If you ever get the chance to visit a lavender field, I highly recommend it. A few years ago, my daughter surprised me with a yoga experience in the lavender fields at Laveanne Lavender Farm. It was a great outing and it was beautiful to look out and see a sea of purple. Another local farm that is now doing a lavender experience is Pingle’s Farm Market and you can also pick your own lavender bouquet. If you get the opportunity to go I strongly recommend going!
When we moved to our home we decided to add some gardens in our backyard. We wanted to be able to enjoy lots of colour throughout the summer, especially perennials as they would come back year after year.
My Aunt graciously offered to help us plant the gardens and she brought a lot of extras from her own established yard. One of her many contributions was two lavender plants. They started off small but this year they are so spectacular. The smell is wonderful and they are getting so big. Next year I will definitely be able to split them and share them with other parts of the garden. Now I have a little bit of lavender in my backyard that I get to enjoy year after year.
Have you ever driven past a box that someone has made on their front lawn that is full of books? As the summer starts I am looking for unique things to do in my local communities that don’t necessarily cost a lot of money. I drove past a little library today and decided to stop.
On other days in the hustle and bustle of life I probably wouldn’t have stopped. But today it was summer vacation, so I did. I actually got out of my car and lifted the latch of the little library and perused the books. Inside was a wide selection of books, from preschool reads, to YA, and adult fiction. I was impressed to see that there was even some non fiction and a magazine, in this particular little library.
I then got the itch and wanted to find more. As I was driving up and down the streets of the town I was in I began to find more. The next one I found was the similar replica of the house that stood behind it. The detail and attention to the wood working was amazing. The little house that was created was an incredible match to the stone home behind it.
Some were more simplistic and decorated to the home owners aesthetic. This is for sure a fun way of giving back to the community through literature, by offering free books to the public. Some had signs ‘take a book, leave a book’, while others actually had a tag. Little Free Library.org was one of the tags that was on one of the little libraries that I discovered. Upon further research, this is a non profit out of Minnesota. Their mission is to increase access to books for readers of all ages and backgrounds, and to spread the love of reading.
As an Early Childhood Educator, this really sparked my interest because I recognize the importance of reading. Each year I get the opportunity to educate children and have them develop the love of reading. This is such a privilege. I value the importance of students having the foundational elements early on to develop the skills necessary to learn to read.
If you get the opportunity to go on a hunt for a local little library; I encourage you to do so. Maybe you will find a great book! Happy reading!
This fantastic set up caught my eye as I was driving through the Port Hope community. What a brilliant idea to build community and offer up shared resources to be used by others.
A set of scissors are hanging from a hook, with the simple instructions on how to use the community herb box. This warmed my heart and was a great example of how we can provide for others and share within our community. Take only what you need, and leave some for others. If the plant looks like it need to grow, let it grow. Such a simple message and a great way to combine your love of gardening and supporting your community.
On a recent Pinterest search I discovered The Hammered Flower by Michelle Moore designs. Michelle has created pieces of clothing and art using the hammered flower technique. Her items on Pinterest and Instagram are simply beautiful and inspiring.
The actual process of hammering flowers onto cloth and fabric requires a pre treatment of an alum wash to improve colour and longevity. I however wanted to try this technique on paper. I choose watercolour paper for this application.
My Mom brought me some of her pansies to give it a try. The process was quite simple and the results were amazing. I simply lay the flowers on the water colour paper one at a time. I then covered the pansy with a piece of doubled over paper towel and then used my hammer. It was easy enough to pull back the paper towel to see what spots still needed to be done. There were a few spots that I had missed but I just had to put the paper towel back down again and repeat the hammering.
The exact flower shape and colour transferred onto the water colour paper and then I just had to carefully peel off the pounded flower to discover the print. A recommendation would be to use a pair of fine tweezers to remove the flower remnants as to not smudge your work. It was so exciting to see how well this worked! I am hoping to try it with leaves and other flower petals as well.
My plan is to transform these prints into handmade cards with a simple ‘thank you’ or ‘happy birthday’ message on them. I am also thinking about maybe outlining parts of the flower with a thin lined art marker.
Will you try flower hammered art? This art project is a great combination of my love of gardening and the creative process.
So, the summer has begun and the school year has come to an end. It is a time to rest, renew, and get inspired for the new school year to come. At the beginning of the summer I like to reflect on things I would like to do, projects that I would like to try, and places I would like to go to. This is just a little list of some of the summer things I hope to get the opportunity to do.
- Read at least four books
- Have a picnic with wonderful things to eat
- Go strawberry picking
- Go on a wine tour, maybe in Prince Edward County
- Go to a spa and have a day of complete relaxation
- Learn to use my Cricut with finesse
- Create labels for our classroom using said Cricut
- Organize my craft room
- Create content for my blog
- Walk daily
- Have banana frozen yogurt in a waffle cone
- Visit IKEA
- Spend time with the ones I love
- Afternoon naps
- Make homemade pizza dough once a week
- Have breakfast for supper
- Go to a farm-to-table restaurant
- Go to the farmer’s market weekly
- Woodworking in the garage
- Flower arranging
- Have coffee on the patio
- Complete a felting project
- Kayak
Maybe one of these items sparked your interest and you would like to try it. What items would you have on your list? Happy Summer!
Local strawberries are now available in grocery stores, and local markets. The fresh sweet smell of a strawberry is like no other. Biting into that first juicy bite is just so good.
