Duck's Egg Blue

        Duck's Egg Blue by Martha Stewart from Home Depot is my colour of choice for today- no I am not painting walls- I am trying my hand at freshening up some furniture! I have long been boring close friends with an inability to chose a paint colour- finally a decision has been made and one of many painting projects has been ticked off the old list.

       This little coffee table has quite a history- it was one of my first really good pieces of furniture in University- my dad build it and painted it navy blue to go with my whole "Celestial"! It remained navy blue for several years until the Mr. and I started playing house- then I painted it Celedon green to match out kitchen table- good stuff. Next this little table was passed down to my niece for her first place- she didn't use it long before it and the rest of her belongings returned to my Sister In Law's house- where the coffee table was painted dark brown and had wheels added- great idea on a patio table!

      The brown was OK but over the past few years since the coffee table was returned to us our Littles have made a bit of a mess of it- it is ground zero for most painting that happens.  So I busted out the hand sander and took it back- almost to the original blue paint before starting in on it's fresh new colour.
I will admit I am a bit smitten with the new look of things- the Duck's Egg blue goes well with all the yellow, green and pink I have going on out there right now!

A Mini Shop Update!

In the same vein- I have a new goody going into the Home section of my Etsy shop next week- this cute little hand screen printed linen cushion cover is up for grabs here first as always- 100% linen front- hand screen printed with colourful flowers- backed with a neutral grey canvas- overlapping back pocket closure. This is a one of a kind pillow cover! $28.00 -19"x19"- if you are interested feel free to message me on in the comment's section or via Etsy or Facebook!

Friends it is Friday again- I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend with some old friends as well as visiting with our family in the Okanagan. I hope where ever your days find you that there is sunshine in your heart even if it is not on your shoulders!

In The Garden

      OK so it is clear that I need a yard with room for a large garden- but until that day swings around we do what we can with what we have- we are learning the ins and outs of container gardening. Last week the weather was stellar and I should have planted then however I waited until the weekend- in a torrential downpour we headed to our local nursery to pick up just one more planter and some more dirt.

    The new planter is home to some yummy sweet snap peas, radishes and the lettuce- can't wait till they start popping up! We are loosely adhering to the square foot gardening rule- planting our planters by the square foot to ensure maximum plant growth and food production. Remember those tomatoes we started sprouting a couple of months ago in empty eggs shells? Well I now have to figure out how to fit six heirloom tomato plants out onto our deck!

    This all started a few years ago  with a couple of strawberry plants in Terracotta pots- now those same three plants have been joined by a few others- competing for space in the small area of full sun on our deck. Now we have loads of herbs, kale, garlic, peas, radishes, lettuce and all those tomato plants! Plus my Hostas are going bonkers and need to be split again- but I can worry about that in the fall!

In The Garden

       There are flowers of  a different sort popping up in our garden these days- in the form of these pretty cushions on our chairs. I know this is not earth shattering news or even all that interesting of subject matter but since I spend a lot of time out on our deck now that warmer weather has arrived I am pretty happy with these cheery blooms!

      Originally the cushions were black and were stock to the Ikea chairs- there was a lot of black and grey happening out on the deck and I thought a pop of colour would do the trick. Using this awesome fabric from my stash I recovered the black cushions- using the original cushion as a template tracing it out and then just sewing a snug cover. I took the liberty of adding ties- which aren't really necessary but look really cute- I think!

       So bring on the sunshine! I will be out on my deck- puttering in the garden and sitting pretty on a bed of flowers! Now for the rest of the deck- get rid of the old orange carpet, paint the table, buy more potting soil....this is going to be a busy weekend!

In The Garden

       This time of year- even on rainy days- we migrate outside onto our deck pretty much as soon as we wake up- there are plants to be checked on and watered, coffee to be sipped, naked neighbours to be mocked- yes this is city gardening at it's finest! Our deck is large in comparison to what is offered in much of our neighbourhood- 128 square feet- quite the luxury!

