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My House
My House

meeting a friend, I’m hipper than I look & digging in the dirt

I had the great pleasure today of grabbing a coffee (or caramel apple cider in my case) with a creative and wonderful woman, Jeanne Oliver.  We have never met before.  We’ve only had some interaction through social media outlets and friends of friends and her hysterical experience with my milk paint (when it all flaked off of a piece she painted.)  I knew her through her e-courses, her photography pinned and circulated around the web and her camera bag and clothes (some of which I have bought.)  She was in my neck of the woods on a family vacation and stole away a couple of hours to meet.  We hugged, we sat down and that was that.  No chatting about the weather and good local shopping.  We went straight to the heart of things…our faith, our businesses, our families, our journeys, our struggles, our dreams for the future.   Conversations

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October 1, 2013 68 Comments
Antiques

Some of my finds | Light in the Basement

I went out yesterday to do some shopping for my online shop and the Chapel Market coming up soon in Pike Road, Alabama.  October 19, to be exact.  Anyway, here are some things I found… …some 1950’s horse ribbons… …a glass water bottle in a wooden crate (I’ve seen these made into killer lamps)… …a pretty piece of wood trim… …lots and lots of ironstone… …some flow blue plates and a “cow bowl”, which is exactly what it said on the tag… …a beautiful French chair (of course, I’m going to reupholster it)… (That’s just a tapestry-like fabric, by the way, not needle point, so don’t freak out.) The frame is very sturdy, though, and the wood is gorgeous… …this cane French chair… …oh, she’s a beauty.  Her seat is a little saggy, but we won’t hold that against her, will we?  (After all, we’ll all have saggy seats one

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September 21, 2013 62 Comments
Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint

wonderful by-products of being organized

A few weeks ago,  I set out on the task to get my house organized and purge everything I don’t need, want, use or love.  It’s been quite a process and I still have a lot to do, but I have to tackle one space at a time.  I also have to keep my family and business running, so I can’t drop everything and just work on my little pet project. With a few key spaces cleaned and organized, I’m noticing some really amazing by-products. 1.) I am so much happier in the organized spaces.  I don’t feel crowded or rushed or overly-busy. 2.) The spaces are much more functional.  I can actually use things as they were meant to be used.  I can not only sit in my office chair, but there is nothing hidden behind it or stacked in front of it.  Glorious! 3.) I feel freed up

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September 18, 2013 39 Comments
Before and Afters

Preserving a Family Heirloom

A few weeks ago, I shared by True Value on my Facebook and Twitter.  I don’t know if any of you watched it, but it is a really beautiful clip about preserving  a family heirloom.  It gave me tingles and made me misty, because I’m really into that sort of thing.  I love pieces with a story and soul.  Pieces that have been patched, repaired, refinished, moved across the country and handed down through generations – all signs of a quality piece that’s been well loved. With the constant parade of furniture that goes through my house, there aren’t many pieces that have remained over the years.  One piece that I’ve never even considered selling is the buffet in my dining room.  First of all, it’s just my style.  More importantly, it’s a piece that was given to me by my parents.  They bought it from an antique shop when they

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September 10, 2013 68 Comments
Dining Room

My Dining Room Today

I had a lot on the to-do list today and I didn’t even get to half of it, but one thing I did get done was a photo shoot with my new 24mm lens.  This new camera gear has been so fun!  And it’s made me slow down a bit on my shoots.  I don’t want to have this awesome gear and then take rushed, crappy pictures with it!  It’s sort of a lot of pressure!  But in a good way. Now, the 24mm lens is my most expensive lens to date.  By a lot.  Like two and three times more than my other lenses.  And I even bought it refurbished, because I couldn’t stomach the full price!  So, this isn’t a fun lens to buy on a whim.  This is a serious piece of glass, which is what I was looking for.  I originally had my eye on the

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September 10, 2013 54 Comments
My House

24mm & Creating Space

The pictures in this post aren’t pretty, since they are taken in a dark basement, so I thought I would preface it with some pretty shots with my newest lens.  (And my last newest lens for while!)  I’ll share more about it in another post, but after much research I decided to buy a refurbished 24mm f/1.4 lens.  It arrived yesterday, so I snapped a couple of quick pictures with it this afternoon of some flowers in an ironstone pitcher that the lovely and talented Traer of Traer Loves brought for me.  She came to my house to take some excess paint off my hands (a result of cleaning out the basement), which was a huge favor to me AND she even brought me this gift! Anyway, they were a perfect subject… The 24mm is a wide angle lens, so it’s not one I’ll use for a lot of closeup

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September 9, 2013 65 Comments
My House

officegallery

Now that I’ve had a few days to play with my new camera (the Nikon d800 for those who missed it), I’ve been playing around with my existing lenses to see what new lenses I want to purchase.  I currently have five lenses – a Nikon 35mm f/2D, 50mm f/1.8, 60mm f/2.8 micro, 18-200mm and a Sigma 10-20mm wide angle zoom.  All of these lenses have served me very well and I will continue to use them, but there’s one problem – only one of them, the 60mm micro, is an FX lens. My previous camera, the d7000, is a DX camera, so I bought DX lenses.  My new camera is an FX (full format) camera.  What all of these letters mean is that all but one of my current lenses will not take advantage of my new FX camera body.  (Here’s a clear explanation of FX vs. DX from someone who really knows

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September 1, 2013 35 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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