Visual Meringue - A mouth-watering taste of all things creative…
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Visual Meringue - A mouth-watering taste of all things creative…
  • About
  • Home & Garden
    • bathrooms
    • bedrooms
    • dining room
    • entryway
    • Family Room
    • Garden
    • guest room
    • kitchen
    • laundry
    • Living Room
    • office
    • rec room
  • DIY & Crafts
    • art
    • crafts
    • floral arranging
    • free printables
    • furniture
    • home upgrades
    • kids
    • organization
    • paint & stain
  • Chef Kev (eats)
    • Drinks
    • Mains
    • Salads
    • Soups
    • Sweets
  • photography
  • Seasonal & Holiday
    • spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
    • Valentine’s Day
    • easter
    • Canada Day
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas
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Friday Feature!

August 10, 2012 by Elaine No Comments

I’ve started a little feature that will be only on my Facebook page where I, well, feature one great blog every Friday!

The blogs I will be showcasing are just some of my personal faves that I feel have a lot to offer. I thought it was a fun way to introduce blogs that have amazing content to new readers. Kind of like a virtual blind date set-up if you will.

But don’t worry, you don’t have to pick up the tab for dinner.

If this little exclusive to my Facebook Fans interests you, please click on over and like me (and see who I’m featuring today).

Who knows, you could find your blog soul mate.

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Desktop Calendar Roundup: August 2012

August 1, 2012 by Elaine No Comments

It’s already August?! Where does the time go? I guess that means it’s only five months until Christmas. Is it wrong that I’m (not so secretly) excited about that?

Anywho – here are the fantastic calendars that caught my eye this month. Click on the link below to be redirected to the download.

Red Stamp
Basic Grey

Jennifer Squires

Oana Befort

Pepper & Buttons
Caroline Johansson

Happy Serendipity
Virginia Saint

Dave Hornsby

Studio of Mae

A place for twiggs

Aren’t these all just lovely? Thank you to all the wonderful designers who make these each month. Which one is your fave? If you go on to download one let me know which you pick!

Happy August everyone.

Weekend Bloggy Reading

Liz Marie Blog
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Boarding the Instagram Train

July 20, 2012 by Elaine 6 Comments

I’ve been fiddling around with the amazing Instagram App for months now and thought it might be nice to share some of the little moments I’ve captured. I won’t bore you with every photo I take but thought every so often I’d do a ‘dump’ of 16 recent shots and then call out my top three faves (kind of like a Gold, Silver and Bronze award in honour of the Olympics!). This little idea was inspired by one of my favourite bloggers – Check out Bower Power if you are a blog lover and are in the dark.

So without further ado…

a little word on each if interested…

1) a Soccer World Cup snack in the colours of our guest’s favourite team
2) pancakes – a sunday morning tradition
3) finally – shelves in this closet!
4) BRONZE winner – details below
5) SILVER winner – details below
6) another amazing Chef Kev salad
7) on the ferry for a little weekend getaway
8) GOLD winner – details below
9) rays of sunshine on my little angel
10) a beautiful venue at a recent fundraiser
11) Chace with his new outdoor water toy. A pirate ship. He was so excited that we had to set it up inside as it was raining the day we got it.
12) self portrait in the visor mirror
13) funky lights as I waited for some take-out dinner
14) I made banana bread!
15) Belle.
16) playing with crayons and colouring the kids menu

And now my top three faves. The medals go to…

BRONZE: Chace having a quick dinner (McDonalds – a treat) on a park bench. I love how he is holding his litlte chicken mcnugget and quietly playing with his happy meal toy. sweet.

SILVER: This was taken just last night as I was out for dinner with some of my best friends to celebrate a job promotion of one of the ladies. Good friends = food for the soul.

and my fave of all:
GOLD: Imagine Chace’s joy when he realised this tape measure was metal and Colin the Crane’s magnet could ‘lift it’. Simple, simple pleasures. Ultimate Joy.

If you’d like to follow me on Instagram my username is “visualmeringue”!
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Celebrating the Simple Beauty in the Everyday

July 17, 2012 by Elaine No Comments

Sunday morning as Chace was playing with his toys and watching ‘Fireman Sam’ I was doing the not so exciting task of puttering around the kitchen cleaning up.

