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Decorating

a slice of life

Christmas Song 2016 | Born is the King (It’s Christmas)

It’s become a tradition here on the Miss Mustard Seed blog to share a Christmas song.  It started with me sneaking into another room and playing a song on the guitar with a camera propped on a chair.  One year, Jeff and I did a duet, written by a friend of ours.  Last year, I extended a last minute invitation to my family and Kriste & her husband to join in and we recorded Oh, What a Glorious Night. It was so much fun, that we decided to do it again. I picked out the song in November, though, so we were all able to actually practice before hand.  My brother, who owns a recording studio, was also able to bring some better recording equipment. We introduced some new instruments this year, too.  My mom played a toy xylophone last year, but we needed a real one for all of

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All Things Home

last minute present-wrapping inspiration

Shopping for Christmas wrapping paper is usually an exercise in frustration for me.  Why doesn’t anyone make simple, blue and white paper for Christmas?  Is that too much to ask?!  Well in previous years, it has been.  This year, though, I was able to find the best collection of papers and ribbons that fit my style. The blue and white plaid is from the .  I bought enough for this year and stocked up for next year (and perhaps the year after that, too!) I found the green and white polkadot, blue and white snowman scene, and craft papers from TJ Maxx and HomeGoods.  The ribbon and twine are from Hobby Lobby. (I found the wooden horse at TJ Maxx and decided to snap it up.  I’ll paint it to sell at Lucketts this May.) I prefer to use ribbons from the non-holiday section.  I found some particularly great plaid

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All Things Home

Calvin’s Christmas Bedroom

I took some time a couple of weeks ago to put some finishing touches on Calvin’s room and, while I did that, I added a few Christmas decorations. I finally swapped out the brass curtain rod with this matte black single curtain rod from Birch Lane.  This one is pretty heavy duty just in case someone thinks it’s a good idea to hang on the drapes.  My boys generally don’t do that sort of thing, but it’s always in the realm of possibility. I didn’t swap out the rings out of laziness, to be quite honest, but I actually don’t hate the brass rings with the black rod as much as I thought I would.  Even though there is something unexpected and interesting about it to me, I will swap them out for black ones at some point. I hung some wool pom-poms from the curtain rod and headboard for a playful,

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All Things Home

Christmas tree 2.0, paper whites & a blue truck

This year, I really took my time selecting the Parsons’ family Christmas tree of 2016.  It was the perfect height, fluffy, and full…just like I wanted. I was practically giddy as I put on over 1200 lights, the garland, and ornaments.  It looked beautiful. Here is how my glorious, perfect tree looked yesterday morning… The tree was totally dried out and the branches were sagging, touching the floor.  This caused the garland to slide off.  Like a glacier, it was gaining ground each day.  Since so much of the tree was on the floor, watering it became almost impossible (and probably pointless), and I couldn’t vacuum up the blanket of needles littering my pretty grain sack tree skirt, which was all but invisible, anyway. I mean, how am I going to put presents under that tree?!  I started to joke with my sons that their presents would be buried underneath and

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All Things Home

a place for everything

A couple of weeks ago, we started organizing the studio.  As I said before, it was overdue.  I am generally a neat and tidy person, but when I am in the middle of creating, I don’t like to take the time to pick up after myself or put things away properly.  I’ll just shove a piece of fabric on the fabric shelf or barely open a bin in order to drop something haphazardly in.  Over time, this behavior leads to disorganization which makes me cranky when I’m in the middle of creating and I can’t find what I’m looking for when I’m looking for it. The two things that help me with upkeep more than anything else is… #1 – When stuff isn’t cluttered #2 – When there is a place for everything So, as I’ve been organizing, I’ve worked towards those two goals with each cabinet, drawer, and shelf we’ve tackled. I bought some drawer

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All Things Home

Decorating Dilemma | Marie – Helene’s Great Room

Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve done a Decorating Dilemma post!  I know my readers enjoy them, but they take quite a bit of time to put together and I just haven’t had an abundance of that lately. But, I received an e-mail from a reader asking for some help with her great room and kitchen and I was inspired!  While the spaces are adjoined, I decided to break them into two posts, so this one doesn’t scroll on forever. Let’s get to it! This is Marie-Helene’s great room…  (Marie-Helene actually has all sorts of accent marks over her name, but I am ignorant when it comes to typing with accent marks, so just imagine that they are there and her name looks delightfully French.) Right away, I think there are way more positives than negatives.  I’m sure you would agree.  She has some beautiful pieces, nothing at

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All Things Home

Christmas in the family room & a paper manger

I shared how our family room is looking these days a few posts ago and I thought I would share some of the details of my Christmas decorations.  As I’ve said repeatedly, I really keep things pretty simple when it comes to Christmas decorating.  It does still take a lot of time, but I have grown to love the look of fresh green garlands, wreaths and swags, and just adding a few key decorations to each room. In the family room, I added some fresh greens to the top of the antique pie safe by the side door… Again, I don’t do anything fancy, but simply tuck greenery where it fits and looks good, creating a sort of swag effect around the antique splint basket. There is an antique tote on the sofa table behind the sectional that is usually filled with a few faux sage plants from Ikea.  I just

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All Things Home

bay leaf christmas wreath

I had it in my mind that I wanted to use bay leaves in my Christmas decorating this year.  I wish I had it in my mind back in the spring, so I could’ve planted some…  But, anyway, I looked around for some bay wreaths that were fluffy and full and reasonably priced.   I ended up buying a pair on from to hang on the corner cabinets in my dining room. They are just the perfect touch and just what I had my mind set on. They came with a small hook that I was able to slip over the top of each cabinet door to hang them. And I’ll have plenty of bay leaves for soups, stews, and sauces this year! I’m just going to let them dry and see how long they keep. I also added a few Christmas touches to the home office. This room is a passthrough

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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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