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Decorating

All Things Home

cow/calf pair

A couple of weeks ago, I painted a cow-calf pair.  If you follow me on Instagram, you would’ve seen some of the process as well as the final painting shared on the grid.  For those who don’t follow me there, here is the underpainting… …and then the finished work… I didn’t have plans to keep it when I first started this one.  I’m pretty good at selling my works.  It’s partly a hobby, but painting was absorbed as a part of my business pretty early on, so I try not to get too attached.  I paint with the intention of selling.  But I was in love with this one as soon as I rolled my chair back and viewed the painting in its entirety.  I was so excited that I had an antique gilded frame that fit it, so I tried it on before the painting was even dry.  It

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All Things Home

office shutters

I was combing through some photos taken earlier this year while I was working on cleaning up my hard drive and making backups and I realized I had pictures of a project that I never shared!  I took the picture right before my mom visited in March, so there were more exciting things to write about, like the guest room makeover and the picture frame molding in the living room.  This project wasn’t as dramatic, so the pictures remained unedited and the project was never shared. I did share that we installed plantation shutters in the large window of my office… This window faces the street, so it felt like a fishbowl and some sort of window treatment was required for privacy.  But, we left the small window, which faces the side of the neighbor’s house, untreated. I wanted a shutter on that window, too, though, so the windows looked

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a slice of life

Maison

I will admit to being a bit of a book junky.  You would think, then, that I love frequenting the local library.  But, the books I read are typically for reference, so I want to be able to make notes in them and fill them with sticky bookmarks.  I want to be able to revisit them again and again.  So, one of my favorite places to hang out is the local Barnes & Nobel.  A trip there is almost always included in an afternoon out of the house or when Jeff & I are on a date night.  And I often come home with a bag heavy with a book or two and maybe a magazine. In our most recent trip, I came across a delightful book I had never heard of – Maison.  My interest was immediately piqued because it was a collaboration between a watercolor artist and an

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All Things Home

july 2019 garden update

Well, things in the garden are finally blooming and looking much better after a harsh winter and a late spring.  A couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t sure that this garden was ever going to fully wake up, but the cycle of the season is carefully built into each plant and they know what to do even if I don’t. The petunias and vinca vine in the concrete urn are starting to spill over, just as I hoped they would and the hostas are filling in nicely around them.  I can see I might need to split them again in a year or so, which is fine with me since I have some other places I’d like to plant them. My Annabelle hydrangeas are blooming and beautiful!  I was nervous about them, since I just planted them last year and the winter was so cold, but they are doing great. 

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All Things Home

red, wildflowers, & blue

For the past few weeks, I’ve noticed pretty wildflowers along some of the paths I take on my morning walk.  I’ve picked one or two to put in a small vase or handleless cup, but a couple of days ago, I decided to pick a small bouquet.  It was completely impractical, carrying a bouquet of delicate flowers while Sebastian and I were trying to get some exercise, but I found joy in the simplicity of noticing and gathering.  It brought me back to the days when I would bring home bouquets made of buttercups, dandelions, and grass to my mom. When I got home, I loosely arranged the flowers in a marmalade crock and was inspired to put together a little vignette on the table.  I generally don’t buy decor for holidays except for pumpkins in fall and things for Christmas.  I prefer to use what I have that speaks

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All Things Home

options for the master bedroom

Last week, I shared that our master bedroom was not quite finished and I was mulling over some ideas for how to take this beautiful room and push it over the edge.  I received so many wonderful ideas, thoughts, and suggestions on that post, so thank you for that.  As I read your comments and thought through the possibilities, I settled on a few options that could work and I thought I would share them. As a refresher, here is how the room currently looks… A few of you mentioned the desk and, in my last post, I failed to say that this is on the list of things to remove from the space.  I just haven’t found the perfect thing to replace it, so it’ll hang out there until I do.  At that time, I’ll move it into the sewing room to use as a sewing desk.  It’ll provide

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All Things Home

painting the living room trim

Back in March, my mom and I installed a chair rail and picture frame molding in the living room (along with the basement guest room and 1/2 bath.)  You can find the tutorial HERE. Since then, painting below the chair rail has been hanging out on my to-do list…languishing there.  It’s one of those projects I had built up in my mind.  It’s going to be difficult.  It’s going to take forever.  I’m going to hate every second of it.  And, given that it didn’t look that bad as it was, I procrastinated.  Lest you think I am always the model of action and productivity…I am not. But, procrastination starts to wear on me after a while.  I get frustrated with myself and I know from experience that relief will come if I just buckle down and do the project.  So, I declared on my Instagram stories that I was

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a slice of life

all things lavender

When I shared my “secret” for making my house smell nice,  I received several requests here and on Instagram to share the exact lavender products I use.  Well, I aim to please, so here are the products I use in our home… Actually, before I show you the specific products, I’m going to make a request.  I have learned that, for some reason, discussions about cleaning products can get heated.  This is just one of those things that you learn after 10 years of blogging!  I think the reason is how we chose the products we use for cleaning, laundry, and bathing can be heavily informed by our convictions about the environment and health.  If someone is using a product we feel is wrong or bad for general health or the environment, we can get opinionated and verbal about it, because it doesn’t align with something that important to us.

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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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