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crafts

glittered house & deer

Now that the floor sanding is behind us, I cannot wait to start decorating the house for Christmas.  I walked past live wreaths, garland, trim and tabletop trees at the store this week and was just longing to put one in my cart, but I’m waiting until Thanksgiving passes.  I don’t want my live greens to be dried to a crisp by the time Christmas morning rolls around!  I’ve been satisfying the craving with Pinterest, holiday magazines and some Christmas tunes.  I also started on a few projects, like the upholstered Christmas banner and the mason jar snow globes.  I also whipped out the MMS German Glass Glitter to use on a few things… I found this plastic deer at an antique store for $5.00 and knew it would look amazing glittered. It actually looked pretty as is, but you know how I am.  Can’t leave well enough alone! I brushed it

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November 26, 2014 20 Comments
Dining Room

tips for sanding floors

This is my second time refinishing floors and I learned a lot through my errors the first go-around.   Since scooting around on diaper boxes to wipe up excess stain (you can read about those antics HERE), I have learned a lot about finishing wood and have done a lot of reading on sanding and finishing floors specifically.  There are so many ways to approach it…everything from sanding an entire room with a palm sander (yes, some people do that), to spending hours getting each piece of wood back to the way it looked the day it was milled.  Our approach?  We wanted the floors to look nice, but weren’t concerned with perfection.  There are already tack marks from carpeting, large holes from old radiators and gas pipes, gouges, scratches, knots, chips and dents, so I didn’t freak out at sanding marks or inconstancies in the wood.   So, take

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November 25, 2014 23 Comments
Holiday

upholstered Christmas banner tutorial

A few weeks ago, I was browsing Christmas decor and tripped across this sweet “Happy Christmas” banner at Terrain.  The vintage-looking stuffed velvet letters appealed to me, but I wasn’t a fan of the color or the unevenness of the letters. I liked the idea of making one, but I had to think through how to make it.  The inspiration banner looks like each letter was sewn and stuffed.  That process was not even an option for me.  I am not precise when it comes to sewing, which is why I was a horrible quilter, and this project would take precision.  I needed to figure out a Marian-friendly way to do this. Well, I can do upholstery.  I wonder if I could upholster the letters…maybe on wood or thick chipboard letters.  I looked into a bunch of different wood letters, thinking chipboard wouldn’t hold the staples well, but they were

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November 23, 2014 44 Comments
crafts

block printed wrapping paper & snowball garland

I walked into the studio ready to work on Christmas things this morning.  I told Kriste at one point that I wished I could work on five different things at once.  There was a bee in my bonnet.  I had a lot on the wish list to get done, but I knew it was way too much for one day, so we  got started and just worked until we needed to stop.  We started making a grain sack tree skirt, did some housekeeping things for the studio and played around with some papers and ribbon I have been collecting over the last few weeks. I also used an antique wooden stamp I bought at an antique store to “block print” some craft paper and I love how it turned out. I see these wooden printing blocks here and there when I’m at antique stores, but I never though to buy one until Kriste

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November 14, 2014 24 Comments
Living Room

a slip turned into a slip

I found a pretty antique petticoat a few months ago at an antique store and decided it would make a pretty pillow cover.  I would turn a slip into a pillow slip!  Two, actually. Since the ruffle was only on one side, I made it like a slip-on pillow case instead of a traditional decorative bolster cover.  It worked out perfectly, since the ruffle hangs over the sofa and it’s tailored on the back side. It always pains me a little to cut up antique linens, but the detail on this piece was too pretty to not use. You can see a peek of the pillow form under the pillow case, but it’s white, so it’s not distracting.  I might make a simple muslin cover for it at some point, but maybe not.  I’ve even thought about putting blue and white ticking on the end that shows as a fun little detail.

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November 12, 2014 17 Comments
Decorating

time-saving tips for painting a room

I shared the other day that I painted three ceilings and one room in just a few hours…while the boys were at home…in my jammies.  Truth be told, I could’ve painted the living room and the hallway, too, but I was getting a little sick of looking at a roller!  So, several readers asked how I get things done so fast and I thought I would share my tricks. These tips will help you get a room painted faster, but before you plan a painting marathon, remember that I paint a lot!  When you do something a lot, you get better and quicker at it.  So, be patient with yourself if you’re a novice or a once-in-a-while painter. Here are my time-saving tips… 1.) Do as much prep work the day before as you can.  Take down the pictures, remove switch plates, curtain hardware, etc. and fill in the holes

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November 3, 2014 27 Comments
Before and Afters

slipcovered ottoman

Last Friday I was working in the studio on some last minute pieces for the Chapel Market.  I usually leave the sewing projects until everything else is done, mainly because it’s not my favorite thing to do.  I’m just dragging my feet.  I finally pulled out the old ottoman that was waiting for a slipcover and started working on it. I decided to use a piece from a cutter quilt I’ve been holding onto for a while  It wasn’t quite large enough, so I supplemented with a piece of antique homespun linen I bought for $5.00 at an antique store. I also used the homespun to make the piping, sides and skirt.  It wasn’t a big piece, but I was able to make it go a long way by sewing pieces together. The patch-worked nature of the piece just seemed to work…mostly I think because I used a quilt and

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October 24, 2014 20 Comments
crafts

black glittered pumpkins & more

Today in the studio, Kriste and I worked creating two very different Halloween/fall tables.  In the one I’m showing today, we went with a black/orange/spooky classic Halloween theme.  Neither of us are big on decorating for Halloween, but this was so much fun to put together and we both love how it turned out. We featured Flapper Black MMS GGG (Miss Mustard Seed’s German Glass Glitter) on several simple projects on this table.  We glittered live and wooden pumpkins (found at Target), some clearance plastic crows, pine cones and paper bats that we made into bunting.  We made them with the same glue & glitter technique most people learn in elementary school. Pick something to glitter… …have some glitter at the ready and work over some paper or a container, so the glitter can be reused. Brush on a white all-purpose school glue… …and immediately sprinkle the glitter on. Allow

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October 15, 2014 34 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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