I once had a friend tell me that everyone always has something going on in their lives that we don’t necessarily know about. And for that reason we needed to be kind to one another.
There are a lot of people in my life who are dealing with a variety of things right now. This is a reminder to be kind to one another. Take that extra moment to listen, ask someone how their day is going, or even just smile.
Doing something kind for someone might just be the bright spot in their day. It might be a small thing but it makes a difference.
For the people in my life that are dealing with illness, caring for family members, recovering from surgery, dealing with ongoing health problems, retiring soon, trying to juggle busy family lives, I see you. My message to you is: you got this, you are strong, you are capable and you are important!
Now go and spread a little kindness!
This Spring I have been diligently working to improve our front porch. Slowly, I’ve added some new things that make it a place where I would want to sit and have a cup of coffee or tea, a place where I would like to stay a while.
Porches hold a special place in my heart. My grandparents had a front and back porch, both enclosed with lots of windows and filled with beautiful light. We would visit and have tea and eat homemade cookies on these porches. They were so well loved, and I have so many great family memories of them.
I wanted to try to recreate some of what I loved about those spaces on my own porch. Adding an outdoor rug, new pillows, and new plants has made a huge difference. It’s already starting to feel warm and welcoming.
My latest addition is these planters. I wanted to create a ‘living wall.’ Living walls are usually secured to (non-living) walls, but this one will hang and create some privacy at the open end of our porch. It will continue to grow and fill in as the summer progresses. I am hoping for healthy, lush, trailing plants that will fill the space.
I started by attaching a cedar board to the ceiling of our front porch (with the help of my husband, this is definitely a two person job). This provides a place to anchor in the screw hooks that will hold the new hanging baskets.
I then filled the baskets with a good quality soil, and planted a variety of trailing plants that I bought at my local garden centre, mostly different kinds of ivy. The hanging baskets and inserts were purchased at my local Dollar Tree. I plan on adding some baby spider plants that I currently have rooting in the house for a little more filler over the next coming days.
Overall, I am super happy with how this project is turning out. I am excited to see how my ‘living wall’ fills in and to watch it progress throughout the Summer. I will keep you posted on how it’s doing. Happy gardening!
Many years ago, on a road trip to the Kitchener/Waterloo area we picked up an old whisky barrel. I remember that we saw a sign on the side of the road saying they had barrels for sale and I thought it would be a great idea to buy one. As great of an idea as this was, fitting it in our vehicle was an entirely different matter. However we did have success!
When we arrived home we transformed it into a rain barrel, before rain barrels were even a thing. We used it for many years and collected rain to water our plants. Eventually it started to break down and wasn’t such a good rain barrel anymore but, we couldn’t bare to let it go to waste. So we disassembled it, we kept all the long barrel slats, and removed all the metal barrel rings.
We saved these materials for years, knowing that they would be used for different projects one day. My husband created an awesome light fixture for his office using some of the wooden slats.
Our latest project though was for our fire pit area. We wanted to create a space where we could keep the wood for our summer evening camp fires. We selected two of the smaller barrel rings, and went to Home Depot to purchase some heavy duty twine. The next step was to saw one of the barrel slats in half for the base. After assembling this fire wood holder we placed it out in our backyard and it works like a charm and looks good too!
A lovely Saturday afternoon spent with my family enjoying the warm weather and a lovely glass of local made wine. We discovered The Rolling Grape Vineyard on one of our many weekend driving trips. Sometimes we just like to drive and discover something new.
We were able to get a nice table with an umbrella on the patio. We enjoyed a charcuterie board (one of the best I’ve ever had), and wood fired pizza. Everything was delicious and fresh. There was even live music and the rolling vineyard hills were a beautiful setting.
We all have agreed that it would be a lovely place to make a return visit to, when the sun is setting.
Local is awesome!
I have always wanted a potting bench for my backyard garden. A place that I could transplant seedlings. The opportunity to store my gardening tools, display flowers and treasures from the garden, and a general outdoor work surface.
This was a weekend project that my husband and I did together.
We used cedar to create this bench. Cedar wood is very nice to work with, and it also holds up well to the outdoor weather.
We used tools that we already had in our garage to make the cuts we needed. The next step was to screw the pieces together to form the potting bench. We made the top deep enough to be able to have a good work surface, which was important to me.
I wanted somewhere to hang things like, twine, gardening scissors, and other gardening tools. We had some left over chicken wire which was the perfect thing to attach to the top portion using a staple gun. We also reused some old Ikea shelves for added storage on the top as well.
I think this is a great addition to my backyard gardening space. I love the way it turned out, it is absolutely perfect!
While driving on a Sunday afternoon, we stumbled across this cute little farm called Harley Farms.
There were animals, an education area, a playground and a farm shop.
