Wallpaper love

Just a warning before you click on this site...it's insanely inspirational! I'm almost overwhelmed by all of the amazing patterns and colours. Here it is: Walnut Wallpapers.

Here's a few (and I mean a few) of my favorites:

Rosy Friday

These are the roses I would plant on an arbor, and I would plant them now if we weren't living in this house (the garden is pretty much out of room). It's called a Climbing Joseph's Coat and it's blooms range from yellow, peach, pink and orange, all on the same plant. I'm not a rose person, but these totally won me over. *sigh* One day...

So things on the work side have calmed down substantially. I will officially have a weekend off now! I plan on working on the basement, choosing some tiles for the master ensuite, finding some new decor ideas for the living room and hitting up a bbq we're invited to. It will be quite civilized!

Just for fun: The answer!

This week's wasn't that challenging (thanks to me not photoshopping out the name of the product on the photo!). Yes, it's a Stress Eraser. Designed to make you aware of your breathing and calm you down (um, most high stress days for me would require more than just that!).

I think next week's will be a little tougher!

Miracle Berry

This isn't anything new, but it's new to me. I read about the 'miracle berry' today that turns sour things sweet. You take one of the berries (that goes for $2-3 each!), put it in your mouth and chew and swirl it around and hold it in there for a minute. After that, you can go to town on trying all the sour things in sight and have them taste sweet.

Examples: Tabasco sauce tasting like hot doughnut glaze, lemons that taste like candy, vinegar tastes like apple juice, and oysters and lemon juice that can be chewed like gum.

The effect lasts for about an hour, and if you taste sweet things during this time it can almost be too much to handle. You can learn more about it here.

Just for fun: Take a guess

Well, after being on hiatus for a little while, it's time for another mystery item! Put your guessing caps on and find out the answer on Friday!

Superstore score

I've found the perfect ice cube tray (and stylish napkins to boot!) at Superstore over the weekend. It's plastic and then has silicone bumps on the bottom to help you pop the ice out. It works a little too well because in the past two days, I've popped one out and it shot up at my face (which was funny) and then Trevor popped one out yesterday and it hit the ceiling (even funnier!).

Therapy

I'm waiting at the moment for my Monday morning to begin, (there's noon deadlines today, but at least I'm not the slow one!) but I took some time over the weekend to absorb my garden. It may be small, but it makes me happy. The lilacs are starting to bloom and everything is starting to grow like mad now. I've planted plenty of annuals for colour (my favorites being the monkey flowers, petunias and sweet peas) and my containers and baskets are starting to fill in. I also managed to get out on Sunday to fertilize the lawn (all natural, of course) and clean a few things up. So here's some garden goodness to take in:

A group of containers, with monkey flowers, wave petunias, coleus, and sweet peas.Close up of a monkey flower.Potatoes planted a la Jamie Oliver, in bags of soil (I think they need to be called the Three Tenors or the Three Stooges because they look like faces where we've stabbed them!).Urn planted with pansies, sweet peas, a trailing vine I forget the name of and those stinky white trailing flowers that just managed to survive the winter on the porch and came back again.One of the veggie boxes with tomatoes and a yellow pepper started by seed!My favorite container(s) this year, the one I was trying to emulate from the garden magazine, but I couldn't find all the plants they used exactly. So now there's a canna lily, pansies, creeping jenny, a big succulent that I can't remember the name of, kale and cabbage.The containers on the railing. A coleus that's dying (doesn't like all the sun there, who knew?), pansies, cabbage (yes, we'll see how that looks!), potato vines and something else I can't remember the name of right now.One of three hanging baskets, with our neon green permit still stuck in the window. One day soon that will be coming down and we won't have to advertise to the neighbourhood that our house is a disaster inside.

Hopefully I'll be more up-and-at-'em with the blog this week. The past two weeks have been hairy with deadlines and work piled on in ways I haven't ever seen. It seemed for a while there that I was a giant magnet and everyone within the city limits were zipping over with new projects (all which have insanely tight deadlines). Of course, being the designer who doesn't want to disappoint, I put my life on hold and work to get it all done. I think this will be all coming to an end this week (barring the odd press check and runaround or two) and I can't wait to have normal weekends again, and time to cruise through my daily/weekly list of blogs. Now to just get this morning over with...

