty simple, though, and just added some faux greenery to the chandelier, our small tree in a goat cart for our advent stockings, some garland on the mirror, and gingerbread in the hutch. I really wanted to do my usual advent wreath for the center of the table, but the cats picked mine apart last year, so I didn’t do it.  I just used a simple candle ring on a chunky candle in an ironstone bowl as the centerpiece. The greens are just tucked into the chandelier.  You can see a tutorial on my method HERE. Violet let me know she was watching. On the

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All Things Home

Hand-Painted Ceramic Christmas Ornaments

I know that I’m slipping this one in at the last minute, but I wanted to share one more Christmas craft!  You can scrape together the materials for this year or hunt and peck at some after Christmas sales for ribbon and unfinished ceramic ornaments to have some handmade gifts and decorations in the hopper for next year!  Here is a tutorial for hand-painted Christmas ornaments using Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint with acrylic and gouache accents… This hand-painted ceramic ornament tutorial was easier to show in a video as opposed to pictures and words alone, so here is a short video tutorial showing how I painted the first one… I actually filmed four of the ornaments that I painted, but my hands were out of the frame!  That’s happened to me a lot lately, so I really need to pay better attention to that. Anyway, here are the materials

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All Things Home

Gift-Wrapping Ideas with Walmart

Disclosure: This gift-wrapping ideas post is sponsored by .  As always, all opinions expressed are honest and my own. As I shared a couple of weeks ago, I’m feeling extra crafty this year!  I know it’s because we’re home more than usual and creating things not only brings me joy, but it’s a great stress-reliever.  I put on some good Christmas music and I don’t worry about time or what’s happening in the world.  For an hour or two, I can just “be where my hands are” and focus on what I’m making. A few days ago, I decided to use some of that quiet, creative time to wrap some pretty packages for my family and I thought I should share those Christmas gift-wrapping ideas with you!  I ended up with some really cute packages and they were all pretty quick and easy. Before I started on this project, I

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All Things Home

Christmas Kitchen 2020

I know you don’t need to hear from me that Christmas is coming fast!  I am definitely feeling it, though.  My house is finally all decorated, though, gingerbread houses have been made, and I’m almost all done with my Christmas shopping.  I’ll be sharing some creative gift wrap ideas tomorrow, but today I thought I would share my kitchen decorated for Christmas along with the gingerbread I made earlier this week… I made the same gingerbread I’ve been making for the past few years.  You can find the mini gingerbread house templates and recipe HERE. Each year, I make some of the same houses, but I’ll also try some new ornaments shapes and gingerbread house templates.  This year, I made some mini houses that sit on the side of mugs… I got that ! …and I hand-cut some ornaments based on 17th-century embroidery designs.  Because, why not? As far as

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All Things Home

Blue & White Christmas Living Room 2020

The living room is definitely my favorite room to decorating for Christmas.  I love having a mantel for the stockings and a perfect place to put the tree, so we can all enjoy it.  And I love how everything feels festive and seasonal while still working with my color scheme.  Here’s a little tour of how my blue & white Christmas living room looks this year… You can see more details about the tree in THIS POST. We moved the dresser that is usually in that corner out to the garage and I swapped out the antique birdcage that hangs on the wall with a mirror.  I’ve wanted to try a mirror there for a long time, but haven’t found one that’s the right shape, size, and finish.  I finally found and it works perfectly!  I don’t know if I’ll move it after we take the tree down or keep

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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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