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Gardening
All Things Home

taking care of myrtle topiaries

 I have loved myrtle topiaries for years.  I would always admire them in magazines and how elegant, graceful, and pretty they are. I admired my online friends who seemed to have the magic touch with myrtles – Loi of Tone on Tone and Heather of Sweet Shady Lane.  Heather calls them her “ladies.”  I have bought a few over the years and felt like they were fickle, difficult, and beyond my skill to care for.  The truth is, I just didn’t know the one, simple trick to taking care of myrtle topiaries.  Are you ready for it?  Water them daily or every other day because they like to stay moist. Before I shared the tip, I thought I would test it out.  I would just keep them in my kitchen window, which gets nice morning sun, and water them daily. I bought this pair of myrtle topiaries in May at

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October 22, 2024 18 Comments
All Things Home

a bench, a fountain, and garden lights

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Lamps Plus.  As always, all words and opinions expressed are honest and my own. Do you remember some of the lighting fixtures I’ve gotten from Lamps Plus for our house so far?  We updated the 50-year-old exterior lights with the classic Stratton Street Lights… We added a lot more light to the long, interior hall with the Possini Euro Star fixtures… …and freed up the living room side tables by adding the Mendes Antique Brass wall sconces over the sofa. As we’ve been turning some of our attention to the house’s exterior this spring and summer, I started looking at some of the items offered in the “plus” categories of Lamps Plus.  What initially led me to them was the search for a teak bench similar to the one we bought in PA and took with us to Minnesota.  I loved that bench, but

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September 3, 2024 22 Comments
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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August 28, 2024 9 Comments
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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August 21, 2024 13 Comments
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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August 1, 2024 22 Comments
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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July 25, 2024 3 Comments
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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July 24, 2024 11 Comments
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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July 19, 2024 12 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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