Just repeat the previous post

Yes, I'm horrifically busy. So horrifically busy that I don't have time to post anything this week (and possibly next) on the blog. You'll all just have to sit tight for a while!

Ah, work

Yes, this could be an accurate depiction of my week. I've officially decided that the words 'long weekend' are synonymous with 'people who have bad planning that make it your problem and deadlines so tight they could strangle you'. Yes, I might be overly dramatic with that, but it feels that way. Every day closer to the long weekend has been torture this week -- perhaps there's a voodoo doll with my name on it in a public place? *sigh*

And today is just another day, filled with more surprises I'm sure. Wish me luck (and items on my desk luck as well -- they have become launching tools as of yesterday)...

Just for fun: The answer!

Well here it is (and by the way, I was impressed with the answers...maybe next time I will photoshop out clues like the mug!):
It's a PERSONAL MICROWAVE. Yes, odd and I would have no clue why you'd need it.

In a citrus-y sort of mood

Maybe it's the grey-blah sky and the never ending rain that's having me look to bright citrus fruits and smells for a lift. Too bad the screen isn't scratch-n-sniff!

Just for fun: Take a guess

Here's this week's installment, take your guesses now!
(Answer on Friday!)

Kitchen for Junior

I'm all over the fact that kids should eat well, right from the start. Here's the über solution (besides demo-ing your kitchen and becoming an über mom, lol) from Pomme Bébé. Stylish, bright, fun, and the food looks tasty!

New office chair

Well, it's time. I buckled and bought a new office chair. One that's more sleek and chic (not that this budget chair I'm sitting on now doesn't have any 'personality' thanks to the material that attracts dust, crumbs and cat hair -- oh, and cat claws). I hated the idea of buying it off eBay, because if it's uncomfortable, how do you return it? Enter trusty Costco online with their fancy chair, just like the one I was looking at a few months before, with a good price and even better return policy! Hurrah! In 15-20 business days, this baby should be mine!

Blog I'm digging right now

I came across Tiny Farm Blog last night while searching for information on planting the bush bean seeds I have. I'm completely addicted to seeing how this small organic farm (around 2.5 acres) manages to grow such nice veggies and seeing how the seasons change.I love the colours of all the beets.Farming au natural!Pretty tomatoes.

I'd like to throw a party with these...

Even though it's raining like mad out there at the moment, I'm positive the sun will be seen at the end of the week. And after seeing these lanterns at Luna Bazaar, it makes me want to throw a party!

I smell summer!

This weekend was a mish-mash of activities, everything from home reno's (of course), crafty things (finishing sewing my table covers in the office), a trip to the fabric store (inspiration for the main floor), and dinners galore (family dinner, dinner at the Merriman's). At one point, while waiting an insanely long time to cross the river to Maple Ridge by ferry, we had the windows open in the car and I watched the long grass sway in the wind with the sun twinkling through the leaves in the tall trees.

It did two things: 1) It made me want to move to a house that has a yard with big trees and lots of grass; and 2) Made me crave wearing flip flops. I saw the forecast for the end of the week, and now I'm just itching to get the sandals out in preparation for 28C weather. But in the meantime, I'll just ogle the ones I've found online:
Sammi Thong Sandal in Teal - Nordstrom
Roxy Bento Thong - Macy's
Xhilaration Greta Flip Flops in Brown - Target
Printed Sole Flip Flops - Old Navy
Le Petit Sperone in Aqua Turquoise - Piperlime

Just for fun: The answer!

If you have urges for these on a regular basis:You'll need this:The Dough-Nu-Matic!

Culinary inspiration

Daylesford Organic pretty much blows Whole Foods out of the water. They're a grocer specializing in all things natural and artisinal...a very pure way of filling up your fridge. They have 'garden kitchens', an organic 'creamery', an 'estate' where they raise their animals for the 'farmshop'--which is what they call their store(s).

