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All Things Home

my French dining room chairs

If you’ve followed me for while (even through this most recent move out of our MN home), you know that I’m pretty game to sell just about anything.  I can’t tell you how many times Jeff has come home to an empty space where a piece of furniture once sat.  He’s gotten to the point that he just shrugs and goes about his day.  But there are a few pieces that I haven’t parted with, even with some pretty good offers being extended.  Four of those pieces are the French chairs I’ve had in my PA dining room as well as my MN dining room.  They were chairs that I hunted down for years, customized, and I can’t imagine myself selling them. Since I got them years ago and they went through a slow transformation that was documented over several posts, I thought I would share the full story of

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July 25, 2022 21 Comments
All Things Home

painting a metal gas fireplace surround

So, remember the family room makeover?  It’s still there, but it has dragged on for quite a while!  It’s a project that moves in fits and starts.  I’ll make huge progress and then I’ll get distracted by other things for a while.  That’s not a bad way to work on a project, though, especially one that’s strictly cosmetic and not causing any real interruption to the household.  I can take a break and come back to it with fresh energy and perspective.  It’s allowed me to make decisions one step at a time and I certainly haven’t felt rushed!  This past weekend, though, it was warm-ish (for February in Minnesota), sunny, and I was itching to tackle a list of undone projects including finishing the details of a project I worked on back in October – painting the metal fireplace surround. I painted the mantel and tile, but the reveal

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February 28, 2022 2 Comments
crafts

mini advent stocking tutorial | Christmas crafts

Disclosure: This mini advent stocking tutorial is sponsored by Walmart.  As always, all words and opinions shared are honest and my own. When I shared my mini advent stockings just a few weeks ago, several people asked me for measurements and more information so they could make their own.  I already have a full set and some extras, but I measured the ones I have, made a template, and made one so I could share a mini advent stocking tutorial.  It’s a little close to Christmas to try to whip out advent stockings, but it would be a fun project to work on over the year with fabric scraps. My set of stockings was originally made by Ann of On Sutton Place and she did a beautiful job on them.  She is so much more precise than I am!  As I was cutting custom tags using the Cricut and other

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December 21, 2021 5 Comments
crafts

polymer clay ornaments & tags | christmas crafts

Are you ready for another Christmas craft?  I have just a couple more to share this week leading up to Christmas.  I have been wanting to play with polymer clay for a while and after enjoying the salt dough projects, I decided this was the year I would make polymer clay ornaments.  And I definitely enjoyed it!  I have vague memories of working with polymer clay in the past, but it’s been a very long time…long enough for me to say I was starting completely from scratch.  So, I might’ve gone rogue and done things completely wrong, but I just followed the instructions on the clay package and tried not to overthink things. I’m often asked how I get so much done and I think that one of the answers is I worry about doing things, not doing them right.  I have low expectations for my first time doing something

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December 20, 2021 18 Comments
Artistic Endeavors

take the easiest first step | encouragement

You know that hypothetical exercise you go through every once in a while – What would I rescue from the house if there were a fire, flood, or other natural disasters?  Well, yesterday afternoon, we got to put that hypothetical exercise to the test as we were preparing for high winds and likely tornados in our area.  We’re all safe and sound this morning and spent the night snug in our basement, but there were a few tense moments when the sirens sounded and alerts were echoing on four phones.  And images of those three sisters in Kentucky, seeking shelter in their bathtub shortly before they were taken by a tornado, made me acknowledge that a good outcome isn’t certain.  My heart has been heavy for that community and those families all week, but it was even heavier as all four of us, the two kitties, and Sebastian sat in

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December 16, 2021 47 Comments
crafts

custom cut gift tags | Christmas crafts

Disclosure: This post on custom-cut gift tags is sponsored by Walmart.  As always, all words and opinions are honest and my own. I’m squeezing in as much Christmas crafting this year as I can!  Craftiness might even happen right up through Christmas Eve.  We’ll see how long this momentum carries me!  Today, I’m sharing a new crafting toy with you along with some custom-cut gift tags I made to match my wrapping paper designs… I got a Cricut from Walmart! I also bought that beautiful pair of scissors when I was shopping for the grazing platter I shared last week.  (As a side note, my favorite scissors for fabric & paper are forged scissors, but at just under $14, they are half the price and still make a nice crisp cut through fabric and paper.  They’d be a great stocking stuffer for crafters/sewers.)  As I’ve shared before, I’m always impressed

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December 15, 2021 27 Comments
crafts

salt dough gingerbread houses | Christmas crafts

This is the Christmas craft that sent me down the salt dough rabbit trail this year.  (You can read about my salt dough ornaments HERE and HERE.)  Instead of making my little Christmas houses out of gingerbread this year, I wanted to try making salt dough “gingerbread” houses to see how they compared and if they would last a few seasons or longer.  It took me a couple of tries to figure out what I liked and how to best assemble and decorate these salt dough houses… The printable recipe for these salt dough gingerbread houses is at the bottom of the post if you’d like to try making them.  You can find house templates HERE. salt dough gingerbread houses | tips The learning curve for me came in how to best assemble the houses.  I actually bought what I thought was white sealing wax made for a hot glue

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December 14, 2021 13 Comments
crafts

molded salt dough ornaments | christmas crafts

I know what you’re probably thinking.  Didn’t you already do a post on molded salt dough ornaments?  Well, yes, I did!  You can find that post HERE.  While this post is a little Deja Vu, this is actually a different post talking about working with a different kind of salt dough for a different look. I enjoyed making the salt dough “gingerbread” so much that I decided to try working with some original salt dough.  And of course, I wanted to test it out in the wooden molds.  I used a basic recipe of 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and 1 cup of water and kneaded it in my mixer until it formed a ball.  I made some shapes with cookie cutters and shaped the rest of the dough in the molds.  They turned out beautifully, but I did have to adjust my technique since this dough

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December 12, 2021 20 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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