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Holiday
crafts

homemade christmas gifts

I’ve loved making and giving homemade gifts since I was little.  As you may have guessed, my favorite medium was always paint, but I have made a lot of other things over the years, as I learned new crafts. Homemade gifts are not flashy or trendy, but they are meaningful, thoughtful, and show that time was put into a gift, which feels like a rarity in this age of one-click shopping. I have shared loads of projects on this blog over the years, so I thought I would gather a few that make wonderful gifts.   customized notebook A couple of years ago, I shared how I customize inexpensive (or just boring) notebooks and sketchbooks with fabrics, papers, and ribbons.  While that’s a perfect project for creative play, it’s also great to make for someone as a gift.  The best part is you can select elements that are perfectly suited

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December 1, 2025 3 Comments
All Things Home

New Society6 Papers, Prints & More

Surface design is something I’ve played with on and off for a few years and this year, I decided to lean into that interest and create some new patterns for wrapping papers as well as other available products on Society6.  While only one is specifically designed for Winter/Christmas, I feel like these designs work well year-round, including for Christmas.  (Products are up to 50% off at Society6 for their Black Friday event.) I love Society6’s wrapping paper.  It comes in five sheets that are generously-sized, so they will cover most mid-sized and small gifts.  The paper is thick, but not too thick, has a matte finish, and a grid on the back so you can make straight cuts.  I only wish you could also order it on rolls for larger presents, but it is very high quality and definitely a favorite. I’m so excited about the polka-dots (in green &

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November 28, 2025 7 Comments
All Things Home

salt-dough season | traditional salt-dough ornament recipe

One of my favorite holiday projects over all my years of Christmas crafting is making things with salt dough.  It started with an impulsive purchase from an Instagram ad.  I bought two wooden cookie molds, not really even sure what I was going to do with them.  I just thought they were pretty and had good crafting potential.  After languishing in my tin with cookie cutters and piping tips, inspiration hit.  What if I used those pretty molds with humble salt dough?  I hadn’t even thought of salt dough since my elementary years, but it seemed like it might be an idea worth trying.  It’s cheap and easy to make and has the potential to be elevated with beautiful molds.  I made them and they turned out even better than I expected.  Since then, I’ve made several variations, shared my favorite sources for molds, and even made faux “gingerbread houses”

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November 17, 2025 9 Comments
All Things Home

my favorite realistic faux evergreens

I really loved my Christmas decorating last year, so I will probably do something very similar this year.  It felt classic and beautiful, and looking back over the pictures makes me excited to pull out the bins and deck the halls.  Well, almost.  But, while I’m thinking about it and while you might be planning and shopping, and before everything Christmas is sold out, I wanted to share my favorite realistic faux evergreens for Christmas and winter decorating. Years ago, I purged any artificial greens we had and only used live greenery and trees for several years.  But after a couple of trees dried out and died before Christmas (ugh), and we then moved to a house with forced-air heat (that dried live greens to a crisp), I was forced to revisit them.  While I don’t love storing more Christmas decor in more bins, it is nice to make the

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November 13, 2025 5 Comments
All Things Home

tucking in the garden for winter

This is our fourth fall in this house, and I think we have finally figured out how to best deal with the leaves from the six large maple trees on our property.  The first fall, we had just moved in and were completely overwhelmed by them.  Our amazing neighbors jumped in and used their two riding mowers to help us out.  Since then, Jeff (primarily) and I have been trying to figure out a system to stay on top of the leaves while also making the most of their benefit to the garden. The first couple of years, we treated them as refuse and took them to the grass and leaf pile at the dump.  As I’ve been reading more about gardening, though, I learned we were throwing away a valuable resource, especially if the leaves are shredded.  Jeff’s dad gave us an old Chipper Vac, so they are even

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November 10, 2025 7 Comments
All Things Home

Handmade Christmas Garland Round-up

The past few Christmases, since our move back to the East Coast, I have been behind on sharing holiday and Christmas posts.  After years of working way ahead on Christmas for retail, articles, and blog posts, it felt good to decorate, shop for gifts, and share in real time.  I realized, though, that I was often sharing too late for people to make handmade decorations, or that all the products I was using were already sold out!  So, I’m going to share some Christmas decorating and gift ideas earlier this year, not to rush my blog readers along, but to give everyone time to move through the season at a comfortable pace—planning, shopping, and making things at their leisure.  As I’ve been looking through past Christmas ideas, I’ve felt excited about decorating, making things, and relishing the holiday season.  I hope the upcoming posts do the same for you!  I’m

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November 3, 2025 3 Comments
1970 home renovation

power washing the patio

This project has been on my list since I did my Spring cleaning of the patio and pool deck in April.  The patio, particularly the old part, was so dirty and stained.  It’s the sort of project that keeps getting put off, though.  Not because it’s hard, but because it’s a pain to get the power washer out and set up and to move all of the furniture and heavy concrete planters.  We’ve been having great weather this week, though, so I finally convinced Marshall to help me get it done. Here is how the patio looked before… You can really see how dirty it was in this picture… When I took pictures of the patio, I tried to take them from an angle that would mostly hide the dirt, but you can still see it under the table and chairs… We moved everything out of the way, which was

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August 6, 2025 8 Comments
All Things Home

painted garden obelisk

When I decided to make custom lattice for our DIY A/C surround, I measured and counted out how many 1 x 2s I thought we would need for the project.  I estimated that we would need 85 1 x 2s and figured I should round it up to 100 to have some extras in case some were warped or in bad condition.  I was confident in my math, so Jeff and I primed and painted all 100 pieces, even though he pointed out that we wouldn’t be able to return extras. Well, it turns out that math still isn’t my strong suit, and I dramatically overestimated how many 1 x 2s we would need.  Since I have a big pile of primed and painted, unreturnable 1 x 2s sitting on our newly-organized garage floor, I decided I should get building!  We’re going to make a surround for our propane tank,

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June 24, 2025 18 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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