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All Things Home

All Things Home

how to make a dried orange slice garland

For the past few years, I have used dried orange slices in my Christmas decorating in various ways.  I’ve tucked them into garlands, swags, and wreaths and made them into ornaments to hang from the tree.  This year, I decided to make them into a garland to hang in my kitchen and, I love them so much, that I’m making more to hang on our tree this year.  I have used two different methods of making the garlands and I thought I would share both of them along with some tips I learned in the process of making them. You can find a tutorial on making the dried orange slices HERE and in THIS POST, you can find details and materials for making the wreath hanging on the range hood. The first method I used (shown above strung along the pot rail) was made with jute twine and hot glue. 

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All Things Home

Kitchen Christmas wreath

I have been gathering materials to make a wreath to hang on our kitchen range hood since October in the hopes that I could make a tutorial and share all of the exact materials for those who would like to make one as well.  As I shared in the post about the Christmas race last week, almost all of those materials are now sold out!  But, I’m going to share it anyway so those interested can tuck it away for next year or put together a wreath with similar elements.  Perhaps you already have some of these components or can use live greenery.  It’s nice to have the exact items if you’re trying to replicate a look, but it’s certainly not necessary. I haven’t hung anything on the range hood since we built and installed it (you can read about that HERE), but I envisioned a wreath on it for

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1970 home renovation

antique-style fireplace mantel reveal

Earlier this week, I shared about the antique-style fireplace mantel we built to replace the simple mantel shelf.  You can find more details about how we built that mantel in THIS POST.  I really liked the foundation of this room, but I envisioned the fireplace with a more traditional mantel.  The shelf, to me, felt more modern and the room as a whole felt more traditional.  I felt like building out the mantel would give the fireplace more presence and make the room more cohesive.  Here is how the fireplace and surrounding built-ins looked when we moved in… …and here is how it looks now with the room painted in Card Room Green and the mantel we built! Of course, it’s a little hidden because it’s all decorated for Christmas.  In fact, as soon as the paint on the mantel was dry, I started decorating it!  I realized after the

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a slice of life

the race vs. the pace of Christmas

I have loved Christmas for as long as I remember.  I have been blessed to have happy memories of Christmas with my family and it’s always been my favorite time of the year.  I love the food, the music, the baking, the decorating, the presents, the surprises, the anticipation, the traditions, the weather, the clothes…I just love it all.  When I was younger, I would try to hurry things along by insisting we put up the decorations as early as possible.  My parents would make me wait until after Thanksgiving and, I reluctantly would.  But early on Black Friday, I wasn’t thinking about shopping.  I was asking my dad to get the tree down from the attic so we could get started.  We’d put on an Amy Grant Christmas album and the Christmas season would officially begin for the Wagner household. Even as an adult, setting up the tree and

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All Things Home

adding a new shelf to an antique pine hutch

When it comes to knocking projects out, I have learned that it helps to pay attention to the tools and materials I have out and try to hit projects that need those same tools and materials.  For example, while the sewing machine is out and threads are all over the floor, it makes sense to work on several sewing projects on my list.  If I have ceiling paint out, let me complete a couple of ceilings instead of just one.  It can add a lot more time to a project that might’ve been short and sweet, but it does save time and sometimes money in the long run.  So, when we were buying pine boards for the mantel project and had our job site table saw set up on the driveway, I decided to pick up a rough pine board to make another shelf for the antique pine hutch in

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1970 home renovation

Building our new antique-style mantel

Several of you guessed we would build fireplace mantel option number one and you were right.  All of the antique-style mantel options I shared in THIS POST were strong contenders, but I kept coming back to the first one.  It was the first picture I saved as inspiration and the one that I imagined in our living room.  I think the others would’ve worked, but there was something about this one that I just couldn’t shake.  So, I went with my gut and this is the one we built. Photo via Becca Interiors Because our fireplace had three two-by-four supports for a mantel shelf built into the brick, it made the most sense to work around those.  We could’ve simply cut them off and then build whatever mantel style we wanted, but having support foe a shelf built into the wall was a better option than trying to build up

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Favorite Things

Black Friday Deals with Walmart

Disclosure | This post is sponsored by Walmart.  As always, all words and opinions expressed are honest and my own. Almost 15 years ago, I decided I would set out on Black Friday to see what all of the fuss was about.  I love getting a good deal, but I wasn’t excited about braving the parking lots and crowds.  I ended up waiting in a line wrapped around a store to buy a Playdough set for Marshall and my curiosity about the hoopla was satisfied.  But now, there is no need to wait in line or even wait until Black Friday to get amazing deals.  has thousands of Black Friday deals available today and you can shop them all without fighting for a parking spot, sitting in traffic, or waiting in lines. They are offering sales of everything from toys and electronics to clothes and housewares and more.  As you

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1970 home renovation

new plans for the mantel

I shared early in the fall that I found an antique mantel removed from a local home built circa 1810.  I was so excited about bringing that piece of history into our house.  Overall the measurements seemed like they were going to work, but after we got it home and inspected it more carefully, we realized that it would need more than the few tweaks I initially thought.  I was pretty bummed, but Jeff and I were sort of excited at the idea of designing and building our own mantel.  So, I sold the antique one on Facebook Marketplace and started looking for some inspiration. This is mantel option number one and the one I looked at initially when I searched for inspiration about a year ago.  I liked the uniqueness of the curve above the firebox and I felt like the simplicity of it would work nicely in our

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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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