Simple pleasures for Summer

"I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June!"~ L. M. Montgomery

http://www.marthastewart.com/

Being pregnant has definitely put a damper on some of the splendour this summer, the swollen ankles just don't make me want to run through the sprinkler. However, there are some simple pleasures that even I can manage this summer that I wanted to share. Take for instance my most favourite summer bbq item as pictured above. Portobello mushroom "burgers" with goat cheese and roasted red peppers! I made little portobello sliders the other night on mini ciabatta buns with a few slices of portobello, grilled red pepper and goat cheese...DELISH! You must try this.

www.realsimple.com

Try making your own iced coffee in a martini shaker!

www.realsimple.com

Popsicle drip catchers out of cupcake liners! Why didn't I think of that???

www.realsimple.com
Create a bubble symphony with a kazoo!

www.marthastewart.com
Use simple glass jars to create a "chandalier" of candles hanging from a patio umbrella, I love this.

http://www.justbesplendid.tumblr.com/

Delight in sipping this Sangria made with peach schnapps and white wine with fresh fruit...I will wait until after the baby is born of course.

www.realsimple.com

Use hollowed out frozen citrus to serve ice cream!

A heartfelt letter...

Dear March,

As you say farewell today, I have few things I need to share. I had so much hope for you, the warmth and sunshine that you could possibly bring. Perhaps just a few days where I could put the damn winter gear away. March, my month of hope, you have really let me down this time. Oh wait, there was that one day...thanks for that.

Ruby and Jalen's spring coats are hung up with care, tucked beneath are their shiny new rain boots not yet worn. Ruby reaches for her spring wear each day looking at me as though "Is it time yet mama?" I have to turn to her and say "no sweetheart...still too cold...winter coat." The other day I let her wear her spring stuff but layered underneath were her winter clothes. She looked like a bag lady.

As you can see Ruby is wearing a winter hat with her spring hat over it. So, so sad.

I enter April with an open heart however a part of me is honestly starting to wonder...will Spring ever really truly be here?

Still waiting,

A new season is born

Jalen opened the door yesterday before we ventured outside to the park and shouted, "Mommy, Daddy! Look! Spring is here!" We weren't sure what it was exactly that signalled spring to his 4 year old mind but somehow he felt it. The breeze was a bit warmer, the snow on our lawn had pretty much melted away and poking out of our garden was this tiny little purple crocus. Since Jalen was very very young he was able to understand concepts that some grown adults can't understand. I'm not saying he's a genius, but he's intuitive and he sensed something had changed. Just like that, a new season is born.

So we headed to a recently built playground in our community, and it felt amazing to be in the sun. It was a beautiful day.

Welcoming Spring with open arms,

Awaiting Spring

"March arrives, the last hurrah of winter and the first whisper of spring. Slowly our spirits reawaken, along with the natural world, from the long winter's slumber."
-Sarah Ban Breathnach

It's raining today, and I looked outside the window to see a glimpse of grass! Who knew a tiny patch of grass in my backyard could be cause for such elation. I anxiously await springs arrival like a child waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve. That first gale of warm breeze in March is eagerly anticipated and a late spring will surely send me into misery. I'm planning to greet the season with open arms and here are some ideas for this month to savour the seasonal spleandours.

Check out your front yard or back, or your friends, find some bare branches to start forcing. Good options are: forsythia, flowering quince, cherry, plum, pear, magnolia and pussy willow Read more at Marthastewart.com: Forcing Branches - Martha Stewart Home and Garden

Make yourself a bright new spring wreath for your front door, I made this one last year however I have some ideas developing for a new one this year! Blog to come!

Get out your Martha Stewart Homekeeping book and your cleaning bucket, I have this book and there is a list of spring cleaning ideas among thousands of other ideas to caring for your home. Make room for spring, organize closets, scrub the salt stains of winter away. Or, simply check out this link for some ideas.

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/spring-cleaning-checklist


Host a spring dinner party for friends or just for your family serving something seasonal like this recipe for Individual Lasagnas with Asparagus & Prosciutto that I found on http://www.williams-sonoma.com/ and then for dessert...this fruity Pig Cake I found on my favourite pioneer woman websitehttp://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/01/pig-cake/

Create a beautiful spring centre piece like this one using some simple daffodils in a hurricane vase. Lovely! (source: entertain exchange)

Seasonal Splendour...Fall Decorating

Photo: Country Living

Love this cozy little porch spot seasonally decorating, perfect for tea sipping...

