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Gardening

All Things Home

pressing & mounting flowers | video tutorial

Last month, I shared how I was taking cuttings from my garden to preserve them in my gardening notebook.  As various other herbs and flowers have reached their peak, I have clipped them to add.  I decided I would make a quick video on pressing and mounting flowers in a notebook while I was at it.  I still have a few more to cut and press, but I have a pretty nice collection happening and I love how it makes my notebook even more personal and special. I pressed all of the herbs, a few annuals that are in pots on the patio and in the garden beds, and blooms off of flowering bushes.  I labeled each one along with the date it was planted or cut.  Admittedly, I didn’t stay consistent with the dating, but precision wasn’t the goal.  I just want to keep a general record of the

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All Things Home

Giving an antique whirligig a makeover

 A few months ago, I decided to check out an antique store I hadn’t been to in a while – the Fayetteville Antique Mall in Fayetteville, PA.  I used to go there regularly when we lived in PA, but I noticed more vendors were leaving over and the quality of the merchandise was going downhill.  But, I’ve learned with antique malls that it’s always worth checking it out.  Even one or two new vendors that carry things I like can make a place worth visiting.  Well, they have really stepped up their game since I was last there.  There were more vendors with quality antique pieces.  The store was tidier and more pleasant to shop.  I bought a nice collection of things and liked many pieces that I just didn’t have the right spot for.  I’ll definitely make regular visits!  Anyway, one of the things I bought was this antique

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All Things Home

my favorite weeding tools

The most overwhelming part of working on this yard has been getting the weeds under control.  Having lived in two other homes with yards, I know that’s always the overwhelming part of a yard and I’m sure you would agree.  Once they are permitted to run amuck, it takes a while to get things turned around.  The yard was tended before we bought it but the woman of the house, who was an avid gardener, hadn’t been able to work in the garden as much as she did in her younger days.  The weeds got even more out of control when we were focusing on the interior of the house and just did basic maintenance in the yard.  I’ve been slowly working on the weedy areas, bit by bit, to try to get the overrun beds under control and then keep the places I’ve worked on maintained I’ve had to

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All Things Home

summer obsessions with Walmart

This post is sponsored by Walmart.  As always, all words and opinions expressed in this post are honest and my own. With the pool completely finished and opened, landscaping underway, a new fence, and a furnished patio, we have thoroughly been enjoying our backyard this summer.  It truly is an oasis and we’ve loved using it ourselves as well as having friends and family over to enjoy the pool and relaxing environment.  As I’ve shared before, many of the items used in our outdoor space are from Walmart and we’ve added a few new things that have become summer essentials.  I love that Walmart carries reliable summer staples like patio umbrellas and comfy swivel chairs and trendy items like water-resistant Bluetooth speakers and tabletop “bonfire” stoves. So, in this post, I want to highlight a few of my favorite summer essentials from Walmart. The first one is my favorite new

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crafts

preserving cuttings in my gardening notebook

Do you remember the gardening notebook I put together in the spring?  You can read about it HERE if you missed it.  I thought it would be fun to keep a record of what I planted and how I cared for it so I could track what worked and what didn’t.  It would also give me a place to store receipts for bushes that can be refunded if they don’t make it through the winter as well as a place to make notes to myself for future reference.  I’ve put all of my plant tags in it and have recorded what I have fertilized and when.  I also took cuttings from a few plants to press them for the book.  Is it necessary?  No.  Is it a beautiful way to record what was growing in our yard each year?  Yes. I pressed them in a heavy book between two sheets

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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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a slice of life

when plans change

As you might conclude from over 4,000 blog posts, in addition to books and articles, I don’t usually struggle with writer’s block.  But, every once in a while, I sit down to write a blog post, and, even though I have drafts ready, a healthy list of potential blog post ideas, and photos waiting to be used, it just doesn’t happen.  The drafts aren’t what I want to share on that particular day, the post ideas require too much lead time, and the photos aren’t inspiring.  Sometimes I can push out a post on those days because I buckle down and do the job, but on a few rare days, I realize I need to let it go and work on other things.  So, that’s what I did on Wednesday.  I worked on some other writing projects, finished an oil painting, cleaned up my e-mail inbox, and took some pictures

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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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