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All Things Home

how to dry & decorating with orange slices

This holiday season, I am in the mood to do some crafting…even more than usual.  Last year, I had a lot of plans, but most of them went undone.  It was a busy year and I just had to continue to let things fall off of my to-do list.  But, this year, I’m excited about creating some homemade holiday decorations, so I’ve started early!  Saturday morning, I sliced up some oranges to turn into decor and I thought I would share how to dry and decorate with orange slices. how to dry orange slices Preheat oven to 170°.  Slice fresh oranges into about 1/4″ slices, discarding ends.  You can also use blood oranges, grapefruit, lemons, or any citrus fruits.  I’ve even done this technique with apple slices to make an apple cinnamon garland. Arrange on a cookie sheet.  I was able to put about 8 oranges, sliced, onto two cookie

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crafts

collecting & pressing leaves & flowers

Over the past few days, I have become acutely aware of autumn’s waning beauty and how it will all soon be covered in snow.  We’ve had some unusually warm weather in our neck of the woods, so I’ve done a bit of foraging on my walks.  I don’t always know what I’ll do with the bits that I gather, but I don’t worry about that too much.  I just carry a small bag and gather the things that attract my eye.  I collected pinecones to use for Christmas projects and decorations, some pods and thistles that might be interesting to draw, grasses that can be used for making brushes, acorn caps that can be used as little natural paint pots, sticks that can be brush handles and dip pens, and leaves and flowers for pressing. I also took advantage of a pretty afternoon and got the garden beds in the

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Art

Handmade Watercolor Binder Recipe & Video

I’ve lately felt like I needed new creative pursuits.  It’s not that I don’t have enough, but I’ve felt the need to try new things, to be a beginner, and to create something without any expectation on the outcome.  I’ve just needed creative process.  Maybe it’s because of weariness from the pandemic or weariness from writing, styling, and shooting a book, or a combination of everything.  As I shared in my post about the pigments from Choosing Keeping last week, something I bought as a “book gift” for myself, this was also an exploration of what big things might come next.  It doesn’t mean that mixing my own paints is what’s next, but it’s something I’m curious and drawn to, so I’m allowing myself time to explore it, knowing that one new creative endeavor can lead to another.  Knowing that discovery sparks more ideas.  And I thought I would share

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All Things Home

How to Make a Fall Wreath

Disclosure: This post on how to make a fall wreath is sponsored by   As always, all words and opinions are honest and my own.  This post also contains affiliate links. Let’s talk about some fall crafting!  I have a confession…I have had the same artificial boxwood wreath hanging on my door for the past year and a half.  I didn’t even swap it out for a Christmas wreath last year!  I haven’t gone bit with pumpkins or anything else, but I decided to make a fall wreath and share how to make one yourself. For supplies, I shopped on .  Not only does Walmart have a wide array of home products, but they have a , which I’ve shared in past posts.  (You can find some of my Walmart craft projects HERE.)  No matter the time of year, I’m drawn to the supplies they carry that allow me to

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Antiques

painting a vintage splint basket

Rewind, if you will, back to the day I went to innocently pick up the pond yacht from a local consignment store.  I ended up buying the pond yacht, an antique post office register, an antique quilt (I’ll share that soon), and this vintage splint basket.  It was all just too good!  This vintage split basket/bassinet was a particularly good buy at just $13.  It had a very faint stencil on it as well as some aggressive spray-painting marks, so I decided this vintage splint basket was in need of painting.  Here is how I gave it a fresh coat without taking away from the aged, chippy appeal. I first tried lightly sanding the stencil off before painting the vintage splint basket, but sanding revealed a yellowy-white color that was not really what I wanted.  It was worth trying, though, before breaking out the paint. I thought that MMS Milk

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All Things Home

painting light switches

For those who have asked about painting the light switches, outlets, and trim in the same color as the wall in the basement family room, this post is for you!  Before I ever put a roller on the wall, I envisioned the walls and trim painted the same color.  The rest of my house has white trim as a frame to blue/gray walls or wallpaper/starched fabric, but I want this room to have a Gentleman’s Library sort of vibe.  I’m sure that many gentleman’s libraries have white trim, but I imagined this room with moody blue walls and trim.  There are a lot of different finishes and colors happening in the space right now and painting it all one color (but different sheens) will remove those visual distractions. As an aside, if I thought we were going to live in this house “forever”, I would want to clad the walls

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Decorating

painting a vintage dough bowl

I’ve had this vintage wooden dough bowl for a few years.  My mother-in-law gave it to me when they were cleaning out Jeff’s grandfather’s house.  She thought I would like it and she was right.  It is a practical size and shape and has a pretty patina.  I’ve always thought it would look pretty with some blue paint on the bottom and, so I finally pulled it out and painted it a couple of weeks ago.  I was in a mood to work on a project and this was one that’s been on the to-do list for far too long. Here’s how the vintage dough bowl started…  I love how wooden pieces wear over time. Can’t you see some color on the bottom?  I adore primitive wooden bowls and trenchers wearing their original milk paint, but they are always so expensive.  This is a nice way to get that look

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Art Supplies

refinishing a vintage paint palette

I spent much of last week working on some freelance writing projects, so I didn’t have a chance to make more progress on the basement family room makeover.  I am planning to install the chair rail this week, though, and get some more painting done.  This is a slow and steady project, but I do want to keep some forward momentum going!  Since I don’t have an update on the basement, I thought I would share a little project I worked on a couple of weeks ago – refinishing a vintage paint palette. I realize this is sort of a niche thing and not everyone has a vintage paint palette sitting around that they want to refinish and use, but refinishing wood is refinishing wood.  This would work for a cutting board, a tabletop, a dresser… anything that is wood. I purchased this palette off of Etsy because I loved

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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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