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Holiday

1970 home renovation

spring 2024 projects

After being sick for a few days, it always takes a little while to assess how you’re feeling in the morning.  Am I still sick?  Have I finally turned the corner?  Well, this morning, I assessed after helping Jeff get the boys off to school and I have turned the corner.  I felt like myself and had some energy for the first time in a week.  I’m still not 100%, but I’m on the way there.  So, with the turn of the calendar to March 1 and with some new energy, I found myself thinking about projects we are planning to work on this spring.  I shared a list of loosely planned projects to do in 2024 HERE, but this is a bit more specific to what we’ll be working on in the coming weeks. Since the weather will be warming up, we’ll be focusing a lot of our attention

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All Things Home

Christmas Dining Room 2023

I have just one more space to share for Christmas this year – our dining room.  The dining room is still just wearing primer on the walls (we had the wallpaper stripped earlier this year and it’s next on my list to paint), so I debated even decorating it, but we’ll be eating our Christmas brunch in there as well as doing puzzles and playing games, so I just couldn’t help myself!  When we took walls down during our kitchen renovation, it also opened the sidelines, so it’s nice to see a decorated dining room from the kitchen, foyer, and even living room. First, I have to share the view into the dining room from the kitchen. We built that shelf to hang by the side door a few months ago (You can find the details HERE) and it’s worked so well to make a little landing area for hanging

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All Things Home

Our 2023 Christmas Tree

I don’t know if it’s ever taken me so long from setting up the tree to finalizing the decorations as it did this year!  A part of it was I wanted to take my time and let my vision for the tree unfold as I played with what I had.  As I started to experiment with those ideas, I ended up making about 60′ of two types of garland, so that slowed me down a bit, too!  Anyway, it’s done and I really love it. I don’t completely start from scratch when it comes to decorating our tree each year, but I like to sort of tweak it a little bit depending on the look I want.  I use the same ornaments, maybe adding a few new homemade ones and I always use white lights, but I’ll mix up the garlands, ribbons, and/or picks.  This year, I wanted to create

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Decorating

Christmas kitchen shelves

Just when you might think I’m done decorating the kitchen for Christmas, there is more!  If you missed any of them, you can see my previous posts about decorating the kitchen here… Christmas Kitchen Wreath, Christmas Kitchen Window, More of the Christmas Kitchen.  I know the white shelves are a sticking point for some, but I felt like they were begging for greenery, candles, and “gingerbread houses.” For the sprigs of greenery, I used parts of a Norfolk pine garland.  I pulled one of the garlands apart and it makes these perfect, very realistic-looking branches to place over picture frames or shelves.  I just checked to link the garland and there are a few more back in stock!  Pine garlands, wreaths, and branches are all available, but in limited quantities.  You can check them out HERE. I then added some of my new favorite real wax in little ironstone pots. 

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All Things Home

more of the Christmas kitchen 2023

I am finally rounding the Christmas decorating corner and the finish line is in sight.  I have had the dining room covered in bins, ornaments, garlands, and ribbon and I’ve been using it as a staging area for the rest of the decorating.  Slowly, I’ve been using the decorations and the dining room is getting cleaner in the process.  I’m just about ready to put away anything leftover and make the dining room table look pretty.  But first, here is a little corner of the kitchen I dressed for the season… With all of the beautiful things happening in the kitchen, this antique wooden shelf from Dreamy Whites is a favorite.  Maria’s pieces are always a splurge, but they are also some of my most prized pieces.  It’s one of those unique finishing touches that makes this space mine.  I’ve also always wanted a place to display my antique ironstone

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Crochet & Knitting Patterns

easy crochet bauble garland tutorial (two ways)

I spotted some crochet garlands when I fell down an internet rabbit hole a few years ago, but I never got around to making them and I then got sidetracked by other things.  Then this year, I saw my friend Cheri from This Cottage Life making and selling some and I got the itch to make them.  I looked at a few different tutorials to get me started and then played around with techniques, designs, yarns, and hook sizes until I found a couple I liked.  So, in this post, I’ll share two different crochet bauble garland tutorials (a printed pattern and a video tutorial.) bauble crochet garland tutorial no. one – chunky bauble For this version of the bauble garland, you’ll need Lion WoolEase Thick & Quick yarn (or a similarly chunky yarn), scissors (THESE forged scissors are my favorite), and a 6.5mm crochet hook.  THESE are the ones

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All Things Home

Christmas Kitchen Window

When it came to decorating for Christmas this year, I was, of course, most excited about decorating the kitchen.  If you missed it, we renovated our 1970 kitchen this year and completely transformed a chopped-up, dated space into an Edwardian-inspired modern classic kitchen.  You can catch up on the details of the renovation HERE.  But today, I want to show how I decorated our new kitchen window for the holidays… First of all, I made a garland swag with two pine garlands and two cedar garlands.  I then tucked in some juniper sprigs, homemade orange slices, and dried limes. I also used some velvet ribbon in the center of the swag.  Sadly, almost everything is sold out this season, but I imagine most of it will be available again in 2024. To hang the garland, I tapped in nails in the top of the trim so the holes wouldn’t be

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Decorating

creative candle trick | Christmas decorating ideas

Christmas decorating for me this year has been a slow process and that’s okay.  Sometimes, I race ahead and get it all done in a couple of days.  In other cases, I make things and add new touches right up until Christmas Eve.  It’s just done when I feel ready to stop.  I think this year’s decorating has been slow because it’s my first time decorating these rooms.  Even though we had these same rooms last year, the kitchen has been renovated and many other spaces have been painted and altered to fit our style.  They all feel different and I need to take some time to decide where I want to put the decor.  Even though I like to play and make adjustments each year, I think next year will go much quicker because I’ll have a better sense of what I liked where. Anyway, I have found that

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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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