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styling tips | for home

A few days ago, I shared part one of the “styling tips” series – for retail.  Now, it’s time for part two – styling tips for the home. While styling for retail and photography is about making a space and individual items look beautiful or appealing without much regard to practicality, styling the home is about making the everyday beautiful. Styling for retail and photography is a whole other ball of wax from home styling. As an example, here is Megan’s office, a room I worked on last fall.  For the “beauty shots”, we removed the keyboard and things that weren’t as photogenic, but when it came to styling the room to live in, we had to take the keyboard, paperwork, printer, recording equipment, etc. into account. It was an office and creative space, after all.  It wouldn’t have made sense to banish the keyboard to the garage or the

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All Things Home

indigo dyed napkins

A few of you spotted (and asked about) the blue napkins I used in my table arrangement last week… …so, this post is all about them. These napkins are actually antique linen napkins from my Oma.  They look quite lovely in the picture below, but they were actually a very yellowy-cream that I never cared for… The color was so off that I never used them.  I always went to prettier white and cream linen napkins.  They are so pretty, aside from the color, and it was a shame they weren’t being used, so when I was working on an indigo dying project for a freelance client, I decided to “throw them in the pool”. (As an aside, I was slightly insane and accepted six freelance tutorials that had to be completed in two weeks, just before Lucketts!  It definitely put the pressure on, but it was worth squeezing them

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All Things Home

styling tips | for retail

I’ve written several posts about styling over the years, but I’ve grown a lot and learned a lot along the way and it’s probably time for an update.  (I have also received a few comments and e-mails about it lately.)  Styling is a broad topic, so I’ll break this up into a series.  In my work, I do three kinds of styling – for photography, for the home, and for retail.  They all have similarities, but I approach each of them differently.  Let’s start with styling for retail… This is a “retail vignette” I put together using furniture and accessories that I brought to sell at Lucketts… As I’m pulling and arranging things, I’m aiming toward three main goals… styling for retail | tell a story Whether it’s a story of color, texture, a specific space, theme, season, geographic location, etc., I want to curate a group of items that relate to one

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All Things Home

updated tips for shopping craigslist

If you’ve read my blog for any amount of time, you’ve probably caught on that craigslist is one of my favorite places to shop for furniture.  I’m often asked about it, so I thought I would share some updated tips along with my craigslist strategy and how I sort through the trash and treasures. First of all, I know I’m in a “good area” for finding furniture and antiques.  I live in south central PA and it’s not a very transient area.  Families live here for generations.  They don’t move, they add on.  We’ve lived in our town for almost ten years and I still feel like we’re relatively new. This is also a rural area and an old one, which means lots of old houses and barns.  All of those things combined means that there are attics, basements, spare rooms, and outbuildings filled with old things that eventually end up in

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All Things Home

why I use my silver everyday

I’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth talking about again. When I shared pictures of my new drawer organizers, I received a few comments and questions about my flatware.  The most common one was, “Do you really use your silver everyday?” The answer is yes, I really do.  Even with two young boys, I do.  Even with a husband who would be content using plastic picnic ware, I do. It wasn’t always like that.  I used to use a $20/set Oneida pattern that we received as a wedding gift.  It was a common set, so I added onto it over the years with pieces I found from thrift stores.  I never really loved it, but it was just what we used and I didn’t question it. I did finally purchase some new flatware from Pottery Barn, but it didn’t wear very well and the scale was so large that the

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All Things Home

decorating dilemma | Susan’s awkward fireplace

Before I get into today’s post, I wanted to apologize to those who still want to buy hemp sheets, but they are sold out.  I was floored with how quickly my largest order ever was exhausted!  We do have some more from that shipment to list, but the weight is a bit different.  I will give everyone a head’s up before I list them (most likely early next week.) Also, I will place another order for hemp sheets when my source has them back in stock, so if you would like to be on a “waiting list”, just send an e-mail to marian@missmustardseed.com and let me know how many you would like and you can have first dibs.  They are $110/each. Now, to today’s decorating dilemma!  I think there are times when someone designs or remodels a space and they have an idea and implement it without really thinking through how it’s going

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All Things Home

dressing a chandelier for Christmas with fresh greenery

Some of you noticed the greenery hanging from my chandelier in the pictures I shared of my teacup & pedestal advent wreath and asked to see more and for me to share how I do it.  So, that’s what I’m doing today!  Here is how I dress a chandelier with fresh greenery for Christmas. Here’s a better look at the chandelier dressed for Christmas in the dining room… I’ve been dressing my chandeliers for Christmas like this for a few years now and it’s always the no-brainer in my holiday decor.  It just looks so pretty and festive… …and it’s so easy. I decided to shoot a quick video showing how I dress a chandelier with fresh greenery for Christmas.  While I use fresh greenery in this video, you can use the same technique with artificial greens.  Start the same way (with a garland) and then tuck picks into the garland

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All Things Home

how to sew custom piping | slipcover series part 1

I finally did it.  I’ve been promising to do it for years and I have, at long last, made good. Years ago, I made a six part video slipcover series on how to make a slipcover.  I tried to write posts about it and I always fumbled over the wording and the posts were confusing and long.  Imagine paragraph after paragraph of “with right-sides together, insert piping between pieces of fabric and pin into place along edge of the chair blah-blah-blah-blah…”  It was just way too much to try to explain in words and pictures alone, so I decided to make videos. They were filmed in my crowded craft room, poorly lit and I know it was sometimes hard to see what I was doing.  You can also hear my kiddos in the background.  While those videos have their charm and I will keep the live on my YouTube channel,

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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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