We wandered around and checked out the animals. Even as adults it was fun to walk around and see them. Sheep, goats, emu, chickens and bunnies were just some of the animals that were on the farm.
Then we went into the farm shop and were able to get farm fresh eggs. We also picked up a frozen chicken pie, goat feta, and some green beans and fresh asparagus. There were a number of freezers each dedicated to a specific protein. We were very impressed with the variety and great set up of the farm shop. They also had some other local handmade products such as soap and gifts. As well as a selection of fresh vegetables to take home to enjoy.
As a family we are trying to make more of a commitment to supporting local and finding little shops that we can support. This was a great weekend adventure and we will for sure be back again. What local farm shops have you discovered?
One vegetable that I have grown in my raised garden bed has been kale. I have dabbled with a few different varieties but my family and I prefer curly kale.
A few summers ago I tried dinosaur kale but the texture was just too tough for my liking. I seem to have great success with growing the standard kind of kale so I have gone with that.
Kale is so versatile because it can be eaten both raw and cooked. When you eat it raw, it is best to wash it in a salad spinner. Then remove the vein in the middle, and chop with a knife. I place my chopped kale in a bowl. Then add a small amount of olive oil to the bowl and gently massage it. This breaks down the toughness of the kale leaves. I generally leave the kale leaves to sit while I prep the rest of my ingredients for my salad. Kale is a good base as a salad and can either have vegetables or fruit added to it.
Kale is also fabulous cooked and used as a replacement for spinach. It is excellent in soups and stews and even adding it to pasta dishes for extra vitamins. I am able to freeze kale from my garden as well. It just easily goes in freezer bags to use another day.
Last summer, I planted kale in my garden and was able to continue harvesting right up until January. The year before had been December for the last harvest. I have a running joke with my Dad and Mom. It has become a challenge to see just how long the kale will last. It just seems to keep producing! Maybe next year it will be February? The funniest part is that my Dad never liked kale for his entire life until I started to grow it, now he comes with a ‘kale bag’ and we fill it up weekly.
This year, I didn’t get a chance to remove the kale plants before the snow fell. So I left them and didn’t really think about it anymore. Then the snow started to melt and Spring began to spring. Low and behold the one kale plant started getting green and looking pretty good! I removed the other plants that were definitely expired. The old kale plant had new growth and was looking really healthy.
I just harvested several great looking leaves from my lone kale plant from summer 2022. I did some reading and apparently there can be 2 year old kale. It has a sightly tougher texture. It may not last the entire season; however, kudos to me because now I don’t have to buy greens at the grocery store.
And so ends the tale of the kale!
Gardening brings me joy!
All I need is a good pair of boots, my favourite gloves and a great pair of garden shears.
Rain boots: Mark’s.
Garden shears: Fiskars Professional Pruning Shears.
My all time favourite gardening gloves: Atlas Nitrile Gardening Gloves.
Happy Gardening to you all!
Are you like me and have a stash of buttons? I have collected these vintage buttons over the years. Some from my grandmother, my mom, myself and even antique stores. I store them in a glass mason jar in my craft room so they will be ready when I want to do a project. To be honest, I really have more than one jar!
I feel like each tells a story. Each one individual and unique. It is fun to think of what garment or accesory they started out on.
On a recent visit to a local antique market, I had the goal in mind to procure a set of vintage salt and pepper shakers. I thought they would make the perfect vessel for some button flowers.
As luck would have it I was able to find this lovely set for $2 a piece and they were perfect. I love how the glass swirls in a pattern and the delicate top sits upon the shaker just so.
I had fun creating my button flowers for these vintage vessels. The project started with pouring out all the buttons onto a large tray so I could look through them. I cut green floral wire into pieces and then attached the button through the holes. I then twisted it to secure it and was able to then arrange them into the vessels.
Is this a project you would try yourself? Here are some tips to keep in mind before starting. First, you will need to make sure that your floral wire is skinny enough to fit in the holes of the salt and pepper shakers. Second, you will need a good pair of wire snips and a pair of craft needle nose pliers. Third, you can also purchase buttons if you don’t happen to have vintage ones. I also doubled up some of the buttons for a more layered look. Have fun and mix and match colours and styles of buttons, the options are endless.
So we have been thinking about replacing two cedar trees in our front flower bed.
Last week I began to notice a Mama Robin making frequent trips to said cedar tree. Her mouth stuffed with sticks and twigs. And sure enough, she was building a sweet little nest in the tree.
The other day I peeked into the tree. There were four beautiful, perfect blue eggs nestled in the nest all snug as a bug. I’ve noticed that the Mama takes breaks. She leaves the nest for brief periods of time, but comes right back and settles in over the eggs. Just like a lid on a cookie jar!
So as you can imagine, the trees are staying. It is amazing how nature can create something so beautiful and simple. What a lovely moment to reflect and appreciate the world around us.