Ooooo, ahhhh...

...this wallpaper from Hygge & West is fabulous.  I love, love, love it.  (I'm currently imagining it in my future office, especially the colours above, it would be sooo excellent.)

 

Sneak peek

I'm still sorting out the photos I've taken of the containers, but for now here's a little peek at some of the plants I used.

Ideas for container planting

Pretty, pretty.

I'm going to keep this year's garden purchases for my containers (I did a count and I've got 12 pots/boxes and 3 baskets).  I'm trying to get a few ideas for plants and plan things out a bit -- I've decided on a colour scheme of greens (surprise!), purples, creams and whites.  I really like the idea of playing with texture too; last year I added cabbage and kale to the containers on the porch, and they worked out really well.  Here's a few ideas I've seen:

Good for shade.

A cute salad garden.

So you can use hostas in a container (I was wondering about this).

All green.

Out in the garden

It's almost time to get the container plants going, but I've managed to hold off (tempting...oh so tempting!) so far.  The magnolia tree is in full bloom, and the grape hyacinths and tulips are popping open.

Choices, choices

This is the wall of the bathroom on the main floor, and the three paint colours I've scrounged from other rooms.  (I think I may have another one...somewhere.)  I'm going to get a piece of floor moulding and prop it up against the floor and wall -- hopefully that technique will let me make a decision.

Laundry room countertop

I haven't posted any of the laundry room photos, it's not quite presentable yet.  We had a slight issue with the countertop, thinking that we'd be able to use a leftover cut from a bathroom countertop, but discovered that it's not deep enough.  So, instead of attempting to find some sort of remnant piece, we visited the tile store and bought 3 12" x 12" sheets of olive glass tile.  I'm not a huge fan of tile countertops, but since the laundry room is pretty low maintenance I don't mind.  Now to bust out the mastic and grout!  (Wait, that's Trevor's job.*)

* We've put together a massive list of events in iCal so that we can figure out when to schedule jobs to do around the house.  It's mega-big.  And we have colour coded jobs.  I'm purple.  Trevor's red.  And there's a whole lot of both colours.

A test in patience

Moulding is lovely.  Intricate and detailed moulding is even lovelier.  Having someone else fill, caulk, sand, tape, and paint is would be the loveliest.  I keep on telling myself that it's all worth it, or even that there's something zen and monk-like about doing all this work (and keeping sane).  Maybe I will reach moulding nirvana once it's all done...

(Oh, and in the next house I dream of hardwood stairs with a carpet runner...)

Tiling another bathroom

No, this strapping young lad is not available for hire...

This is the last floor in the house to be tiled.  (Just reading that sentence makes me want to jump up and down.)  I must say, Trevor has become quite the tiling pro -- tackling this latest floor with a diagonal pattern and glass tiles on the perimeter.  We got the middle tiles on sale at Home Depot (rock bottom $1.98/sq. ft.!) and added the glass tiles ($14.99 sq. ft.) to give the room some 'sparkle'.  Trevor initially dry-fit the tiles in place, then numbered them and stuck them down last night.  Makes for less surprises that way.  Now for the grout...

Tiles are dry-fit and ready to be numbered.

Welcome to my new master bathroom

*Cue the biggest, loudest, dreamy-est music, please*

Yes, you are not looking at a heavily Photoshopped image -- the bathroom is really, truly FINISHED.  I am so pleased and excited to know that we can put this room to rest and start finishing up other areas of the house.  (And we won't bring up the fact that we blew past our original -- and laughable -- goal of February 1st...a ha ha ha haaaa...reality strikes again!)

Just so we can all look back on what the bathroom was...

And what it is now...

And the little details...I have to go and take in all of it's wonderful-ness in person now...

Four days of reno's...

We took an extra long weekend to really kick ourselves into getting the final reno's on the house started, finished and arriving in the middle.  I'll have some posts this week outlining what we worked on (with eye candy to boot!).

Three trips to Home Depot...wait, or is that four?

Roller rage: defined as having one of those rollers that has an endless amount of lint bits when you use it (no matter what you do to prevent it).  

Seedlings have sprung

These are my seedlings one week after sowing.  Not bad, right?  I was surprised to see how fast they all germinated (especially since Lulu had a fondness for plunking her big grey rear-end on the top of the box).  Most of the zinnias are a bit leggy, so I'm keeping the box closer to the window from now on.  

Want.

This is one of those really crazy ideas I have for the next house (read: so crazy that it won't happen, but hey, I can dream...).  Yes, it looks like a oddly-shaped urinal, or something that might hold mail.  But it's really the Dyson Airblade, used for drying your hands in the bathroom.  *sigh* I get all teary thinking of the 640 km/h winds whooshing around my hands...

Chairs I want

After seeing this photo on Apartment Therapy this week I've added a new want to my wishlist of chairs.  Is it not perfect?  Look at it.  No, seriously, look.  Take in all it's curvy, green-y and metal-y-ness.  Perfection.

Here's the expanded list:

The Herman Miller Eames Wire Chair

The Emeco Navy Chair (had to include it in the list, even though I've tortured myself with it before)

The Herman Miller Eames Molded Plastic Side Chair with Wire Base (green, please)

Spectrum bookshelves

I present evidence (more as proof for Trevor, who still complains about ours, above) that arranging bookshelves by colour is cool.  Not overly functional, but really, really, cool.

Via here, here and here.

Planted

I've got my little seedling starter kit all finished and sitting near a sunny window.  I used peat pots and sowed Zinnia, Gallardia, Rudbeckia, Nemophilla and Silene seeds.  I didn't sow the Scarlet Runner Bean seeds because I can start those outside in containers once the threat of frost has passed (beginning of May, I think).  Now I have to start thinking about the rest of my containers.  Here's some from last year:

On the front porch.

In the back yard.

And this photo from 2 summers ago...

What a difference a season makes

Well, that and 11 bags of bark mulch.  I spent most of the weekend outside (and who wouldn't want to, it was 18C and sunny here!) cleaning up the garden, dividing a hosta, re-seeding the lawn and planting dahlias.  I didn't get to the front yard like I wanted to, but I've got a date with a sunny evening and more bark mulch planned this week.  

It doesn't seem too long ago that the back yard looked like this...

Fun with letterforms

Now that I have my 'Y' and 'P' I'm thinking ahead on how I can grow my letterform collection and how I can make it work until I have the whole alphabet.  (The above photo is exactly what I have in mind!)

{Click here and here to see more ideas!}

Garden weekend

I don't want to go too crazy in the garden this year -- I don't want to put a lot of money into plants if we sell the house.  I do need to get a few small plants to fill in an area where I've been tearing out an invasive plant (I seem to attract those) that was smooshed by the snow.  I think that some rudbeckias and dahlias might be nice:

Rudbeckias.

More rudbeckias (black-eyed susans).

More dahlias (so pretty!).

I'm also going to divide up some massive hostas that I have this weekend and spread them around -- they're great at filling up gaps and choking out weeds (always good in my books!).  

Creating an outdoor oasis

Putting aside the fact that my backyard is very small, if I had to deck out my dream backyard for the summer, these are a few of the items I would like to see (*cue the dreamy music*):

1. Printed Sea Life Outdoor Pillows from Williams Sonoma Home.  2. Artichoke Votive from Anthropologie.  3. An umbrella from Crate & Barrel.  4. Classic Herringbone Synthetic Rug from Pottery Barn.

5. Recycled Glass Drinkware from West Elm.  6. Scroll tray from CB2.  7. Central-Hub Electric Sphere Lanterns from Target.  8. Metal Mesh Lounge Chair from West Elm.