      In between sipping of said coffee I am busily plotting what this summer's garden will contain- yes literally as we take full advantage of all that outdoor space by filling it with containers of veggies! This is our second summer here and I feel like this year I am prepared- I know the sun patterns on our deck- what is in shade and what gets full sun- we know that strawberries do well as do the tomatoes and basil- it's time to branch out this year. I'm excited to try out vertical cucumber gardening, snap peas, radishes and carrots in addition to lettuce and kale that we grew last year.

       As mentioned in a previous post we are trying to start our own tomato plants from seeds this year instead of buying seedlings- and so far so good we have eight plants coming up- although I understand that seedlings are tender young things prone to withering at the slightest of insults- too much water, not enough, too much sun, not enough- I feel its a lot like taking care of a baby in those terrifying early days!

       The garlic is up- although I only have nine plants in comparison to my Dad's one hundred and five (approx guess) plants! But it is a start and next fall I will plant more- I know now what I did right and what I did wrong and I know to plant more than I expect to come up. I guess this gardening thing is a giant lesson in patience and learning- you can't make things grow you can only help them to grow- a great analogy for parenting!

        I always have company out on the deck first thing in the morning- Miss Lo was my lovely assistant this morning- trying out my new garden gloves from the Peachland Easter Bunny- she thinks they should be hers as they are her colour! I'm going to offer up fair warning from here on out- my posts may be a bit late some mornings- I am more than likely out on the deck in my garden checking the progress and sipping a latte!

Block Printing with the Kiddos

    I dont know if it needs to be said again- but we do a lot of art around here! Not just me with the making or the Mr. with the drawing but these kiddos of ours are what some classify as Craftaholics! Keeping them engaged with fresh art projects can sometimes be a bit of a challenge, I often worry they will be bored when they hit school as we do things well above what is considered "appropriate" for their age.

   I remember my own parents encouraging me as a kid- I was sent to the Kelowna Art Gallery's summer art classes- this was when the K.A.G was still in the same building the Kelowna Museum. Our  classes were held downstairs in the basement of the museum. It was dark and cool and smelled amazing down there; I felt like I was part of some sort of secret club. Catching glimpses of the stuffed bob cat from the taxidermy collection getting cleaned, racks of vintage clothing that no one ever got to see and shelves of native artifacts. I had back stage access AND got to learn about drawing positive and negative space-I was 8.

      I feel that if I turned out OK (if not a little precocious) with such an early introduction to art then these Littles of ours will be just fine as well. In that spirit today we tried doing a bit of block printing; a pal of the boy's is having a birthday party this weekend and we needed a bit of wrapping paper. So we set up out on the deck- a lot of living goes on out there- and the kids drew out their designs onto soft Safety Cut blocks.

     Of course I did the dirty work as I often do- wielding the Lino knife and cutting out the designs as best that I could.  There was quite a bit of tiny detail that I found difficult to get cleanly cut out so we compromised and a select few areas were what made the cut( bwahaha- insert lame art joke here)!

                     Miss Lo is really into faces lately- so of course she made this funny little guy!

     The boy is a lot more abstract in his style but was pretty addement that the blue stamp in a rocket ship- of course! Once we got everything cut out( I trimmed away the excess rubber with scissors- time is always of the essence when working with toddlers) I handed over a few stamp pads and off the went- stamping to their hearts content. Usually we would use ink and roll it on with a brayer but it is really warm out today and I felt the ink would dry too quickly.

   The key I find to mixing toddlers and art is to have everything you need on hand and all set up, things can quickly go awry if you have to step away to grab a wash cloth. The other thing is to set the kids up themselves to succeed at the project- don't give them something they will get frustrated with and mad about. Kids often hear "No" so often - why not let art be a place where "No" doesn't exist? With that in mind I feel it is important to still challenge them and help them down their road of exploration.

     I feel I should mention our kids are always kept safe- we never give them art supplies that would be toxic or harm-full to them in any way. People occasionally think that kids art supplies should be cheap- often these cheap products from the dollar store, for example, are not up to standard and not non toxic.

      When buying art supplies for children look for it to specifically say Non Toxic as well as having that "AP" or Approved Product seal posted clearly on the label. Supplies bought through a reputable retailer such as Opus Framing and Art Supplies have been carefully picked by the company and usually give the best results. All the art supplies we used today, with the exception of the stamp pads, came from Opus- they are a wonderful resource and always happy to help!