Preorder Move Slow & Make Things, and enjoy a collection of thoughtful bonus content created just for you!

Gardening

a slice of life

bird bath happenings

I don’t have a lot of garden memories since I spent the majority of my childhood in military housing apartments overseas, but as I’ve shared before, the garden memories I do have are from my Oma and Opa’s garden.  We lived with them when I was very little and my dad was on a hardship tour in Korea for the Army and during some summers when I was older.  My Opa loved gardening and birdwatching.  He loved animals in general and we often referred to him as Dr. Doolittle.  I don’t know if I’ve shared this before, but my mom had a menagerie of unusual pets growing up like a pony (they paid $25 for it and drove it around in the back of the station wagon), squirrels, a goose, a raccoon, turtles, birds, a goat, snakes, a white rat named Pedro, and dogs and cats, of course.  My mom

Read More
1970 home renovation

edging the front walk

If you can’t tell by my blog posts, we’ve been focusing our efforts on the exterior of the house over the past few weeks.  I’ve been enjoying it and have some good momentum, but we’re also trying to get as much done before it gets uncomfortably hot.  Spring and fall are my favorite times to be outside, so we’re trying to take advantage of it before we’re in the dog days of summer.  We started working on our fence yesterday and got the section on the right side of the house finished (except for a few finishing details) and we’ll get the other side done over the next 2-3 days.  I’ll share that process and the result in another post.  Something we worked on last week, though, was edging the front walk. While the front of our house is very visible, the front door is rarely used.  Since the driveway,

Read More
All Things Home

cleaning ivy (roots & stains) off of brick

When I first shared about the back wall of our house, I thought aloud about allowing ivy to grow up in certain areas and just keep it trimmed so it didn’t take over.  However, after pulling it from all over the yard and seeing it try to climb into windows (successfully in the case of a basement window that was left open), I decided against it.  I do still love the look of ivy growing (thoughtneatly trimmed) on a building, but I realized it’s not as easy to control the growth as I imagined and the damage and discoloration it leaves behind on the brick is unsightly and I don’t want to accumulate more.  So, English ivy has become another nemesis along with Bishop’s weed/goutweed and I’ve been scraping it off the house, cutting it off the fence (which we’re replacing this week), and pulling it out of the yard.

Read More
All Things Home

antique iron plant stand

One of the things on my Lucketts shopping wishlist was a plant stand.  I was open to the style of plant stand, but I envisioned a tiered wrought iron plant stand and I know it would be hard to get that idea out of my head.  I saw a few at the Lucketts Spring Market that were just what I was imagining, but they ran in the $300-400 range.  I had already spent a good chunk of my Lucketts budget on antique concrete planters and a boot scraper, so I was hoping to find a plant stand at a lower price.  I didn’t bring a plant stand home the day of the market, so I decided to keep an eye out on Facebook Marketplace and in local second-hand stores.  One was bound to turn up sooner or later. When I was out running errands a couple of days later, I

Read More
All Things Home

marian tries | weaving garden cloches

Do you know what I’ve been thinking lately?  I need more hobbies.  I mean, a girl needs a few tasks to keep her busy.  Of course, I’m being facetious since I have hobbies up to my eyeballs, but it’s still hard for me to resist dabbling in a new one when it looks intriguing.  As I’ve been spending a lot of time this spring working on our yard and garden beds, I thought it would be fun to make some of my own willow garden cloches and plant supports.  I just adore them when I see them in books and TV shows.  They add a homespun charm that I wanted to add to my suburban garden.  As I started researching sourcing willow for weaving garden supports, I realized this hobby wasn’t going to be quite as simple to delve into as knitting or painting.  It seems that weaving your own

Read More
All Things Home

first willow garden structure project & an English dovecote

Several of you have asked about the English dovecote hanging near our front door as well as the willow garden support, so I wanted to back up a bit and share about those two pieces.  Since the English dovecote came first, let’s start with that. I was initially planning on making a trellis for this bit of wall that would complement the two larger trellises on the wall just around the corner, but I was wondering if that might be trellis overload.  This wall needed something, though. Maria of Dreamy Whites had sent me a dovecote from one of her shopping trips in England and Europe last year, but it had been waiting in the basement until we started working more on the exterior of the house.  I have long admired English dovecotes and knew I wanted to mount one somewhere in the yard or on the house, but there

Read More
1970 home renovation

update on the back garden beds | part one

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”] [et_pb_row admin_label=”row”] [et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] The areas that were always a struggle for me when it came to gardening were patience and planning.  For years, I would make a feeble attempt at weeding and planting, but I didn’t take any time to learn about the plants themselves or how to make weeds easier to control and maintain.  So, I would plant bushes, annuals, and perennials in totally the wrong places.  Plants that would eventually get huge were in front of others that were a low, creeping ground cover, plants were in the wrong soil, the wrong light, and I wouldn’t even bother to water or prune.  When what looked decent right after I worked on it looked terrible in a few weeks or months, I would shrug my shoulders in resignation.  Well, I’m just not good at gardening.  I’m a little older now, wiser, more patient, and willing

Read More
All Things Home

planting the espalier apple trees in terra cotta pots

Yesterday, I shared how we primed, painted, and installed the vintage-style trellises on our blank white wall of siding, and today, I want to share how I planted the espalier apple trees in large terra cotta pots and tied them to the trellises.  When I mentioned putting them in pots on my Instagram stories, I was asked several times why I opted for pots instead of putting them directly into the ground. Well, there are a few reasons for that… Number one, I’m not sure what kind of chemicals have been sprayed on this soil over the years.  We’ve had pest control treatments and I didn’t know I’d be planting edibles here, so I didn’t ask them to skip this area.  I would be a little nervous planting a fruit tree in questionable soil. Number two, I want to make sure they get enough light on this wall with the

Read More

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.

next art sale

May 20th, 2026 at 1pm EST

Now Available for Preorder

Move Slow & Make Things

A book about creativity, intention, and making things with care. Sign up to receive updates, preorder details, and exclusive bonus content.

From the Studio

Artful pieces for your home and everyday life.

From original paintings and art prints to Pup Club releases and curated goods, each piece is created or chosen to bring warmth, creativity, and character into your home.

From the Studio and Home

Shop the Feed

A handpicked collection of items styled and shared throughout posts, projects, and social feeds. Every product is thoughtfully chosen to reflect a timeless, collected aesthetic.

Recent Video

Spring Posts

Explore the Shop

Explore the Blog

Categories
error: Content is protected.

Pin It on Pinterest