Artistic Endeavors Archives | Page 12 of 58

Artistic Endeavors

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

August 28, 2024 9 Comments

1970 home renovation

Landscape Mural Design & Colors

I’m getting things lined up to start “dining room mural take two.” I painted the mural in my last dining room with very little planning. I just had an idea in my head and used MMS Milk Paint and some acrylics that I had on hand. I was just going to throw the paint on the wall to see how it worked. It’s just paint after all and I could always paint over if it wasn’t working. I kept it very loose, drippy, watery, and light, so I was able to finish it in just a couple of days. For this mural, I decided to use Farrow & Ball paints so there is cohesion with the paint colors (Light Blue and Card Room Green) used in adjoining rooms. I also like the idea of having a palette of colors instead of mixing my own colors. I’m sure some amount of

August 6, 2024 15 Comments

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

July 24, 2024 11 Comments

All Things Home

the story of the sailboat pillow

If you’re in a hurry, here is the short version of the story. I met Wendy when she became a Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint line retailer in her shop in Canada. She became our Canadian trainer and my friend and we traveled all around Europe together. She sold her shop and I sold the milk paint line. I started painting. Her husband, John, takes pictures and I asked to paint one of those pictures. That picture, taken from their front porch, was licensed and made into a pillow. That pillow made from one of my paintings made from one of her husband’s photos ended up in the shop Wendy sold. Wendy bought the pillow. My mom bought the pillow. And here we are. If you want the longer story behind the pillow, here it is. Wendy and I met years ago when she signed up to carry the newly

July 22, 2024 16 Comments

All Things Home

antique French drawing box & other goodies

If you can believe it, I added a few antique art supplies to my collection earlier this year (timely happy-birthday-to-me purchases) and I haven’t shared them here on the blog! I’ve been so busy with other things that I haven’t written about them even though I took pictures a while ago. Anyway, today is the day I’m going to introduce you to an antique French drawing box I purchased from Julia of Ponder & Purchase. I used to order a box of goodies from her a few times each year, but I was feeling pretty stocked with antique art supplies, so I haven’t ordered what we jokingly call my “P&P subscription box” in over a year. I have some very nice art boxes, palettes, brushes, and all sorts of pens, pencils, and rulers that I’ve gotten very picky about what I buy. This French drawing box was like nothing else

July 9, 2024 4 Comments

Art

My painting in the McGee x Threshold collection at Target

On Monday, I was browsing through Instagram Stories and did a double-take when I saw a piece of artwork I recognized in a round-up of Liz Marie’s favorite things from the new McGee x Threshold collection at Target… Do you see it?! This is one of my oil still-life paintings and it was picked up for the McGee collection and is now being sold in Target stores and online! You can buy one HERE or see if it’s available at a nearby Target. When I first saw it, I recognized it instantly as mine, but when I studied it further, I started to question myself. For some reason, I felt like it was better than my painting! I had a chance to look at it objectively, in a new context, and it gave me a new appreciation for my style. For a few brief minutes, I wondered if someone had

June 20, 2024 41 Comments

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

June 6, 2024 16 Comments

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

June 4, 2024 26 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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