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Artistic Endeavors

Photography

process of styling | part two

If you missed the first post on my styling process, you can find it HERE.   In this post, I’ll talk through how we styled this hand painted piece as a buffet as well as sharing my camera settings. This is where I started with the styling… I’m shooting in my studio and I am working with a white wall as a backdrop.  I like shooting against white, but it feels a little stark without anything on the wall.  I used wooden breadboards to add height and warmth.  The wood chairs tie into the wood of the boards.  The white ironstone suggests this is a buffet and the green moss adds some color.  I was pretty happy with the way it looked, but called Kriste over for a second opinion. She felt like the casserole was getting lost on the white wall, so she moved the breadboards over.  We also

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Artistic Endeavors

jelly cupboard, organizing & family room fabric

I have been on a streak with finding amazing empire pieces.  I currently have five in my stash!  Now, these aren’t usually this easy for me to come by, but I’ve just been catching Craig’s List and my favorite furniture haunts at just the right time.  It’s also helped to have my dad, who should win some sort of Craig’s List award for his success percentage  when it comes to getting pieces I want.  I just send him the link and he contacts the seller and shows up at my house with the piece.  I give him refusal rights if something looks really bad in person, but that hasn’t happened, yet. Last week, he dropped this piece off at my studio… It’s a really pretty antique empire jelly cupboard.  It’s just a little dirty and rough, but very solid.  What looks like wood grain is actually brown paint.  I admire

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Decorating

process of styling

I’ve been asked to share my thought process for styling a photo shoot, specifically with a piece of furniture, and this post is in response to those requests.  I think styling is something that is hard to teach, because it is an art in itself and is based so much on personal taste.  As I walk you through my thought process on styling this piece, you might like one of my “rejects” better than the one I liked and that’s okay.  I’m hoping that through sharing my thought process, it can help you think through your own process, so when you’re styling shots you can be more intentional with your choices. The first thing I learned is that I am much happier with my shots when I take my time.  This means putting the camera on the tripod and connecting it to my computer.  This is known as shooting “tethered”.

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Artistic Endeavors

the perfect place for a gift…

Today I was getting ready for my trip to Toronto.  It suddenly occurred to me yesterday that even though I’m driving about the distance I would to visit family in Raleigh, I am going to another country!  I needed to call my bank and cell phone provider and get everything lined up, so my credit card isn’t turned off for suspected fraud and I can call Jeff.  I also tried on outfits, did laundry, checked and double-checked my list and the usual things one does before heading out of town.  I’m bringing some things from my house to populate the booth at the Home Show, so it looks very “me” to my readers.  I also had to bring things for demos, etc.  We’re packed pretty close to the hilt and my mom and I will be putting our van over 200,000 miles on this trip, so we’d appreciate prayers that we

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Artistic Endeavors

why you always, always ask…

The other day, I was working at the studio without a car, so I needed my dad to give me a ride home.  We had a bag of trash to drop off at the dumpster and, on the way there, something caught my eye.  It sort of looked like a large, wood box…maybe something on its side?  It was just sitting on the ground next to the building across the street.  Either way, it caught my eye and deserved a closer inspection.  I asked my dad to drive by it slowly on the way back and he did.  I saw bead board and old wood… “I think it’s a counter!  Let me out!” I jumped out of the truck and walked around the piece.  It was a counter with bead board sides and a wood top.  What in the world was it doing sitting on the concrete next to a

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Artistic Endeavors

getting my house back

As many of you know, we put our house on the market back in April and it didn’t sell.  We didn’t even get an offer.  So, we decided to stay put, work towards some goals and look for a commercial space to use as a studio for our business.  We found an awesome one and moved into it a couple of weeks ago. Getting all of the business stuff out of the house and getting some separation between the two has been amazing and eye opening.  I knew the business was taking over the house, and we have the empty spaces now to prove it, but I didn’t realize how much it was affecting my decorating decisions and/or lack of decisions.  I wasn’t viewing my home as just a home, but a backdrop and studio and work space and it was just too much.  It’s great to have multi-functional spaces,

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Artistic Endeavors

chandeliers, margot & toledo

My dad showed up bright and early (which is around 9:00 in my book) to make sure all my chandeliers were ready to hang.  They all needed a little tweaking and some additional hardware. It took a couple trips to the hardware store, but my dad was able to get two of them hung and they look great.  I needed to order an antique canopy (the thing that covers the ceiling outlet), so we’ll have to wait until that arrives to hang the third. I had my dad hang them a little higher than traditional chandelier height, so I can walk under them when I’m moving the tables around. Yes, the tile ceiling and fluorescent lights are still there, but those are not going away and they are becoming less noticeable. My dad also helped me hang Margot, the studio cow.  Her boxwood wreath arrived today and now she looks

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Artistic Endeavors

hand painted empire buffet | take two

I showed yesterday how I styled the hand painted empire buffet as a piece for a nursery or kid’s room.  In this post, I’m going to show the piece styled as a buffet… Kriste and I grabbed what we had around the studio…pieces in the studio “prop stash”, things waiting for tags for the Chapel Market and things that are listed in the online shop.  I’m learning how much of a “prop stash” I had at my house and I need to bring some things over to the studio! When the famous “cow head” from my kitchen came available again on Decor Steals, I bought one.  I knew I would want to put one in my studio space, since it’s become such an icon of my style.  (Yes, I ordered a boxwood wreath, too.)  We needed something on the wall in this arrangement and this was perfect.  Kriste and Leslie (the

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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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