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Decorating
All Things Home

decorating process

Of course, there are a million practical things to do.  Unpack, strip wallpaper, paint walls, clean, and organize, but I have to give myself the gift of unstructured time to just play.  So, I bounce between things that need to be done and things that are completely unnecessary but are creatively fulfilling.  It gives me the energy to push through the things that are a bit more mundane and not exciting. So, yesterday I gave myself some time to work on some decorating things.  One of the things that are both practical and decorative are curtains and I’m looking forward to getting them made and hung for the living room.  Right now, we don’t have window coverings for this room and there is quite a glare on the TV.  This gave me a change to play with fabrics, which is great creative fun for me. I have picked a blue

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October 26, 2022 60 Comments
1970 home renovation

James Farmer Inspired Corner

There are times when a design I see in a book or online sticks with me.  I keep coming back to it again and again and I find myself imagining it in my own home.  Most of the time, it just remains an object of admiration.  I just don’t have the space or things to pull it off.  But, this design by James Farmer has stuck with me and it was something I could emulate.  I just needed the right place to do it. James shared this picture in a 2019 Facebook post and this is what he said about it, “When I graduated from Auburn, I started helping some of my grandmother’s friends rearrange furniture, recover a chair and of course, hang a plate or two or three… or twenty. I guess some things never change! In an entry for a client’s hunting farm, the combo of brown transferware,

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October 20, 2022 88 Comments
Decorating

getting new hardwood floors

I’ve decided that moving into a house is a lot easier when you don’t have big projects planned right off the bat!  But, it is also easier to get those projects out of the way before you get settled, so then you can get settled knowing that big project is done.  I guess disruptive renovations are disruptive whenever you do them, but I am glad we’re knocking out some of these projects right away.  One of those projects we knew we would do before we even bought the house – swap out the wall-to-wall carpet for hardwood floors.  Even though we’ve installed and refinished wood floors before, we are hiring out this project to have it done quicker. We’re fortunate that most of the house has hardwood floors, but the family room, primary bedroom, and living room are all carpeted.  With a 1970s house that is mostly hardwood, I figured

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September 27, 2022 26 Comments
All Things Home

outdoor fall entertaining with Walmart

Disclosure; This post is sponsored by .  As always, all words and opinions expressed are honest and my own.  I have partnered with many times over the years and I am excited to be working with them in our new home. An advantage to moving into a home in late September is that we are entering one of the most beautiful, outdoor-entertaining-friendly weather of the year.  It’s usually pleasant outside, not too buggy, not too muggy, and nature starts to put on a colorful display.  It’s a nice time to be outside, which is perfect when you want to escape from boxes that need to be unpacked and things that need to be put away. Since we sold all of our outdoor furniture when we moved here (including favorite BHG chairs from ), we decided to buy one really beautiful, well-made patio set to provide a place to sit, work,

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September 23, 2022 22 Comments
a slice of life

settling into a new home

Crying seems to be inevitable in the early days of a move.  You’re tired.  You’re emotional.  You’re feeling raw.  You’re relieved to be settled yet you feel entirely unsettled, upended.  The familiarity of your things clashes with the unfamiliarity of a new place.  It’s the biggest purchase of your life and you have only spent a few hours walking through empty rooms.  This house that you filled a truckload of paperwork for and dreamed about is now an overwhelming reality. It’s your home, but it doesn’t feel like home.  It will, but not yet. We’ve been doing all of the usual moving-in things.  Having a washer & dryer delivered, opening boxes, putting things away, and then moving them a second and third time until it feels like they might be in the right place.  A steady stream of tradesmen has been coming through to give us estimates on new windows,

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September 19, 2022 90 Comments
Decorating

house hunting with the Parsons

Thank you so much for all of your wonderful and encouraging comments on yesterday’s post.  We are very excited!  So, I have been waiting for weeks to spill the beans about our new house, but as with the purchasing process of our MN house, I didn’t want to share all of the details in real-time.  Job searches and house hunts are some very stressful life events full of twists, turns, steps of faith, and sometimes disappointments.  It’s just too much to bring blog and social media followers along.  We even kept things pretty general with our friends and family for a while to keep the riders in the rollercoaster to a minimum. But, behind the scenes, we were looking at houses with a realtor, making an offer, and then going through several different inspections since we were buying an “as-is” home.  I’ve also been working on all of the paperwork

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September 13, 2022 464 Comments
All Things Home

would you want a blogger to buy your house?

Would you want a blogger (or social media influencer/YouTuber) to buy your house? I had this thought as I’ve been browsing online real estate listings.  One of the questions I’m asked every so often is, “What do the former owners think about what you’ve done to the house?”  And, in the case of both of our homes that I shared online, I don’t know.  I never heard.  But, I have to admit that I wasn’t very sensitive to the idea they would even care when I first started sharing about our PA house on this blog.  I just wrote what I thought about the house with little recognition of the fact that the former owners might read about it and be offended. (Our MN living room when we first moved in.) Criticism in the form of poking fun at something dated, poorly done, or just off the wall is entertaining

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September 2, 2022 66 Comments
Antiques

shopping for vintage lamps

I tell you what…  If you need a random something to put a smile on your face, go out to an antique store, thrift store, or secondhand shop and look at lamps.  Lamps seem to be one of the places where home decor companies really let loose.  Let’s make beige sofas and brown tables, but lamps?  Let’s make those weird.  Well, you at least find weird lamps in abundance when you’re shopping for vintage lamps! As I’ve been out browsing antique and thrift stores, it’s almost been a fun little Easter egg hunt to spot the lamps that make me smile. I’ve been looking for lamps because I sold almost all of my lamps when we moved.  I kept the architecture salvage lamps that were by the bed in our room… …and a few of the work lamps from my studio… (The clamp lamp is from Etsy shop.) …and one

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August 30, 2022 24 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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