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Decorating

All Things Home

the story of the sailboat pillow

If you’re in a hurry, here is the short version of the story.  I met Wendy when she became a Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint line retailer in her shop in Canada.  She became our Canadian trainer and my friend and we traveled all around Europe together.  She sold her shop and I sold the milk paint line.  I started painting.  Her husband, John, takes pictures and I asked to paint one of those pictures.  That picture, taken from their front porch, was licensed and made into a pillow.  That pillow made from one of my paintings made from one of her husband’s photos ended up in the shop Wendy sold.  Wendy bought the pillow.  My mom bought the pillow.  And here we are. If you want the longer story behind the pillow, here it is. Wendy and I met years ago when she signed up to carry the newly

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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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All Things Home

hiding termite bait stations in your yard

We’ve now owned two homes older than 50 years and two homes younger than 20 years.  Older homes are much more my style.  They are typically built with higher-quality materials and they offer story, character, and charm.  You also tend to get a lot more for your money simply because the house is old and perhaps needs some work.  There are things, however, that aren’t fun about owning homes that have more than half a century behind them.  Termites is one of those things.  Both of our 50+-year-old homes had termite issues before we purchased them.  The 1940s Cape Cod in PA just had some dormant mud tubes in the basement.  Our current 1970 house in Maryland had an infestation around one of the bedroom windows and the infestation and house were treated so everything was under control before we purchased it.  We looked into a few different termite treatment

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All Things Home

a plush, pet-friendly wool rug

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Rugs USA.  As always, all words and opinions expressed are honest and my own. Almost ten years ago, I wrote a blog post sharing my decorating nemesis – rugs.  I just always found them so difficult to get right!  There are size considerations, materials, durability, comfort, not to mention how they work with the decor style and color palette of the room.  After trying many, many rugs in several rooms, I decided I would stick primarily with neutral rugs and those made from natural materials.  Braided jute rugs are a favorite because they are inexpensive, forgiving, work well with my antique pieces and decorating style, and feel nice underfoot.  Our bedroom is a long rectangle and really needed a large rug to properly fill it.  When I couldn’t find just the right jute rug to fit the space, I tried pairing together two 6

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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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All Things Home

tips on hanging peel-and-stick wallpaper

Back in April, I worked on the boys’ bathroom to give it a little refresh until it reaches the top of the renovation project priority list and we can completely gut and redo it.  I actually liked the wallpaper and vintage blue accents in the bathroom, but after over 50 years of use, they really are tired.  The ceiling paint was peeling and stained, the wallpaper was peeling, grout was missing, and the original fan sounded like it was churning marbles when you turned it on.  It needed some addressing to make the room feel fresh until it could be renovated.  Instead of fighting the existing blue finishes and vintage feel, I decided to lean in and embrace it by hanging some fun peel-and-stick wallpaper that ties the beige and blue together. Here is a before picture of the bathroom… You can read about the makeover process in these posts

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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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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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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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