Since I’m a new blogger most of my readers so far have been friends and family (understandably). That being said, a lot of you might not be privy to the visual smorgasbord that is blogland. So, as a treat I decided to start a new feature that I plan to do once a week highlighting some great blogs, ideas, photos and writers that are out there. Each thing I feature will be something that has caught my eye over the last week.

Enjoy!

– – – – – – – –

First up is some wonderful Rosemary Lemonade posted by Krista over at Blue Eyed Yonder. Doesn’t this just look SO delicious! Yum yum yum – and these photos, gorgeous. Is she talented or what!? And her blog is so sweet. This recipe is listed on her site – must try soon!

– – – – –

Now that we are all nice and thirsty, let’s head to the water. Rachel and Lily are friends, wives, mothers and vintage junkies extraordinaire! They have a wonderful blog, Birch and Bird and Lily recently posted a bunch of AMAZING waterfront wedding destination photos. Here is a sneak peak, but you will have to head over to check out the whole collection. Stunning.

I love that chandelier and those lucite chairs against that mountain backdrop… sigh….

– – – – –

And last but certainly not least is a recent post by Coutney over at A Thoughtful Place. Her bio reads that she is “enamored with all things pretty, organized, well-designed, and efficient”. A kindred spirit! She featured these amazing designs by Pretty Smitten and… well I am! By both these amazing iPhone covers and Courtney’s wonderful blog.

While working on my recent deck projects I realized my deck needed a little bling. Well, let’s be honest, I wanted to put up some Christmas lights in the middle of summer. Kidding! (Well sort of. My love of Christmas is apparent here). But the bling was my main reason for this next project.

I thought a strand of little white lights would look great running along the underside of our retaining wall ‘lip’. Just a small clean touch of lights to brighten the space on a warm summer evening.

So, into the storage I went and resurfaced with a string of lights and a staple gun.

But guess what? I underestimated how awkward the little lip is to get at and misjudged my lack of desire for stapling though electrical chords. Read that as: I’m chicken to staple electrical cords upside down into a 1″ overhang of wood.

To rectify, I paid a visit to my local hardware store and somehow got coerced into picking up a snack for Chef Kev along the way. When I returned I had one pack of cable screws for my two pitstops. … and some chips. Speaking of getting screwed (kidding Sweetie – hope you liked your chips) that’s just what I did.

PS/ If you’re interested in checking out my other recent deck posts, visit here: The Great Grass Caper, Pretty in Pink, Herbalicious, Black is the new ‘fake terra cotta’

The other day we had my parents and sister over for my mom’s birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!) and while out grabbing some groceries I thought I’d pick up a few fresh flowers. I love making flower arrangements so generally look for whatever is relatively inexpensive and seasonal – I can often be heard saying “no need to wrap them, they’re just for me”. Then I come home and make a nice little arrangement for the occasion!

However, there were some pretty slim pickins’ the othe day and nothing was striking a chord. I thought I may get a few gerberas but at $2.49 a pop I’d have to get quite a few for any impact. And then low and behold I spotted one of the ready-made bouquets for $12 that contained eight of them! I did some quick math and headed to the check out… but not before I grabbed some baby’s breath too. YES, baby’s breath! Why? Becuase I love a challenge.

I can hear you all saying “baby’s breath? Are we talking about the same baby’s breath seen in 1980’s corsages along side a pink taffetta grad dress and mall bangs in a Sears portrait?” And to that I say “Yes. Yes we are.” You see, I had a vision – a vision to make you all baby’s breath believers. Convert you, if you will.

Forgive me that I don’t have a picture of the bouquet ‘before’ but I’m sure you can all envision your basic generic grocery store bouquet comprised of a few different blooms and a truckload of filler. And if you can’t then I beg you to forgive me anyway. Hey, I’m a new blogger, I forget to take ‘before pics’. Cut a girl some slack.

To begin I took a vase that I had on hand and filled it with floral preserve (the little packet your bouquet comes with) and water. Any vase will do but for this arrangement I pictured something low and ‘full’.

