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Creative Play

Art

Index Card Art Project 2025 | Inspiration & References

For those joining me in the #indexcardartproject (or those who are just interested in following along), I decided to walk through my inspiration for this project along with some of the reference photos I’m using.  I’m going to stick with landscapes as I did for the previous two Index Card Art Projects, primarily because I haven’t worked on landscapes lately and would like to give them some attention.  Little studies are a great way to practice color mixing and composition.  I will paint a mix of my own reference photos and some master studies. Here is a video showing my sources of inspiration as well as some of the reference photos I’ll be painting from.  All of the reference photos are royalty-free and available on the Artist Reference Photos website. The books shared in this video are… Composition of Outdoor Painting… This is a must-have book by Edgar Payne for

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Art

Join us for the #indexcardartproject 2025

As I shared last week, I decided to do another Index Card Art Project and you’re invited to paint along!  I did one in 2019 with two of my art buddies from Instagram – Michelle Wooderson and Paige from Open Field Mercantile.  We started our oil painting journeys together and have stayed in touch and checked in through the years.  I cannot tell you how amazing it was to have two other artists who were brand new to oil paints to talk to.  We could ask each other questions, share what we learned, exchange feedback on our work, and encourage one another.  Having books and video tutorials is awesome, but it doesn’t replace the ways you can grow in a digital “sewing circle.”  Michelle and Paige are going to paint along with the 2025 index card art project and, if you want to be a part of it, you can

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Marian Parsons Miss Mustard Seed
Artistic Endeavors

my next big project(s)

After working as a creative entrepreneur since 2008, I have learned that projects come in seasons.  Sometimes those seasons last for years and sometimes they are brief, fleeting.  Some seasons I repeat, in new ways, over and over again because I enjoy them so thoroughly and feel called back to them.  Some seasons are experienced and then come to an end.  I’ve written and published two books, both in their seasons.  Both were a part of my growth, my story, and my body of work.  While both were about home, they were not a part of a series or a pair.  They were standalone books, chronicling my two previous homes, my work on them, and how they built into me. After the first book, Inspired You, I thought that might be it.  I wasn’t only an author/writer.  I did many other things and wasn’t sure how writing another book would

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All Things Home

pressing & mounting flowers | video tutorial

Last month, I shared how I was taking cuttings from my garden to preserve them in my gardening notebook.  As various other herbs and flowers have reached their peak, I have clipped them to add.  I decided I would make a quick video on pressing and mounting flowers in a notebook while I was at it.  I still have a few more to cut and press, but I have a pretty nice collection happening and I love how it makes my notebook even more personal and special. I pressed all of the herbs, a few annuals that are in pots on the patio and in the garden beds, and blooms off of flowering bushes.  I labeled each one along with the date it was planted or cut.  Admittedly, I didn’t stay consistent with the dating, but precision wasn’t the goal.  I just want to keep a general record of the

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crafts

preserving cuttings in my gardening notebook

Do you remember the gardening notebook I put together in the spring?  You can read about it HERE if you missed it.  I thought it would be fun to keep a record of what I planted and how I cared for it so I could track what worked and what didn’t.  It would also give me a place to store receipts for bushes that can be refunded if they don’t make it through the winter as well as a place to make notes to myself for future reference.  I’ve put all of my plant tags in it and have recorded what I have fertilized and when.  I also took cuttings from a few plants to press them for the book.  Is it necessary?  No.  Is it a beautiful way to record what was growing in our yard each year?  Yes. I pressed them in a heavy book between two sheets

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Art

royalty-free artist reference photos site launch

I’ve been working on a new project behind the scenes for a few months and now, we’re ready to officially launch!  I am so excited to introduce you to my new site… www.artistreferencephotos.com One of the greatest frustrations I’ve experienced as a growing artist is finding reference photos for the things I want to paint that I might not see daily.  My readers and Instagram followers have generously shared photos with me when I put the call out, but not every artist has a generous audience as a resource to tap into when specific photos are needed.  Yes, artists can search for images online, but there are restrictions even on “free” photo-sharing websites and things can get sticky if you want to license your work for reproduction and sale.  I found in all of my online searches that there isn’t a website that is truly a royalty-free reference photo library

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All Things Home

marian tries | weaving garden cloches

Do you know what I’ve been thinking lately?  I need more hobbies.  I mean, a girl needs a few tasks to keep her busy.  Of course, I’m being facetious since I have hobbies up to my eyeballs, but it’s still hard for me to resist dabbling in a new one when it looks intriguing.  As I’ve been spending a lot of time this spring working on our yard and garden beds, I thought it would be fun to make some of my own willow garden cloches and plant supports.  I just adore them when I see them in books and TV shows.  They add a homespun charm that I wanted to add to my suburban garden.  As I started researching sourcing willow for weaving garden supports, I realized this hobby wasn’t going to be quite as simple to delve into as knitting or painting.  It seems that weaving your own

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All Things Home

first willow garden structure project & an English dovecote

Several of you have asked about the English dovecote hanging near our front door as well as the willow garden support, so I wanted to back up a bit and share about those two pieces.  Since the English dovecote came first, let’s start with that. I was initially planning on making a trellis for this bit of wall that would complement the two larger trellises on the wall just around the corner, but I was wondering if that might be trellis overload.  This wall needed something, though. Maria of Dreamy Whites had sent me a dovecote from one of her shopping trips in England and Europe last year, but it had been waiting in the basement until we started working more on the exterior of the house.  I have long admired English dovecotes and knew I wanted to mount one somewhere in the yard or on the house, but there

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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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May 20th, 2026 at 1pm EST

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