And the packaging...oh the packaging. Just the milk alone would have me racking up a big bill there. Lucky thing Daylesford Organic is in the UK and not here!

Take a look at some of the goodies they have:Geranium and neroli hand wash and lotion.Organic penyston cheese.Semi-skimmed milk.Seville orange marmalade.

No chow mein for you!

Chef Trevor was on dinner duty last night, attempting a chow mein recipe from the noodle bag. Despite all his hard work and proper tools, it was a desperate situation. It was really horrible, and I will fess up and say that it wasn't Trevor's fault...it really was a BAD recipe. The only seasoning came from soy sauce, and when you have 2 tablespoons of soy sauce versus a motherload of noodles, well, it's going to be BLAND. Despite several times to revive it (with fish sauce, oyster sauce, more soy sauce...) we pronounced the chow mein D.O.A at 7pm and scrounged for something else for dinner (toasted bagel for me, Kraft Dinner for the chef).

I think this dinner offense officially starts barbecue season for us. And while thinking of that summertime feeling, I cruised through a few things at Banana Republic and found a few items that would be particularly chic for a outdoor barbecue gathering:Silk halter dress.Bold print wedges.Silver bamboo bracelet.

New favorite blog!

I came across the blog of Anna Maria Horner (yes I know, she's been on Martha, but I don't really watch much of that!). What a feast of colour for the eyes. Love it, love it, love it.

Getting ideas for the main floor...

Domino magazine officially takes the cake. After Blueprint folded I thought that I would never find a magazine that appealed to my interior decor/crafty side like it did. This month they have a profile of a mother/daughter decorating piece and I'm having my eyes pop out over the daughter's foyer and office. I love the idea of pairing some ornate pieces with some very minimalist ones. Plus the combination of muted colours and ones that pop. Time to warm up the spray paint cans!

What's new around here?

Last night, Trevor mentioned to me that the blog used to be more fun to read -- there used to be more little stories and blips of things that we do together. So I'll try to bring a little more of that back again. Maybe we've been lacking in those 'blips' around here lately, we've been on a big house kick (I think the nicer weather has something to do with it) so there's more domestic things going on.

I've been working in the garden, prettying things up. I have a bit of a lawn obsession this year (either that or I've finally figured out how to care for it -- not difficult seeing as our lawn is about the size of a postage stamp) and I'm loving the wild-looking tulips that have come up in the yard. The lilacs are going to bloom next and are going to smell fantastic. And then the peonies will pop out in their white and deep fushia blooms. The best part is that this year I get to see it all happen (thanks to working at home), and on those warm summer days when most of my clients are on holiday I can take an afternoon here and there to putter around the yard (although I know my enthusiasm for watering things will wear out by about mid-July, lol!).I think this is a parrot tulip. I could be wrong, though!This is half of the tulip action in the front yard, with some really pretty pink and green star-shaped tulips.A box I had started over the winter with pansies and dianthus from the year before...crazy what some fertilizer can do!
And on the reno front, our renewed enthusiasm for finishing things around here has us (or Trevor I should say) almost finished the tub surround in the basement bathroom, and we're on to the floor tiles soon (which will then mean a disaster in the master bathroom as we're pillaging from there to supply the basement bathroom with a toilet and vanity so we can put the 'good stuff' in the master). It will make for a messy house, but it can't really get much worse than when we first started on things last summer (disaster!). There are many (MANY) things that we still need to do to the house: finishing the laundry room, laminate on the stairs to the basement, finishing strips, painting moulding and doors, installing moulding (crown and floor in the rest of the house), painting the main floor a different colour (with new drapes, yay!), cleaning gutters, cleaning vinyl siding, painting the exterior trim, replacing the outdoor carpet on the front steps, finishing electrical work on the garage, finishing the gate/back fence panel... Lots to do.

I'm sure there will be many interesting posts coming up this summer, so the entertainment value of this blog might go up a notch or two. I'll still be posting lots of things that inspire me (of course, as an artsy fartsy person I eat it up!). There should be a nice combination of artsy inspiration and dysfunction (reno meltdowns, losing our minds and just general chaos) to keep everyone going. ;)