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All Things Home

All Things Home

slipcovering the living room sectional

Whenever my schedule starts to open up, I seem to fill it beyond capacity in no time.  It can be a blessing and curse, but I can’t seem to help it!  I like having a lot of things to work on and to bounce between.  I work more efficiently when I am forced to stay on task to get everything done.  I have certainly filled up a slow February, though, with organizing, accepting more commissioned art pieces, recording art lessons for a future class, getting ready to launch a new look on this website, and working on the layout of the book.  It’s been busy, but I’m enjoying the work.  So, my next big home project will have to wait for a few more weeks before I can start it… I’m going to make a slipcover for the living room sectional… When selecting the sofa, I decided to go with

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a slice of life

uncle George, grandpa henry & other organizing rabbit trails

It all started very innocently.  As a part of my organizing push in February, I tackled the lower right built-in in the living room.  It’s not a cabinet we’re in and out of a lot, so it’s been sorely neglected.  It houses our photo albums, boxes of photos, some family mementos, and it’s where we would drop the school photos each year.  It’s also where I would stick random decor, apparently, like the antique scale. I’ve been avoiding this cabinet because it’s such a mess, but I finally dove in.  As is the case with most messy cabinets, it looked worse than it was.  It didn’t take me long to get things sorted and labeled.  I readjusted the shelves so the photo albums could stand upright.  I sorted the remaining photos and documents into categories and put them in bins.  I also added labels to everything… Everything that is loose

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a slice of life

scanning old documents, photos, & postcards

One of the big projects I want to work on while organizing and purging is scanning antique and vintage family photos, letters, postcards, and documents.  Fortunately, I have a lot of them!  Unfortunately, that means the task is a little overwhelming and I’ve been putting off most of it for years.  So, I’m just going to chip away at it.  Here is the basket I’m currently working through, but it’s just a fraction of what needs to be sorted, scanned, and properly stored. I started by scanning the letters that are most important to me – my Opa’s letters and telegrams to his family when he was serving in WWII. I organized them and made copies once before, but now that I have a nicer scanner, I scanned them all.  I have uploaded them to a Google Drive, so I can share them with family members who are interested, but

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a slice of life

February Organizing Update

Despite a busy week and feeling a little under-the-weather over the weekend, I chipped away at organizing a bit more.  I’m still avoiding the huge projects, but I’ve been trying to do something most days, even if it’s just cleaning out a part of a cabinet or one drawer or sorting one bin.  Making small strides each day will help me maintain some momentum and I know that one of these days, I’ll be ready to tackle some of the tougher areas.  I find that once I get going, I usually end up doing more than I initially planned. Here are the little areas I tackled last week and into the weekend… The junk drawer!  This drawer always ends up a bit of a mess (living up to its name) because we’re in and out of it so much.  It only took 10-15 minutes to get it cleaned and sorted,

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February Organizing Update

Despite a busy week and feeling a little under-the-weather over the weekend, I chipped away at organizing a bit more.  I’m still avoiding the huge projects, but I’ve been trying to do something most days, even if it’s just cleaning out a part of a cabinet or one drawer or sorting one bin.  Making small strides each day will help me maintain some momentum and I know that one of these days, I’ll be ready to tackle some of the tougher areas.  I find that once I get going, I usually end up doing more than I initially planned. Here are the little areas I tackled last week and into the weekend… The junk drawer!  This drawer always ends up a bit of a mess (living up to its name) because we’re in and out of it so much.  It only took 10-15 minutes to get it cleaned and sorted,

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All Things Home

removing fuzz & fur from upholstery

One thing I get asked about with some amount of frequency is how do I deal with pet hair.  With two cats and a hairy, black dog, we do end up with a lot of fluff balls and fuzz in the house.  While my house isn’t always pristine, I do try to stay on top of basic cleaning tasks like vacuuming and dusting and that helps a lot.  But, I’ve recently tried a new tool for removing fuzz and fur from upholstery. Before I share the tool I found useful, I have tried a few of the electric pill removers for removing fuzz and fur from my upholstery and they can’t handle what my house throws at them.  They choke within about 2 minutes of pretty ineffective use.  And these are ones with good reviews, but I think my fabrics are too nubby, maybe?  I’m not sure what the problem

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All Things Home

DIY sewing scissors case & hemming linen towels

As I shared in Monday’s post, I’m taking the time to work through small projects as I come across specific materials I purchased with the intention of making them.  I think that’s one of the problems with being someone who likes projects – we’re always collecting materials, tools, and supplies for the next project.  Or 15 projects.  While I had the ironing board out and was already working on measuring, cutting, and sewing for the rice & lavender hot/cold packs, I decided to hem some linen towels and make a case for my embroidery scissors out of some scraps. I purchased a couple of yards of THIS linen toweling when I was ordering some linen fabric for other projects with the intention of making some more kitchen dish towels.  (They have all sorts of patterns and colors, too.)  I washed and cut the fabric, but never hemmed it to finish

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All Things Home

how to make a rice & lavender hot/cold pack

A part of cleaning, organizing, and purging is dealing with materials that were purchased with intention.  I buy them because I intend to do something with them.  When I was cleaning out my cleaning supplies, I found the materials for two projects that have been languishing in a closet for too long.  Some of the supplies were purchased to make beeswax food wraps and some were intended for a rice & lavender-filled hot/cold pack.  Last week, I made the hot-cold pack and I thought I would share how to make it.  The nice thing about this project is it’s super quick and simple and it made me wonder why I waited so long! How to Make a Rice & Lavender Hot/Cold Pack | Printable Instructions   How to Make a Rice & Lavender Hot/Cold Pack | Required Materials & Tools 4 lbs rice dried lavender (I used about 1-2 cups,

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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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