I was hand washing some pots and pans and reached into the ‘tea towel drawer’ and discovered this…

Yes, a tea towel. Now of course I’ve seen tea towels before but not this one. The back story here is that my mother-in-law (originally from England) had told us to “never buy another tea towel as she had many”. One day she must have given this to Chef Kev and unbeknowst to me, it ended up in our tea towel drawer. Straight from England (she visits there often) to us. 
I  took a moment to admire it. It’s pretty, soft colour palette, intricate bird illustrations, spring-like flowers and beautiful linen texture. 
I thought, ‘wow, you could frame this and use it as art’. How beautiful would this look in a powder room against coral coloured walls? It would be traditional yet completely unexpected when paired with a modern bright on-trend wall colour. I love that kind of juxtaposition.
I thought how amazing is that apple green paired with that soft blue. Then my mind wandered to some graphic design projects that I had on the go… and my mind also wanted to file this fresh colour palette inspiration for future ones to come. 

I thought, I love the weave of this linen – so delicate. So pretty.
I thought,  If I saw this, I would ‘pin it’. I felt inspired.
I thought, I should blog about this.

I wondered, what is the “the royal society for the protection of birds – the lodge sandy bedfordshire” (the beginning of which can be seen on the bottom right part of the tea towel above)? So I looked it up and learned it was a registered charity in England and Wales focussed on wildlife conservation.
I thought, I didn’t know that. Now I do.

I thought, what a beautiful tea towel. But it isn’t ‘just’ a tea towel. It is more. It is a moment to reflect, a moment to stop, a moment to appreciate. 
It is beauty in an unexpected place.

































There is so much simple beauty in the everyday; If only we slow down long enough to appreciate it.
And with that realization I gave Chace a kiss on the head, told him I loved him (as I always do) and went back to doing the dishes.





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DIY & Crafts, Food & Drink, kids, Sweets, Uncategorized

Clowning Around

July 12, 2012 by Elaine No Comments

Last night I made Chace (my three-year-old) a special little treat.

That’s right. I made him a sweet (ha, get it) ice cream clown – in honour of him running away to join the circus… might have been kidding about that last part.

And as you can most likely tell, it was very easy to make.

First I simply melted some chocolate (I used Aero bars) in a homemade double boiler. If you don’t own a double boiler you can acheive the same effect by filling a pot about 1/4 full of water and resting a stainless steel bowl over the opening (like a lid). Once the water in the pot begins to boil, your chocolate will melt nice and evenly. Stir the chocolate though so it does not scorch.

Once melted, I twirled the open end of my cone in the chocolate.

And then twirled it once more in a bowl of sprinkles.

With my ‘hat’ made I moved on to Mr. Clown’s ice cream face.

To stop it from melting all over the plate I scooped a small scoop into a little condiment bowl and then stacked another small scoop on top of that. Then I topped it off with my waffle cone hat and made a face with Runts candy. I love how the hat hangs over the back as seen above.

What a ‘sweet’ (stop me now) little face.

I quickly snapped a bunch of photos as my time was limited. For obvious reasons – melting ice cream, yes. But someone something much more pressing was waiting in the wings.

Mr. Clown lived a short life but he was well loved.

It was a perfect way to ‘cap off’ (okay, done with those now) a warm summer evening.

I love doing little crafts like this with Chace and marvel at the excitement he gets from such simple things. It’s amazingly beautiful, and innocent, and ‘sweet’ (sorry – had to).

What about you? Any easy to make toddler faves that you want to share? Made any special treats recently? Run away to join a circus as of late? Please share 🙂

PSST – I’ve updated my Facebook page with a new seasonal cover photo highlighting some summery projects. Head on over and let me know what you think – and don’t forget to ‘like’ the page if so inclined. Thanks 🙂

Weekend Bloggy Reading

Cherished Bliss
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Desktop Calendar Roundup: July 2012

July 2, 2012 by Elaine No Comments

Happy July! The month of sun (hopefully), Canada’s birthday and the Olympics!

I hope you like these calendars that caught my eye this month.
Click on any below to be redirected to the download. Enjoy!

Caroline Johansson

The Lovely Dept.
Red Stamp
Marco Palma via Smashing Magazine

Love Notes by Lauryn

Pepper and Button
Studio of Mae
Jennifer Squires
Marcos Sandrini via Smashing Magazine
Sherif Saleh via Smashing Magazine
Kikki-K
























If you’ve got a calendar that you’d like considered for my monthly round-up, please let me know!





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Hello

I'm Elaine. A graphic designer, mommy, wife and blogger. I have trouble sitting still and am always looking for a project. Follow along as I post about life – in a pretty and creative way of course.

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