my business story Archives | Miss Mustard Seed

my business story

Antiques

A return to Lucketts Spring Market

Quickly, I wanted to highlight that today (April 28) is the last day to join Pup Club Prints as a founding member and receive the beautiful German Shorthaired Pointer fine art print. Pup Club Prints is a fine-art snail-mail print club for animal, art, and analog lovers. It’s just $10/month for a quality 5 x 7 giclee fine art print, and you can cancel at any time. As an inaugural member, you’ll also be entered to win an original 8 x 10 oil painting (commission) from me. You can sign up and learn more HERE. When I moved back to the mid-Atlantic region in 2022, one of the most frequently asked questions was, “Are you going to sell at Lucketts again?” (If you’re new here, you can head down the Lucketts rabbit hole HERE.) I was so excited to be close enough to participate in some form or fashion,

April 28, 2026 5 Comments

my business story

A review of my business for 2026

As I’ve been taking some time to plan for the new year, I decided to revisit the Creative Retreat Guide for Business Owners that I created a few years ago. I based it on questions I asked myself as I reassessed my own business during a time of upheaval, as well as those I asked clients during one-on-one coaching for creative business owners. I honestly didn’t know how effective it would be, since I wrote it myself, but my past self really came through, asking questions my present self really needed to answer. While working on it, I decided I would share most of my responses here on the blog. I regularly receive questions about the ins and outs of my business, so I thought this might answer some questions or offer insight into what I’m working through and considering. The guide is long and thorough, so I’m just sharing

January 7, 2026 10 Comments

my business story

Traumwohnen & tips on being featured in a magazine

My very first magazine feature was thrilling. It was a small blurb about my blog in Flea Market Style magazine and I was over the moon. When I started my business, I was interviewed by the college student who designed my business cards, logo, and blog as a class project. She asked about my goals for the business. Other than making enough money to help with paying off a student loan, I didn’t really know. I wanted to do well, but I really didn’t have any idea what the possibilities were. I finally thought of something a bit more specific and exciting. “It would be cool to be featured in a magazine.” (You can read more about the early days of my blog and business HERE.) Those were the days when you had to know the right people or be in the right place to get featured, but that was

January 27, 2025 6 Comments

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

January 15, 2025 37 Comments

Antiques

Lucketts Spring Market 2023

I feel like I’m going home in a way! The Lucketts Spring Market was a big event in my business for almost a decade and it’s so fun to be back. I’m just going as a shopper on VIP day, which is a lot less work than being a vendor! In case you have never heard of Lucketts or you need a refresh (or just some interesting backstory about gritty entrepreneurs), let’s rewind. The Old Lucketts Store is an antique/home decor/everything store that probably never should’ve been a success. It is an 1800s general store/boarding house in a one-stoplight town on a pokey two-lane road in the farms and vineyards of Loudon County, Virginia that will never, ever get foot traffic. At the time the old building became an antique store in 1996, Loudoun County was still mostly cornfields. It wasn’t the bustling DC suburb that is one of the

May 11, 2023 13 Comments

my business story

feels like home book launch team

Thank you so much for all of the enthusiasm and support for my new book, ! Writing a book is such a long process and you never know how it will be received, but the feedback I’ve been hearing on the sneak peeks and previews have been so positive and encouraging. I can’t wait until the physical book ships out to all of those who order it! For those who have preordered the book and are super-excited about it, I’d like to invite you into something really special – The Feels Like Home Launch Book Team! Since I’ve never launched a launch team before and you may have never been on a launch team (or heard of one), let’s do a little Q&A. I’ll answer the questions I think you’ll have and then I’ll answer them, too. You can just sit back and read! So, basically, just like usual. What

August 19, 2021 7 Comments

my business story

A Fresh Look & New Prints

Notice anything different? I’m sure you do because my site got a complete overhaul! My business has changed quite a bit over the past few years and it was time for the website, blog, and online shop to reflect those changes. In addition, I wanted to make it easier to navigate all of the content on the site (there are over 3500 blog posts, an online shop, art courses, resource pages, home tours, and we’ll be adding more. My hope is that readers will be able to quickly find the things of most interest. We’ve been working on the new site for a few months and it’s finally here! “We” includes me, Heidi (my assistant and graphic/web designer), and my “tech people” who manage the technical aspects of my site along with the hosting. Since we just launched, there will be some housekeeping and tweaking that needs to be done,

April 9, 2021 28 Comments

Art

Rufus Porter Style Mural & My First Paintings

A part of organizing this month has been scanning old documents and photos (I’ll share more on that in another post) and uploading old photos that were saved to a disc to an external hard drive. At first, I didn’t even know if I had a way to scan a disc onto the drive! I remembered that we had an external disc scanner, so I was able to get everything uploaded. While photos and videos were uploading, I worked on organizing some of my computer folders. Oh, man! I need to do some serious sorting on my computer. At first glance, it’s pretty organized…everything is in folders, my desktop isn’t cluttered with a bunch of documents, but my photos are all over the place! It’s from years and years of taking thousands of photos. So, I’ll slowly chip away at that when I have the time. Anyway, as I was

February 4, 2021 40 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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May 20th, 2026 at 1pm EST

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