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All Things Home
All Things Home

the enameled kitchen sink

The boys are in a sports day camp this week and that means I actually have concentrated, uninterrupted time to work!  I know so many can relate to the challenges that come with trying to run a business from home while the kids are home all day.  I regularly feel torn between doing mom-stuff and doing work-stuff, so it’s nice to be able to focus on work when they are off having fun and then I can focus on them when they get home.  I am taking advantage of this time and already started working on the butler’s pantry, so that should be done later this week. Until then, I thought I would share more details on my new cast-iron sink.  We selected the by Kohler.  (As an FYI, this was a sink I purchased, not a part of a blog sponsorship or review.) As I shared in THIS POST,

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July 10, 2018 26 Comments
All Things Home

repainting the primitive blue cabinet

The primitive blue hutch has been one of my favorite pieces of furniture for several years, but it is a little too primitive for my current home.  The shape is simple enough, so I think it has more to do with the color and distressed, worn paint.  I have been debating painting it for months and I finally did it! Here is how it looked originally… And how it looks now… I know the blue paint on the cabinet looks like it’s old, but it had been repainted before I acquired it (I could see the roller marks) and I repainted it when I brought it home (to tone down the blue a little bit.)  All of that to say I wouldn’t have painted it if the paint was original. The new coat of paint is Shutter Gray mixed with some Lucketts Green and Linen MMS Milk Paint.  It made

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July 8, 2018 88 Comments
a slice of life

cherry picking

I hope you had a lovely fourth of July!  We invited some friends over from our church and then watched fireworks from a vantage point near our house.  It was low key, but everything July 4th should be…burgers, corn on the cob, macaroni salad, sparklers, and friends. Other than that, I’ve been doing some projects around the house, like finishing the front garden, helping Jeff with organizing the garage (he’s building shelves and then I organize), trying to fix/install a new doorbell (which has been more challenging than one would have thought), making multiple trips to Home Depot for materials and supplies, and working on an unexpected, totally not-fun project that popped up on July 3. If you follow me on Instagram Stories, you know I had a funky smell in my van and came to learn it was emanating from a dead mouse.  I know!  I absolutely could not

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July 6, 2018 52 Comments
All Things Home

front garden reveal

Other than letting everything grow, the front garden is all finished!  Well, for now.  I am still a novice gardener, but one thing I have learned is that gardens are dynamic and they are never done.  All of the plants are in the ground, though, and I love how much curb appeal it’s added to the house. The yard and landscaping were some of the last things we worked on at our last house, so we didn’t really have a chance to finish it or enjoy seeing many of the plants mature.  With this house, I wanted to start planting, so I could have hedges of boxwood and hydrangeas, a flower garden, herbs and vegetables, and all of that fun stuff.  It is going to take a few years to get it all done, but we’ll work on it bit by bit each spring and fall until it’s done. We

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July 3, 2018 45 Comments
All Things Home

milk paint landscape mural | reveal

Unless you follow me on Instagram, when you last saw the milk paint landscape mural in the dining room, it was just getting started with the watery Lucketts Green base for the land.  Well, Friday it was hot as the blazes here in Rochester, MN (heat index of 104), so we all hung out inside and I had a lot of time to work on the landscape mural.  I wasn’t planning on being able to finish it, but the work went quicker than I expected and the boys were content for long stretches, so I got it all done! And here it is… (Remember that the furniture isn’t done, yet!) (Or the butler’s pantry!  You can see it finished HERE.) As I shared in my first post about the mural, this was inspired by Susan Harter’s mural style mixed with a hint of Rufus Porter in the folk-feeling of the

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July 2, 2018 136 Comments
All Things Home

milk paint landscape mural

A few weeks ago, I shared my plan to paint a soft landscape mural in my dining room.   The dining room is one of the smallest non-bathroom rooms in the house and it’s square with a large window and two large doorways, making it a little awkward.  I feel like it needs something that is a show-stopper in order to make it a special room and I think a mural can be that show-stopper. When I shared my idea, I also shared my inspiration – Susan Harter Mural Papers.  Every mural that I found on Pinterest and Google image searches seemed to be by her.  I just love the soft colors and traditional style of her murals, so that was the direction I wanted to go. Well, one of her clients alerted her to my post and she reached out to me directly.  We got along like two peas in

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June 29, 2018 50 Comments
All Things Home

concrete urn, cast iron cow & cherry trees

It has been a lot of hard work, but all of the planting in the front garden is done! The garden was stripped down to bare dirt early last week and I then worked on improving the soil to help all of the plants grow stronger and healthier.  Jeff and I broke up the soil with a couple of spades and then I raked and hoed in some manure, humus, and garden soil.  It was tough work and I’m pretty sure I got manure on my face in the process.  Let’s just say that I made many visits to the utility sink while working and took a thorough bath that night! I worked on the planting over two days.  Digging for the bushes took a lot more time than I imagined, since I had to dig the holes much larger than the root ball.  The annuals along the sidewalk a

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June 27, 2018 77 Comments
a slice of life

making ourselves at home

Before I get into today’s post, I want to encourage you to visit one of my friend’s websites.  Laura Dreyer is a talented artist and creative business owner (she is the creator of Little Clay Land), but is also a long-time friend and the designer of my logo and lot of the branding that became the cornerstone of my professional look.  She is publishing a series of interviews by creative entrepreneurs and mine is posted today. As a part of the series, she is including hand-drawn lettering of the creative’s business.  Here is the one she did for me… Anyway, just a little light reading, if you’re interested! A part of what makes me feel not-at-home somewhere that isn’t my home is that I don’t have a place for everything.  That might sound like a stupid and obvious statement, but hang in here with me.  I end up being a

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June 26, 2018 37 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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