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Decorating

easing into hosting again

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by .  As always, all words and opinions are honest and my own. One of the things I’ve enjoyed in recent weeks is getting together with friends and family again!  We were able to have dinner with some friends on our trip to PA and we had a small get-together with family during our vacation in Isle of Palms.  It got me thinking that it’s time to start easing back into hosting at home.  I don’t know about you, but I have gotten out of the habit of hospitality.  Not just having people over to our house, but seeking out opportunities to spend time with others.  Actually in person, not just over Zoom!  With the US opening up a bit more and restrictions easing, it’s a good time to seek out those opportunities again in ways that are welcoming, yet respectful to the comfort levels

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May 28, 2021 10 Comments
Decorating

family room makeover | plans & inspiration

Well, it’s time!  This summer is the summer I’m going to start working on the basement family room.  Well, we’re going to do some work on all the basement, including the playroom and the bathroom.  I’m also going to get the storage areas truly purged and organized.  I’ve organized them and tidied up, but I haven’t gone through everything in detail and it’s time.  It’s tricky when you move because you don’t want to get rid of things you “might use” until it feels like you’re done with the house.  But, there is plenty I can get rid of.  We also want to move our fitness equipment into the playroom, since the boys are getting older and rarely play in there anymore.  It’s time to pass the toys along and make better use of the space. The main goal in the basement family room is to make it feel like

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May 17, 2021 19 Comments
All Things Home

French chair from Dreamy Whites

Disclosure: This post is a part of an ongoing collaboration with my friend and business owner, Maria of Dreamy Whites.  Over the years, I have promoted Dreamy Whites as a paying customer in addition to promotions in exchange for products.  All opinions, as always, are honest and my own. Any time I’m scooting furniture around in the studio, Jeff laughs and says, “Well, I’m sure you can figure out how to fit one more piece in there.”  My studio isn’t small, but it’s not big either and I ask it to be a lot of things.  I’ve learned that I need a ton of storage, lots of work surfaces, good task and room lighting, thoughtful solutions to things like drying wet paintings, and chairs/stools for several different activities. I had a desk chair for my desk, a stool for the drafting table, an architect’s drafting chair for my easel, a

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May 5, 2021 No Comments
All Things Home

the antique clock that finally came home

This story starts all the way back in November of 2018 when we visited Jeff’s family in North Carolina for Thanksgiving.  I went to a beautiful local shop (The Mercantile in Knightdale, NC) to do a milk paint demo while I was there.  This shop has amazing vendors and I wanted to buy so many things!  I ended up buying just a few small things, but I took photographs of the displays and pieces I loved the most, including this antique clock.  It was priced well, but we were in my mother-in-law’s Camry, so we wouldn’t be able to get it home.  So, I appreciated it and then left it for someone else to buy. I posted about the clock here on my blog and when I got back home to Minnesota, I received a text from my dad letting me know he had bought it for me!  Now, my

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April 16, 2021 32 Comments
All Things Home

deep cleaning | how to clean a jetted tub

When we first looked at our MN home, I was excited about several features of this well-built house, but one unexpected feature that wasn’t on my wishlist, but probably should’ve been, was a deep, jetted soaking tub.  I love taking baths and I’ve never had an oversized soaking tub much less one with jets.  The funny thing about this bathtub is that it’s the exact same one my Oma & Opa had in their house and I soaked in that tub for hours after spending the day at horseback riding camp.  (Oh, the dirty rings I left in that tub make me cringe today, but they never made a fuss about it.)  I know how to clean a bathtub, but I wasn’t sure how to clean a jetted tub, so I asked my mom.  She’s had a jetted tub for years and has perfected the process. When I shared the

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April 15, 2021 28 Comments
All Things Home

how to make a gathered sink skirt

I actually made this sink skirt and shot a tutorial for it over the summer, when I was working on a flurry of projects for my book (coming this fall.)   It was supposed to be a tutorial for the book, but I decided not to add it in.  There were a few reasons for that… 1 – I couldn’t get a really great shot of it, because the bathroom is so small, the lighting is poor, and the mirror would reflect the brightly lit foyer. 2 – I wasn’t sure if it really was a good project.  I sort of made it up as I went along, literally using materials I had leftover from other projects. 3 – Because I was making it up as I went, it’s not perfect. 4 – I wasn’t sure it would be practical long-term.  I even planned on making a new one almost immediately

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March 17, 2021 37 Comments
All Things Home

newly organized studio reveal

As I shared on my blog last week, I took several days to continue the organizing efforts and focused them on my studio.  I had honestly been avoiding my studio the entire month of February.  I knew it would be tedious work and I knew I would have to dramatically rethink the way I purchased art supplies.  This wasn’t going to be about organizing things in neat piles, bins, and drawers with labels.  I already had that.  This was going to be about touching everything and considering the necessity of keeping it vs. selling or donating it.  This was about taking a good hard look at how I create and deciding which supplies are an asset and which ones were just clutter in my studio. I have to admit that I got off to a slow start, but once I started to feel the liberation that comes with letting go,

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March 15, 2021 40 Comments
All Things Home

Montauk Blue Slate Tile Floors | Two Years Later

There are some projects that are completed, shared here on the blog, and then I don’t get asked about them again.  Then, there are others that surface over and over.  The Montauk blue slate tile floors were installed in our foyer are one of those projects.  I receive a few inquiries about them each month, usually from people who found my photos in a Google search or on Pinterest.  They want to know how the floor has held up as well as what sealer we used and how I keep it clean. Now that we’ve lived with the floors for over two years, I thought I would write a blog post to put all of these answers in one place and provide a review for others who are considering slate floors for their home. As a reminder, this is how the foyer looked before we replaced the tile and painted

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January 28, 2021 34 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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