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All Things Home
a slice of life

the best gift

Saturday was my 42 birthday.  It started off with apologies from Jeff and the boys that they couldn’t go out and buy me gifts and couldn’t take me out to a restaurant.  It would be another day hunkering down at home.  The fact that I wasn’t disappointed was surprising to me.  I’ve always been a “big birthday person.”  I love presents and cake and surprises. To plan for the day, I bought the ingredients to make a copycat version of Olive Garden’s lemon cream cake, but there have been bigger things than online shopping for potential birthday presents to occupy my time and thoughts.  We would just unceremoniously move some cash from the gifts line item to my personal spending money in our budget and I could buy something later. It was actually the precautions we’ve been taking to keep our family, particularly our type 1 diabetic son, insulated from

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April 8, 2020 64 Comments
All Things Home

“Boxwood” Green Studio Doors

Last week, I took some time to work on the studio doors.  It’s been on my to-do list for a while, but it’s one of those projects that isn’t urgent, so it kept getting knocked down the list in favor of more exciting or pressing endeavors.  With everyone home, trying to juggle school and work, feeding four humans and three animals all day, etc. it has been even more important for me to set out some small, tangible goals and get them done.  It’s good for my own mental health to celebrate small accomplishments! So, I worked on the studio doors.  I reinstalled the trim we removed to see if installing a new door was going to be a doable project, touched up the paint… …and then repainted the doors in the custom Boxwood green I used on my butler’s pantry, the kitchen island, and the cabinets in our laundry

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April 7, 2020 42 Comments
a slice of life

my silver patterns

I often receive comments about my flatware, even if I am posting about food or styling or something else entirely.  I will admit that I have a thing for flatware and have inherited and collected some beautiful pieces. The pieces I inherited from at least five different women in my family are stunning and hard to ignore, which is the main reason why I started using them as our everyday flatware several years ago.  They are just too pretty to keep in a box 363 days of the year, only making appearances at Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, despite being valuable heirlooms, we use them every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I doubt my boys remember using anything else and I know they just see them as regular ole forks and spoons. HERE is a post about why I use my silver every day and how I clean and care

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April 2, 2020 60 Comments
All Things Home

studio DIY built-in shelf dimensions & cut list

Reminder – Always use caution and common sense when using power tools on all DIY projects including this built-in shelf.   There are some projects that go beautifully as planned.  It’s smooth sailing and there aren’t any hiccups or bumps.  This DIY built-in shelf was not one of those projects!  It wasn’t a disaster, but it sort of felt like that when we were in the middle of making it. The calamity that happened while building this shelf came down to a lack of precision, not following my own good experience, and being impatient while trying to build it in a messy garage on a cold and dreary day.  I just wanted to knock this thing out and that’s usually the mindset that leads to mistakes. You wouldn’t think it to look at the finished shelf, though, so all is well that ends well. Several people asked if I would share

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March 31, 2020 6 Comments
All Things Home

productive decorative play

I was in a real funk on Saturday.  I think it had a lot to do with the dreary weather.  It was gray and our daily walk was shortened by a cool wind and a spittle of rain.  (Jeff’s second walk with Sebastian was shortened by a downpour laced with hail!)  The weather was just not conducive to a cheery day.  On top of that, I was just feeling down.  I wasn’t focusing on gratitude. I did something I rarely do and just sat on the sofa and watched a movie on my iPad, tuning everyone else out with headphones.  I reconciled my bank accounts because it was something that needed to be done anyway.  And Jeff gave me precious time alone in my studio to listen to music and make color charts. It was just what I needed.  I focused on mixing colors and applying them to a grid

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March 30, 2020 54 Comments
All Things Home

make-do spring decor

As the seasons begin to change, you’ll typically find me perusing a few of my favorite stores, looking for new pieces to mix in with my everyday items or ideas to get my creative wheels turning.  Other than Christmas, I’m not big on seasonal decorating.   It can get expensive and, if not checked, you can end up with a lot of stuff that needs to be stored for 10-11 months each year.  I would rather focus my decorating dollars on things that are evergreen and, instead of hauling out bins of cliche decor, I’ll bring in a few fresh seasonal elements, rearrange, and utilize pieces that speak to the season.  A plaid throw can speak to fall.  Some pale green dishes can speak to spring and summer.  Pinecones in a wooden bowl speak to winter.  It’s just a simpler, more economic way to decorate. When I do buy or make

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March 27, 2020 27 Comments
All Things Home

organizing the dining room

If you’re going to join my live painting class/demo, I’ve scheduled it for Friday, April 3, 2020, at 2:00 CST.  HERE is the event in Facebook to let me know if you’re joining live.  It will be recorded and you can watch it later if you’re not able to make it. Remember, this is just for fun.  No pressure about having all the supplies or the right supplies.  We’re just going to paint and learn.  It’ll be my first time doing a live oil painting demo, so we’ll muddle along together! I’ve had “organize the dining room” on my to-do list for a loooong time.  Months.  It hasn’t hung out on the list because it’s a big project, it’s hard, or even that I’m avoiding it.  It’s just not that important when the mess is behind closed doors that I don’t open very often.  I only go in them when

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March 26, 2020 23 Comments
All Things Home

Tidying the Laundry Room & Bottling Cleaners

A few weeks ago, I was in a cleaning and organizing mood.  I am the sort of person who’s in that kind of mood pretty regularly, but this was on another level.  It started with getting all of my cleaning supplies sorted out and turned into reorganizing the laundry room shelves.  I keep cleaners, sponges, brushes, etc. all over the house, so that cleaning is easy.  Under the sink of each bathroom is a bottle of glass cleaner, toilet cleaner, a toilet brush, sponges, a couple of rolls of paper towels, all-purpose cleaners, scouring powder or paste, paper towels, a few clean microfiber dust cloths, and a small box of garbage bags.  (I share some of my favorite cleaners in THIS POST.)  In the master bathroom, I also have dishwasher tabs and a big bottle of white vinegar for cleaning the jet tub.  In a three-story house, this means I

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March 24, 2020 No 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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