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All Things Home

classy rain gauge

Well, it happened and, perhaps, was inevitable.  I bought a rain gauge.  I was already gardening, birdwatching, seeing a cardiologist, and telling stories of the good old days, so I might as well surrender to middle age and start measuring the rainfall on my own to confirm the weather app on my iPhone is correct.  I mean, how am I to truly be an informed, well-rounded person if I don’t know that sort of thing?  Of course, inexpensive plastic rain gauges can be found in abundance, but I wanted a classy rain gauge. I did quite a bit of searching and settled on this metal rain gauge stand topped off with a quail.  It holds a glass test-tube-style rain gauge that rests in a metal ring. When I pointed out the new garden accessory acquisition to my mom, she mentioned I should take the glass tube in for the winter

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July 19, 2024 12 Comments
a slice of life

bird bath happenings

I don’t have a lot of garden memories since I spent the majority of my childhood in military housing apartments overseas, but as I’ve shared before, the garden memories I do have are from my Oma and Opa’s garden.  We lived with them when I was very little and my dad was on a hardship tour in Korea for the Army and during some summers when I was older.  My Opa loved gardening and birdwatching.  He loved animals in general and we often referred to him as Dr. Doolittle.  I don’t know if I’ve shared this before, but my mom had a menagerie of unusual pets growing up like a pony (they paid $25 for it and drove it around in the back of the station wagon), squirrels, a goose, a raccoon, turtles, birds, a goat, snakes, a white rat named Pedro, and dogs and cats, of course.  My mom

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June 18, 2024 32 Comments
All Things Home

antique iron plant stand

One of the things on my Lucketts shopping wishlist was a plant stand.  I was open to the style of plant stand, but I envisioned a tiered wrought iron plant stand and I know it would be hard to get that idea out of my head.  I saw a few at the Lucketts Spring Market that were just what I was imagining, but they ran in the $300-400 range.  I had already spent a good chunk of my Lucketts budget on antique concrete planters and a boot scraper, so I was hoping to find a plant stand at a lower price.  I didn’t bring a plant stand home the day of the market, so I decided to keep an eye out on Facebook Marketplace and in local second-hand stores.  One was bound to turn up sooner or later. When I was out running errands a couple of days later, I

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June 5, 2024 22 Comments
All Things Home

marian tries | weaving garden cloches

Do you know what I’ve been thinking lately?  I need more hobbies.  I mean, a girl needs a few tasks to keep her busy.  Of course, I’m being facetious since I have hobbies up to my eyeballs, but it’s still hard for me to resist dabbling in a new one when it looks intriguing.  As I’ve been spending a lot of time this spring working on our yard and garden beds, I thought it would be fun to make some of my own willow garden cloches and plant supports.  I just adore them when I see them in books and TV shows.  They add a homespun charm that I wanted to add to my suburban garden.  As I started researching sourcing willow for weaving garden supports, I realized this hobby wasn’t going to be quite as simple to delve into as knitting or painting.  It seems that weaving your own

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June 4, 2024 26 Comments
All Things Home

Ultimate Scallop Wicker Tray

Last week, I decided to play around a bit inside the house.  I’ve been spending a lot of time outside pulling weeds, hauling mulch, and planting and I haven’t been paying much attention to the interior.  Dust bunnies may have been involved.  Okay, they were.  They were involved.  But, I took a few hours to take care of the dust bunnies and things that needed to be addressed but I have learned that chores often lead to creative play.  In addition to running the vacuum, tidying up, and wiping down surfaces, I started fluffing, styling, and moving things around.  I had a few new goodies I purchased at Lucketts to play around with and I had a few photo shoots I needed to work on for clients, so it was a good time to make some small changes. One of the fun bits of styling I did was relocate this

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May 29, 2024 24 Comments
All Things Home

planting the espalier apple trees in terra cotta pots

Yesterday, I shared how we primed, painted, and installed the vintage-style trellises on our blank white wall of siding, and today, I want to share how I planted the espalier apple trees in large terra cotta pots and tied them to the trellises.  When I mentioned putting them in pots on my Instagram stories, I was asked several times why I opted for pots instead of putting them directly into the ground. Well, there are a few reasons for that… Number one, I’m not sure what kind of chemicals have been sprayed on this soil over the years.  We’ve had pest control treatments and I didn’t know I’d be planting edibles here, so I didn’t ask them to skip this area.  I would be a little nervous planting a fruit tree in questionable soil. Number two, I want to make sure they get enough light on this wall with the

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May 22, 2024 29 Comments
All Things Home

DIY cedar garden obelisk

I was on a high from building the vintage-style trellises for the front of the house, so I decided to do more math and make a DIY cedar garden obelisk.  I bought enough wood to make three trellises (two large and one small), but I decided to do something different on the wall where the small trellis was going to hang.  So, I had extra cedar that we cut down to 1 x 2s as well as some scraps from the trellis project and I wanted to use every bit I could.  You can find the plans for the vintage-style trellis HERE if you missed it and are interested in building one. I didn’t take pictures as I built the obelisk for two reasons.  One, it was sprinkling on and off so I was fitting in work on the project as weather would allow.  Two, I was completely winging it

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May 16, 2024 13 Comments
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

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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