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All Things Home

feels like home | giveaway for the furniture artist

comes out in just over a week!!  If you’ve been waiting to preorder the book until it’s a little closer to shipping day, well, we’re getting pretty close.  I am so excited to get this book out into the world. For Feels Like Home Friday, Melanie from Mango Reclaimed and Mango Paint (she is amazing) and I will be doing a furniture and paint Q&A on Instagram Live at 1:00 EST/noon CST.  (That is Friday, October 1, 2021.)  The Live will be recorded and I’ll link to it when it’s available if you can’t join us. As a thank you to all of my readers and followers who have been so supportive of this book project, I am having another giveaway.  This one is for the “furniture artist” and is very near and dear to me since painting and refinishing furniture was the staple of my business for over a

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October 1, 2021 618 Comments
Decorating

making a beautiful, comfortable bed with brooklinen

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Brooklinen.  As always, all words and opinions are honest and my own. Use promo code MUSTARDSEED to get $20 off your Brooklinen order of over $100. I was having a conversation with one of my good friends a couple of weeks ago and she shared that she just bought all new bedding.  It was a splurge, a deliberate investment in herself and her sleep after a particularly trying couple of years.  When I got off the phone with her, I thought, good for you.  We often overlook pampering ourselves by making sure our bed is comfortable and inviting. I’ve learned the value of good bedding over the past few years and it’s become a non-negotiable to me.  It goes beyond decorating and aesthetics because sleep is so vital to our physical and mental health, our mood, productivity, and creativity.  We spend 1/3 of our

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September 28, 2021 22 Comments
Decorating

family room makeover | painted fireplace surround

I finally made some more progress on the basement family room makeover in the latter part of last week.  Jeff helped me hang the deer head and I finished painting the fireplace surround and mantel.  It didn’t look bad before, but it just didn’t look like “me.”  The shiny black granite tile specifically felt a little too modern for my aesthetic.  So, I used the same technique I used when painting the granite tile around the fireplace upstairs.  (You can find that tutorial HERE.) And, it works so much better for the decorating direction I’m heading. Here is how it looked before… The walls are painted in Oval Room Blue, Modern Emulsion finish by Farrow & Ball from Dreamy Whites.  I used a tinted to Oval Room Blue to prime the fireplace surround and the tile.  Once that fully dried over three weeks or so (I’m being facetious because I

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September 27, 2021 56 Comments
Antiques

favorite things | marmalade crocks

I remember in my very early days of antiquing, I saw a little marmalade crock sitting on a window sill in an antique mall.  I was immediately drawn to it and, at $8.00, it was something I could afford to buy.  I used that jar for years to hold pens and pencils on my desk.  Now, I own at least a dozen antique marmalade crocks, much older and larger than the $8.00 purchase that started my collection. A few years ago, I bought several large lots of advertising pots, including marmalade crocks at a wholesale price.  While I sold most of them at the Lucketts Spring Market, I kept a few favorites for myself. I use them all over my house.  Marmalade crocks hold antique flatware in the kitchen… …knitting needles and crochet hooks in the studio… …scissors, rulers, pens, and pencils as well. And brushes.  Of course, brushes. I

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September 20, 2021 17 Comments
a slice of life

potato corn soup with dill

I am an unashamed soup lover.  I don’t know why anyone would be ashamed of that, but I definitely am not.  I think my love of soup started when we went to a family conference in Switzerland and they served the most wonderful pureed soups.  I had no idea what was in them, but I loved every bowl.  I wish I had the recipes for those!  Anyway, I also love that I can make one big pot of soup over the weekend and we have quick, healthy, and easy dinners ready to reheat.  Today, I’m sharing a new favorite -potato corn soup with dill. This soup recipe came from a weekly special soup we get from a local market.  Jeff stops into the Food Co-Op pretty regularly just to scope out their soups.  He loves their chicken artichoke soup and clam chowder.  My favorite is the potato corn soup with

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September 16, 2021 39 Comments
Art Supplies

back-to-school supplies for mom

Back-to-school is such an exciting time.  We make sure the pants are not high-waters, everyone gets a new pair of shoes, and we get to go shopping for pens, pencils, notebooks, and hand sanitizer.  But, we also need to take a minute to acknowledge that it’s such a hard time for moms.  The house is so quiet and clean and there isn’t anything to do but sit around and be sad until your kids come bounding home from school, ready to eat a snack the size of a meal.  It’s just a really rough time and moms deserve some consolation goodies to fill up that quiet, clean hole her kids leave in the house all day. When we get the boys’ supplies ready for back-to-school, we take an inventory of things we already have and then shop for the things that aren’t crossed off the list.  Moms are exempt from

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September 14, 2021 30 Comments
Artistic Endeavors

start where you’ll start

There’s a popular saying, “Start where you are.”  I’d like to tweak that a little bit.  Start where you’ll start.   That has been the answer I’ve given several different people over the past few weeks who have asked me a variety of questions. “We just moved into a new house and I’m not sure where to start decorating.  Where do you suggest starting?”   There are a few different places you could start depending on the house and your situation.  Obviously, time, finances, and the bandwidth of life all play into working on a house.  So, here are a few possibilities… Start where it’s easiest – the room feels like it would take the shortest amount of time to finish.  You already have most of the components of the room and finishing it would be relatively quick and low cost. Start where you have the clearest vision.  Sometimes we know exactly

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September 13, 2021 9 Comments
Decorating

feels like home | preorder bonus two | renter’s guide

It’s Friday!  If you have already preordered the book and collected the first preorder bonus I announced (the free high-resolution original art download), then you may have snooped around and discovered the second preorder bonus that I’m highlighting today – a bonus chapter!  It’s the Feels Like Home Renter’s Guide. While there are a lot of ideas in that can be applied to spaces that are rented, I felt compelled to write a bonus chapter specifically for renters.  Yes, you can rearrange furniture, hang art on the walls, add lots of yummy layers, and textures, but there are limitations when you’re renting.  Having been a renter for many years as an adult, I know from experience and was bursting at the seams to paint a wall when we bought our first little townhouse. I grew up in rentals, though.  It actually might be one step down from a rental, because

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September 10, 2021 7 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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