The weather has cooled, there is a crispness in the air that smells like "back to school." It smells like, the western fair arriving soon. It smells like visits to apple land. Just a hint of fall is in the air. Autumn is my absolute favourite season, so this morning I spent some time gathering inspiration for my fall decor.

Photo: www.marthastewart.com
I like the idea of using small pumpkins and gourds as vases!photo: www.potterybarn.com
You can get these acorn "fillers" for hurricane and other glass vases or candle holders, or if you are lucky enough maybe fill your vases with real ones!

Photo: pottery barn
These are not your traditional orange pumpkins, I think they are elegant looking, not to mention I LOVE white!

Photo: Williams Sonoma
How wonderful would this wreath look on a red front door or over a fireplace mantel, makes me smile :)

Seasonal Splendour....Summer

"Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world." ~Ada Louise Huxtable

Photo: bleeding heart plant from my garden

I have to admit that seasons of extreme weather are not my favourites, I delight in the mild weathers of spring and fall. Ontario winters are too cold and the summers are too hot, in that humid and gross kind of way. However, with every season comes a new set a pleasures and experiences that are unique only to that time of year. As a child, summer represents freedom. Free from school, free from structured days, free from most of your clothes as you run barefoot through the backyard in your bathing suit. As an adult, unless you are a teacher (lucky to have the summers off) life carries on through the summer, we seek out air conditioning to avoid that wall of thick humid air, and before you can even finish your annual gardening, summer says goodbye. When I was a kid, it was like time stood still for a while during those summer months. I would float in my back yard swimming pool, take a bike ride around the neighbourhood to dry off, get in the pool again and sometimes lay right on the hot pavement to dry off this time. The day would carry on just like that. Mom would pop out the sliding doors off the deck with freezies or a plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Then, as dawn seemed to suddenly turn to dusk, we would get dragged in from outside. We would likely be planning the next game with the neighbourhood kids on our bikes down the street, we could hear our parents yelling from the porch.

Photo: Jalen and his best friend Ella staying up way past bedtime for some Canada Day fun in their Pj's

Now that I have children I find joy simply watching the summer through their innocent eyes. The shrieks of laughter as Jalen and Ruby run through the sprinkler, the excitement as I come outside with freezies. Blowing bubbles, finding bugs, water guns, running through the grass barefoot and staying up way past their bedtime to roast marshmallows over the fire. Last night, I put the sprinkler on to water my garden, made myself a cup of tea and sat on my front porch as my kids ran around playing in their pj's. I always thought it was so cool as a kid that in the summer time we were allowed to get our jammies on and come back outside! We love watermelon at our house and tend to eat piece after piece till the melon is gone and our bellies are bursting. When I was a kid, the hose was always off bounds for some reason, while it was filling up our little backyard pool we weren't allowed to touch it. For this reason, I let my kids have fun with the garden hose. They take turns watering the gardens and spraying each other (usually till one of them screams "NO THANK-YOU!!! after they've had enough)

Photo: Ruby getting sprayed by Jalen with the hose!

My soul seems to comes alive in autumn, however I must not forget the joyful simplicities of summer. I delight in eating too much watermelon, warm nights outside with my glass of crisp Pinot Grigio (I recommend Barefoot from California) and waiting on our covered front porch for a summer thunderstorm to roll in.

Seasonal Splendours...Spring!

A Prayer for Spring- Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,

Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;

And make us happy in the happy bees,

The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird

That suddenly above the bees is heard,

The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,

And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,

The which it is reserved for God above

To sanctify to what far ends He will,

But which it only needs that we fulfil.

There was something cathartic about taking my winter evergreen wreath and tossing it aside to hang my new spring wreath. It was with happiness and hope that I created this cute spring wreath with my own hands and had to stand back to admire it with the porch light on after I made it that night. This cute "robins eggish" wreath was fashioned together using only items from the dollarstore! It's kind of easter like, but the subtle spring colours and the speckled eggs make me smile everytime I look at my front door!

Happy Spring!