Then I made grid using regular satin scotch tape. The grid helps you plan out your arrangement as well as help hold your flowers up!

begin assembling (starting with your ‘main’ flower)…

Start to fill in your arrangement using complimentary blooms. If you don’t have an eye for this sort of thing then the ‘pre-arranged’ bouquets are great because they already come with complimentary blooms and colours. You can see here is where I started adding my BABY’S BREATH for bulk. I liked that it was so light and airy yet helped fill out the arrangement. Plus did I mention that I like a challenge…

The bouquet came with one LARGE frond that was very pretty but would not work with this type of arrangement so check out what I did…

Step one: Snip

Step two: gather together by pushing up from bottom along stem and then tape:

step three: stuff:

I got four bunches out of the one frond. Not bad!

Next, take some of the filler leaves (you won’t use them all most likely as these generic bouquets usually come with SO much) and add to the edges:

Another neat trick to making your bouquet look custom and designey (yup – a made up word for you) is to use a non-flower element. I had this little shimmery stick from Christmas that matched my palette so in it went!

Add some ribbon around the vase:

And you’re done! Not bad for less than $15!

Here are a few close ups:

Are you beginning to become a baby’s breath believer?

AND just to show you I’m not fakin’ it for fun, here’s another arrangement I did in the same vase back at Christmas.

Do you think you’ll give Baby a chance? As Patrick once said: “No one puts baby in the corner”. Happy flower arranging!

Happy Monday everyone!

This past weekend was the anti-summer weekend. Rain. Rain. Rain.

Now I love rain (I know, weird right?) but even I was a bit bummed by the terrential downpours we had. It sure put a damper (ha ha, ‘damp’er get it. oy) on my deck sprucing plans.

BUT, it did offer me some great moments to get outside and capture a few neat things with my camera…

The rain created tiny droplets that captured the light like little diamonds. So pretty.

So quiet, so green and so serene. Oh, and a keen eye may have noticed that those top shots were taken on the new grasses in my recently redone planters!

Now let’s hope this Monday turns into a ‘Sun’day. Yup. Another pun. You’re welcome.

Chef Kev is! Okay, so maybe he isn’t technically gnocching at the door since he lives here but it makes a funny headline no?

As I’ve been working at sprucing up the deck, Chef Kev has been busy in the kitchen (as per usual) and came up with another stellar masterpiece (which, I might add, we enjoyed on said deck). Yummy times.

Here’s how he did it:

Chicken Mushroom Gnocchi

The key to this dish is to introduce earthy tastes (thyme, sage, mushroom) to compliment the gnocchi.

For this yummy creation you’ll want to time your two main ingredients (gnocchi and chicken) so that they finish cooking at around the same time – so do a bit of math first. Did I mention Chef Kev is also a Certified General Accountant? I’m just glad that I’m a designer and only in charge of making things look pretty. I’m not a fan of pop quizzes. Anyway….

Gnocchi: Purchase some gnocchi at the store (ours was the ‘Italissima’ brand) and prepare according to package instructions. Chef Kev note: he wants to attempt to make his own some day (and you SO know I’m gonna blog about that) but for now, this brand makes a great quick yummy gnocchi. 

Chicken: In a sauce pan melt some butter and little olive oil on medium heat. Once melted add: two diced  shallots, a clove (or two) of minced garlic and cubed chicken breast. Next, add the following herbs WHOLE (for flavour purposes while cooking): a couple of fresh sprigs of rosemary, a couple sprigs of fresh thyme and a few sage leaves. Add some sliced mushrooms. Once chicken is almost fully cooked remove the whole herbs and add some chicken stock (enough to deglaze while still keeping the chicken moist). Once that has cooked down a bit add some heavy cream. Add salt and pepper and some dried thyme Chef Kev note: taste along the way to test your seasoning level and adjust accordingly. Let this reduce down until desired thickness (feel free to add corn starch or flour to help this process). Turn pan off when done and let sit.

Once your gnocchi is done, have another sauce pan ready with melted butter and olive oil (on medium high heat). Add gnocchi to pan and fry for a few minutes until it has a bit of texture on the outside. Add gnocchi to chicken mixture pan and combine.

Serve in a bowl and finish with freshly chopped chive. Salt and pepper to taste (if desired).

Tomatoe Bocconcini Salad (with a maple twist)

This is a great casual summer salad. The large chunky pieces add to this feeling of laid back dining.