We eat strawberries from the grocery store during off seasons, but they are nothing like local, in season ones.
There are so many places to go and pick your own local strawberries as well. Some local farms and markets even let you bring your own containers to reduce packaging.
What is your favourite strawberry recipe? My favourite is Christina Tosi’s recipe for Strawberry Shortcake. It is beyond amazing and if you haven’t tried it, you need to. Happy strawberry season!
This was a beautiful book that I recently picked up at Winners. I loved the front cover and was drawn to it right away.
The author, Julia Watkins, is the creator of @simply.living.well on Instagram. Her book is jam packed with great tips and diys for living simply and sustainably. What could be better? I have thoroughly enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it as a great read with lots of actionable ideas to implement.
In Julia’s introduction, she shares that, “this is a book your grandmother could have given you. Chock full of tips, recipes, and remedies .”
Using a reusable bag has become second nature to most of us now. Having reusable bags near the front door of your home makes it easy to grab on the way out to shopping. I also recommend keeping a stash of reusable bags in the car. This is very helpful and ensures that you have bags on hand when you need them.
Trying to use what I have on hand has been my most recent challenge. I think my former self just used to go out and get what I needed from the store. Now I try to look around the house to see what I have first. At least half the time, I end up finding the item I needed already in our home. We have a joke at our house that sometimes we need to “shop the basement “.
Using natural choices for cleaning is an important change as well. There are many earth friendly products now on the market for cleaning choices. Julia includes lots of kitchen made recipes for all natural cleaners. Lemons, salt, olive oil, white vinegar, and baking soda are just some of the kitchen items that she uses to create easy cleaning recipes.
With the price increase of groceries we all have had to make some adjustments to our weekly grocery shopping. In our home we create a meal plan that gives us some focus for the week ahead. Making a list to take to the grocery store helps me to stay focused on what I need. Shopping your home freezer and pantry is a great idea as well. We grow our own vegetables in our home garden, and have the guarantee of top freshness.
I highly recommend this book as a great read. I encourage you to try one new simple way to make your home more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
There are a lot of reasons to do companion planting in the garden. In this container I have planted a pear shaped yellow tomato, basil and marigolds. I also have a larger raised bed with a variety of other tomatoes. Including sweet one hundreds, heirloom, black cherry tomatoes, and grape tomatoes. I have added marigolds and lots of basil in this planter as well.
Companion planting allows the plants to reap benefits from each other in the same container or space in your garden. The main reason for doing this is pest control. In this instance the pests that may want to eat your tomato plants don’t like marigolds or basil. This is a simple non toxic way to control garden pests from eating your vegetables.
Basil is also good friends with tomatoes. Last year was the first year I planted them together. It was lovely to smell the aroma of the basil while working in the garden. This also led me to discover one of my favourite lunch time snacks. Start by taking a Rye Crisp (or similar cracker) and spreading hummus on it. Then slice up cherry tomatoes and place them on top. Then add a few fresh basil leaves, a drizzle of balsamic and a sprinkle of fresh sea salt ! Delicious!
Some other easy companion planting combinations are corn, beans, and squash or onion, peppers, and garlic. Radishes, cucumber and oregano are also another choice. As well as, rosemary, carrots and lettuce.
It is indeed worth looking up what pairs well with other plants in the garden. This is important because some pairings are not good with each other and will affect your productivity in the garden. A simple search of companion planting will result in a lot of information, which you can then use to get the most benefit in your garden.
Happy gardening!
Some flowers just speak to you more than others. The dahlia seems to be one of those. It has such intricate petals and is so lovely. There are so many varieties to choose from and sizes of flower. Some are even as big as a dinner plate!
My daughter lives in Montreal, and likes to go to the Atwater Market. It is such a beautiful market that is open year round and has the most amazing breads, produce, flowers, sweets, and more. During the spring the parking lot becomes a green house/garden centre and many growers sell plants, vegetables and hanging baskets. It is a sea of green with pops of vibrant colours everywhere, it is simply stunning.
I unfortunately didn’t get the chance to go this year, but my daughter was able to pick up these two beautiful dahlias for me. I love their rich yellow colour and they were so healthy. They have become a welcome addition to my backyard. I decided to plant some lantana with them as well for an additional pop of colour. I have planted them in pots and will see how they do, I may have to upsize the container if they are doing really well.
Do you have dahlias growing in your garden? Maybe this post will give you inspiration to try them, I guarantee you will love them!
While doing my usual perusing through Instagram and Pinterest this recipe for strawberry muffins caught my eye. The recipe is from Two Peas and Their Pod. The recipe was super simple to follow and I had all the ingredients that I needed on hand including fresh local strawberries.
I have to admit I have never made muffins with fresh strawberries before. The secret tip of combining the diced strawberries with a little bit of flour really worked well so that the strawberries don’t just mush into the batter. Another great tip I appreciated was to use two muffin trays and space out your muffins, six per tray so that the muffins have more space to bake. This was a brilliant tip and one that I will for sure use again. I have made muffins so many times and had them all spread into each other, not exactly pretty.
I also loved the sprinkle of turbinado sugar on top to add some crunch. My Dad always says muffins with a crunchy top are the best kind. I think these will be a winner in his books.
I have been saving these fancy parchment baking liners for a special recipe and I thought this was the perfect occasion to use them. I love when I go to a cafe or a bakery and they have these parchment liners. The muffins just seem so much fancier, and taste better.
Maybe you will try these yummy strawberry muffins in your kitchen. Enjoy!
