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Decorating

Decorating

Living with what you love

The past few years have been a whirlwind for me.  Moving…two baby boys born 19 months apart and a new business right on the heels of that.  I’ve been so busy that cleaning out closets, cupboards, drawers, the basement, the attic spaces, etc. has been neglected.  Earlier this year, I looked in my kitchen cupboards and noticed there were still baby bottles on the shelves and my boys still had jammies in their dressers that were 2T (they are 5 and 7 now!)  It was time to make time to get things cleaned out and under control.  So, over the past few months, I’ve been cleaning, purging and organizing.  As I’ve shared, the more I get rid of, the more I want to get rid of more.  Getting rid of the obvious like the baby bottles and 2T jammies has turned into selling pieces of furniture I really love, but

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Decorating

Living Room Rearranged

When I start rearranging furniture, it’s like playing dominoes.  I move one thing and then everything else has to move.  As I mentioned yesterday, I’m approaching my house in an entirely new way.  I’m trying to be intentional about every piece.  Is it functional?  Is it beautiful?  Do I really love it?  Is it perfect for the space or am I trying to force things?  Or am I just keeping something out of a sense of obligation or even just laziness? New Year’s Eve I started working on my living room and family room.  I’m not spending any money.  I’m actually finding things to sell, so I’ll be making money and I’m moving things around that I already have.  I may take some of the money from what I sell to buy something perfect for a space if there’s a hole that needs to be filled, but I have found

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Decorating

Christmas 2013 Recap

I’ve gotta say…it was really tough for me to get in the spirit of Christmas this year.  I’m not sure what it was.  It’s my favorite time of year and I usually can’t wait to put the tree up and start listening to my Christmas play list.  I love the decorations all over the house, the lights, the food, the get-togethers, the white elephant gift exchanges and the Christmas plays.  I don’t know why, but this year it felt like something I had to get through and I hate even saying that! Christmas day, though, was wonderful and festive and fun and all of the things it’s supposed to be and made me glad I dragged myself into the Christmas spirit.  My husband ordered some pastries from a local 5 star bakery for everyone to enjoy in the morning as we opened presents… …and I put out some bing cherries

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Decorating

The Only Gift – A Christmas Song

For those who don’t know, I have a musical background.  Musical theatre was my hobby and passion throughout my childhood (and I later earned my degree in that field) and I played a variety of instruments.  My mom was a music teacher and taught everyone in my family how to play guitar and music was always a part of our home. When I met Jeff, my husband, I didn’t know he could sing.  I’ve always been a ham, but he was shy about that sort of thing.  One day in the car, I was listening to Les Miserables and he started singing along.  I gasped.  It was God’s gift to me.  It took a few years to get him to sing in public, but he joined the praise team at our last church and started to develop his ear for harmonies. A couple of years ago, I sang a song

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Decorating

What speaks to you?

I must admit that writing has been tough for me the past couple of days.  Usually, I’m bubbling over with words and ideas and writing a post is very easy.  Today, I’ve started three different blog posts and can’t seem to pin any of them down.  I don’t plan my blog posts out in advance.  I write whatever is inspiring to me or on my mind.  I’ve started checking out for the holidays, so there just isn’t a lot going on.  I’ve been visiting with family, wrapping presents, shopping for groceries, planning menus, cleaning and going to the movies. One movie we went to see was The Book Thief. I haven’t read the book and I didn’t know much about the story, but my husband and I had a kid-free night and we didn’t have a ton of options of movies to see in a small town, so we went

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Decorating

Painting Trim, Sewing Pillows & More

 Between a sick boy and snow days, we’ve basically had a four day weekend, which is fun (aside from the sick kid), but it ‘s tough when I work from home and have things I need to do.  We snuggled, though, and went to see Frozen and built a snowman.  Today they were back in school and I was back to work.  My husband installed new trim in the family room yesterday, so I primed and painted it today… It’s just simple pine boards, but it ties into the 1940’s part of the house and looks a little beefier.  I like beefy molding.  Just putting that out there. We still need to add some shoe molding and 3/4 height wainscoting to finish things off.  This room is pretty big with a cathedral ceiling, so it would greatly benefit from some architectural detail.  I would love to add some wood beams

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Decorating

Boxwood & My Christmas Tree

I just did a photo shoot today for the MMSMP color of the month, Boxwood, so I thought I would share.  I think this may be my favorite non-blue/gray color in the line.  It’s so rich and pretty.  I’ve sold all of the pieces I’ve painted in Boxwood, but I have a dresser in my son’s room that is just begging for it.  I was hoping to get to that this month, since it is the color of the month, but with slipcovers and upholstering and decorating for Christmas and the family room trim and all of that, I think it’ll have to wait.  Anyway, here are some pictures to give you a good sense of the color… Can you tell I enjoy these shoots?  I really do.  I think the photography/styling aspect of my job has become one of my favorite things to work on.  If you want to

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Decorating

Getting a Tree & Style Update

Today we went to pick out our Christmas tree at the local tree farm where we have bought our trees for the past few years.  It was a chilly day, so we strolled through the open barn looking over the lineup of 8 ft+ trees.  One caught my eye.  It was tall and looked perfect.  Confident in my ability to pick out an amazing tree, I went over to buy some garland while the tree I selected in about 10 seconds was wrapped and strapped to the top of our van.  When we got home, my husband trimmed the lower branches and we put it in the stand and put it in place. Hm.  It looked a bit thinner than I remembered and there were some big holes in the shape of it.  Plus, the branches point more up than out.  Did I really pick that tree?!   Yep.  I did.  Well,

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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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