In a bowl add mixed baby greens, grape and/or cherry tomatoes (cut in half), one minced shallot, some peeled and chopped english cucumber and of course, Bocconcini! It does not matter what size Bocconcini but Chef Kev used ‘cherry size’ for this dish.

To make the vinaigrette combine: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, dijon mustard and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Add in quantities to your liking of acidity and taste.

You’re almost done – add to salad and toss.! Don’t over dress, no one likes a salad that comes too dressed for a casual dinner party.

Enjoy!

And if you take a sip of wine for every time I said gnocchi then you’ll really be having a good time.

In the (almost) words of Fergie, I am now Herbalicious. I’d like to make more comparisons but I don’t got the boys on rock rock and they aren’t lining up the block just to watch what I got… unless of course they like herbs. Because now I got ’em.

As you may recall from my earlier deck post and subsequent deck projects (my chandelier refreshing found here and my planter redo found here) this is another step in my plan to bring a little lovin’ to our deck. I still have a few more projects up my sleeve which I plan to roll out soon and then our new outdoor room will be done!

As we came into the season our herb garden from last year looked like this:

Let’s just say that I’m glad “Herbs Gone Bad” isn’t a reality show because I would find myself in a surprise ambush. “Surprise! We’re repo-ing your herb garden because you defaulted on watering and care”! How embarassing. No, but in all seriousness our herb garden is seasonal so it tends to look like this at the beginning of each summer. Put your clipboards away herb repo-ers (is that even a word) nothing to see here.

Okay, so aside from the herbs being dunzo these poor planters were also on their last legs. Not in the function category but in the Elaine-design-stamp-of-approval one. I am attached to these planters because my dad made them (awwwhhh) so really wanted to keep them and give them a new lease on life.

I decided on a glossy black to compliment the planters that would be below them (more on that later) so the first step was to empty these bad boys and give them a good bath, clean, hose down.

Then I removed the rusty little hooks that had been used in previous years. They had seen better days and I had no use for them for what I had planned.

Now on to the stain! I chose Minwax Polyshades, Satin & Polyurethane in 1 step (1 step! Yay for laziness) in Classic Gloss Black. I didn’t even sand because I’m a rebel (please don’t write in to the producers of any fictional herb éxpose reality show).

At this stage she was looking like this:

It worked great and I love the finish. A nice shiny black that still shows the wonderful texture of the wood but hides the aging and weathering that had occured. Note: I didn’t paint the inside of the planter because I didn’t like the idea of paint leaching in to any dirt and subsequently my herbs. These herbs are pesticide – and paint – free!

Now, earlier when I mentioned these were going ABOVE the planters that I redid last week it was because I planned to hang them off the white railing that sits atop the cement wall that my planters are working to camoflauge. My hubby – Chef Kev – is 6′ 5″ so if he can walk up to a planter that is chest height to grab some fresh herbs then that saves a good 30 seconds. He’s so tall that by the time he bends down to the ground we’ve entered a new time zone. For those unfamiliar with Chef Kev, learn more about him here and his wonderful dinner creations here and here. Create a herb garden for husband = more dinner inspiration that wife gets to enjoy. Done and done.

Okay, so back to the planter support hooks. I picked up six of these babies (two for each planter) at my favourite garden centre.

Once my hooks were installed (I had to measure them out and adjust them for each planter), I was ready to hang my planters. But wait! What herbs did I plant!? On the (planter) menu we have: chives, oregano, cilantro, parsley, thyme, basil, sage and rosemary. We also use a lot of fresh dill but to be honest it’s quite hard to grow (very floppy and finicky) so we continue to buy fresh dill. If I get my act together I’ll plant some in my actual garden with a tomatoe cage for support but I’ve been too busy avoiding the herb police to be that coordinated.

Planting complete, the planters were ready to hang. My ugly cement wall has gone from this (when we moved in)…

TO THIS! (if you’re wondering where the ‘grass’ went you’ll want to check out this post). And our dog’s name is Belle – Hi Belle.

The planters fit right in and have already begun to reap their bounty.

Here are a few more shots/details of our herbs in stagnant action…

Guess you won’t be seeing me on any future episodes of ‘Herbs Gone Bad”. Why? Because I’m HERBALICIOUS. Go basil, rock your rosemary, and your thym…. … get your chive on… party parsle…