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All Things Home

All Things Home

Lucketts Spring Market 2024

Friday morning, my mom and I set off early to hit the Lucketts Spring Market Early Bird day.  I had scouted out some large terracotta pots for my espalier apple trees that were only available at the Winchester Home Depot, so we stopped there on the way to pick those up.  I’ll share about them in another post, but once the pots were purchased and loaded, we drove the rest of the way to the fairgrounds in Berryville, VA.  I didn’t have any large furniture pieces I was looking for, but I still felt nervously excited.  Antique markets just do that to me.  There is the tension of knowing most items are one-of-a-kind and you don’t want to miss out on something you like, but you also don’t want to jump at the first thing you see, knowing there are many more vendor’s wares to explore.  I felt that tension

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All Things Home

DIY cedar garden obelisk

I was on a high from building the vintage-style trellises for the front of the house, so I decided to do more math and make a DIY cedar garden obelisk.  I bought enough wood to make three trellises (two large and one small), but I decided to do something different on the wall where the small trellis was going to hang.  So, I had extra cedar that we cut down to 1 x 2s as well as some scraps from the trellis project and I wanted to use every bit I could.  You can find the plans for the vintage-style trellis HERE if you missed it and are interested in building one. I didn’t take pictures as I built the obelisk for two reasons.  One, it was sprinkling on and off so I was fitting in work on the project as weather would allow.  Two, I was completely winging it

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All Things Home

My Lucketts Spring Market 2024 Wish List

This Friday, my mom and I are heading back to the Lucketts Spring Market!  It snuck up on me this year because I don’t have any huge items on my wishlist, but going to the Spring and Fall Markets is always a highlight.  I get to spend quality time with my mom, rub shoulders with some of my old antique vendor buddies, and come home with some treasures.  It’s also an amazing, well-curated, well-produced event that is a delight to experience.  The folks at Lucketts do a top-notch job.  Think of amazing Anthropologie displays colliding with your favorite antique shops, and a day at a country fair.  There are fiddle groups and everything.  It’s not too late to get tickets or to drop in for an enjoyable day.  HERE are all of the when, where, and how details. When we went to the 2023 Spring Market, I was on the

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1970 home renovation

gardening plan with a local nursery

Over the winter, I was already thinking about working on the front garden.  It was going to be a massive project landscaping this wide, rambling, unsymmetrical house, but we were at a place in our 1970 home renovation where we could get started once Spring arrived.  We had painted the siding and trim, removed the overgrown trees and landscaping, replaced missing shutters, installed new windows along the front of the house, and a new roof.  All of the bush-trampling jobs were behind us and we could start reestablishing the beds and planting.  But, I felt very overwhelmed at the idea of planning it all out myself. I reached out to a few landscape designers about quotes and the process for getting a virtual plan.  For a virtual consultation, I would have to have the property professionally surveyed and most of the quotes were in the $1,000 neighborhood.  While I felt

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All Things Home

large vintage-style garden trellis tutorial & free plans

As I shared last week (in THIS POST), I decided I was overcomplicating the trellis idea for the garage wall.  I thought building one large trellis would be the way to go, but I realized two would balance out the windows on the other “wing” of the house and two trellises would be much easier to build than one.  They’d still be substantial (about 4 x 8′), but they would be smaller and lighter than the original idea and would be easy to install and remove for cleaning and painting over the years.  It would require less lumber and wouldn’t need footings.  I took measurements, sketched some ideas, and built two trellises last week.  I am over the moon about these trellises and, of course, I wanted to share detailed plans and a tutorial so you can build your own vintage-style trellis if you have a similar blank wall to

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1970 home renovation

garden updates | bishop’s weed, trellis design, & progress

In case you haven’t noticed by the subject of my recent posts, gardening has been my main focus over the past few weeks.  I feel like I have to take advantage of the weather before it starts getting really hot and also get the backyard cleaned up before we open the pool.  I keep feeling a pull to the easel to get some paintings done and I’m excited about finally painting the dining room, but I have to follow the seasons and plant when it’s prime planting time.  And, I need to get ahead of the weeds before they get out of control even more than they are.  In addition to the sense of seasonal urgency, I’m really enjoying it.  I put my headphones in and listen to an audiobook or music and completely lose track of time.  I’ve been gardening some evenings until it’s so dark I can hardly

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Gardening

why Annabelle hydrangeas are my favorite

It was our first summer in our house in Minnesota and I noticed some potted white hydrangeas at the grocery store (of all places.)  We had a lot of work to do on the garden beds before we were ready for planting (weeding, digging up unwanted plants, moving rock), so I wasn’t planning on buying bushes, but they were so pretty and they were on clearance for some crazy price like $15/each.  I felt like I couldn’t resist.  I come home from a quick grocery run with a trunk full of bushes!  Thankfully, Jeff is used to my antics and, as long as it’s not a rickety chair that will collapse if he tries to sit on it, he’s pretty relaxed about me bringing surprises home.  What I had purchased impulsively were Annabelle hydrangeas and they were a serendipitous find. This was the summer I planted them and they just

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Favorite Things

beautiful tools | copper watering can & mister

As I have shared many times over the years, I believe in having the tools you use every day be beautiful from dish brushes and bars of soap to brooms and scissors to pencils and grocery bags.  Functional items can, in most cases, also be lovely, aesthetically pleasing, and a delight to use.  They don’t have to be made of brightly-colored plastic that you want to hide in your cabinets.  Even the humblest of sponges or a pair of gardening clogs can be something you enjoy having in plain view.  For years, I have been using a plastic water bottle or whatever else I could find on hand to water my houseplants.  I finally decided to treat myself to a beautiful watering can that I wouldn’t mind sitting out on the counter or the shelf by the kitchen door.  After looking around at my options and thinking about it, I

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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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