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Decorating
All Things Home

organizing | one room down

I have been very lazy since Christmas.  You know me…I’m usually ultra productive, but every signal my body was sending me said to just rest and relax, so I did.  I did totally unproductive things like playing games on my iPad (I’ve been enjoying 1010! and The Room Three), watching Netflix, combing through the 25% off clearance sale at Anthropologie to make sure I didn’t miss anything, and relying on leftovers, so I didn’t have to cook.  I even painted my toenails! It’s been a nice break, but I felt my usually energy make an appearance yesterday morning.  It’s always a good sign when I start working before breakfast, while I’m still in my jammies.  I finally did take a break and got ready for the day, so I was presentable when the babysitter came over. I have a goal to purge and organize the entire house.  I did this a couple of

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December 31, 2015 67 Comments
a slice of life

Christmas recap | 2015

I think this stretch is the longest I’ve ever gone without posting on my blog!  I can’t remember ever taking five full days without posting anything.  I’ve always taken posting fresh content very seriously.  It is my job, after all!  But this year, I decided to relax a bit and allow myself a few days without posting or prepping posts ahead of time. I didn’t set a “back to work” day, but I woke up this morning and felt ready to write, so here I am. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!  We definitely did.  The boys are at a prime age to appreciate gifts and we were able to surprise them with some really fun ones this year.  My parents, brother and sister-in-law joined us, so the house was full of noise, fun, wrapping paper scraps and yummy smells. Marshall woke up feeling a little queazy, so he carried

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December 29, 2015 33 Comments
a slice of life

a christmas song | what a glorious night

It’s become of a bit of a tradition (every other year, anyway) for me to share a Christmas song here on the blog.  Last year, we just couldn’t pull it together, but this year, I heard a song that I thought would be great and I had just the group of people to do it! I asked Kriste and her husband, David, if they would be up for joining me, Jeff & the boys, my parents and my brother & sister-in-law for a song.  I was able to lasso everyone in, assign each one an instrument or a part and we spent a couple of hours practicing and recording the song. I’ve shared a lot about decorating for Christmas over the past few weeks, but Christmas is all about that glorious night when Love came down in the form of a baby in a manger, so we could be saved from our

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December 24, 2015 79 Comments
All Things Home

milk painted ornaments

I spent most of my day wrapping presents and working on some cleaning to get ready to host Christmas.  I’m sure many of you were doing the same. I have also been insanely motivated to purge and organize.  I’m not sure what has kicked into me, but I have been in a mood.  A get-rid-of-80%-of-everything-and-organize-the-rest kind of mood.  Usually this mood hits me in January, but it is, very inconveniently, hitting just a few days before Christmas!  So, I’ve been purging and sorting my way through sections of my house and studio. I’m ready to take on any shelf, drawer, closet or cubby that doesn’t contain useful items stored in a tidy fashion.  I’ve bought bins and labels and I’m eye-balling things that I’m going to sell, donate or pitch.  I’ll finally quit holding myself back after Christmas, but for now, I need to push aside this distraction and focus on the

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December 22, 2015 28 Comments
All Things Home

living & dining rooms | Christmas 2015

My favorite rooms to decorate for Christmas are the definitely the living and dining rooms.  It’s hard to believe how dark these rooms were when we first moved in over nine years ago and now how light-filled and fresh they feel. For Christmas, I just add some fresh greenery and a few wool pom-poms.  That’s about all these rooms need. I shared video tutorial HERE showing my trick for dressing my chandeliers with fresh greens. The tie-top pillows I made last week ended up on the living room sofa… I was on the hunt for a potted blue spruce to put in my antique white bucket, like I did last year, but…no luck.  So, I asked Jeff if he would pick up a cut tabletop tree next time he was out and about.  I put it in a pitcher of water inside the bucket and it suits me just fine. On the other

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December 18, 2015 27 Comments
All Things Home

gingerbread-ing it up

Would you believe that I have never made gingerbread houses or cookies from scratch?  Ever?  I have made them out of graham crackers or bought the pre-made kits to do with the boys, but I’ve never made the dough and the icing and rolled and cut everything myself. Until Tuesday. I’ve been so in love with the simple and pretty gingerbread houses I’ve seen spotted on Instagram that I decided I needed to make some of my own. I was supposed to go to the studio on Tuesday.  Kriste was there already, packing up the online orders from the weekend, but the pull of the gingerbread was just too strong. I gave her a call.  “So, there isn’t anything we really have to do today, right?  Would you be okay if I stay home and  make gingerbread houses?  You could come on over and we can do some brainstorming while we decorate…”

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December 17, 2015 23 Comments
All Things Home

custom furniture | $1000 giveaway

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Interior Define.  All words and opinions are my own, and, as always, I’m partnering with a brand I like that I want to introduce to my readers. I am a big-time online shopper.  I live at least 45 minutes away from decent shopping and about 1 1/2 – 2 hours away from really great shopping.  So, I’ve become very comfortable making big purchases from pictures, measurements, descriptions and reviews.  I’ve bought all of the tile that is in my house online, an armoire, three toilets, a bathtub, an ottoman, two beds, barstools, yards and yards of fabric, all of my rugs and countless accessories. The people at UPS and FedEx love me. So, when I was introduced to Interior Define, a company that specializes in custom, made-to-order furniture sold online, I was interested in checking them out.  That is right up my alley.  One big advantage

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December 16, 2015 995 Comments
All Things Home

kim’s coastal bedroom | the bedskirt & built-ins

I know lots of you are eagerly awaiting the reveal of my mom’s room makeover.  Trust me…she is, too!  My design services are free, but they aren’t fast!  We have been making some progress, though.  I mentioned before that I made a bed skirt, but I didn’t have a chance to get a picture of it, until this weekend.  (…when we watched the Redskins beat the Bears.  Just throwing that out there.)  Here it is on the bed… It really adds a finished look to the bed and a hint of color and pattern in the neutral space.  The fabric is Adelaide Mist from Sailrite. I wish I had made a tutorial of the skirt, but I flew through it to get it made for my mom’s birthday, so I could present it to her when I took her out to dinner a few weeks ago.  It involved lots of

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December 15, 2015 23 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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