I'm going to plant my very first garden this year.

I've always loved plants and growing things, but we've never lived in a place where we could grow a garden until now. In England our first place was on the fourth floor and therefore had no garden or balcony and our place after had a little back area, but it was completely made of concrete. When we moved back to Canada, we were living in a rented townhouse and had a yard, but we couldn't dig it up, as it wasn't ours. I've grown some herbs from seed and I also had a cherry tomato plant out back in a pot at our last place, but nothing major.

I'm trying to think up ideas for a garden. I'm really liking the look of raised garden beds and think that's something that I could do here, but we'll see how adventurous I'm feeling when the ground thaws.

I've started to grow a few things from seed that specifically said to start the plants inside early. A lot of plants can be planted right into the ground, but others seem to need a 6-8 week head start.

I started by planting the 3 seeds above. I plan on drying some of the chili flakes and using the rest for hot pepper jelly. I thought the tomatoes looked really nice a colourful. Nothing beets a tomato fresh off the plant. I love the smell. I also decided to get these flowers. They're  supposed to stay in flower until the frost in the fall, so they'll keep everything looking nice and cheery. 

I planted everything in coffee cups that I cut down a little. I planted the seeds at the suggested depths on the backs of the packages, and covered the cups loosely with plastic wrap. 

I'll have to wait between 7 and 14 days to see any growth. Hopefully it's worth the wait.

Fingers crossed!

Broccoli Salad

We're going to my parent's house today for a family party to celebrate some of our Birthdays. We always have a potluck style lunch where everyone brings something different. We always end up having so much food and have a feast. I'm bringing broccoli salad today. There are so many variations of this salad, and I'm going to show you two today. I always use the same dressing, but the vegetables, nuts/seeds and dried fruit I put in always vary. Just don't forget the broccoli!

I started making broccoli salad when we were living in England. I would make it for barbecues and other occasions.

Before I left my Mom gave me a cute little recipe book. I filled it with all of my favourite recipes of hers so that I could recreate them when I was feeling a little homesick.

I've had this recipe book for over 8 years now and it has been used a lot.

Original recipe

Broccoli Salad from Today

4 cups broccoli cut in to small pieces

1 cup thinly sliced carrots (I but the ones that are already julienned)

1 red pepper (diced)

1/2 cup thinly chopped red onion

1/2 cup apricots

1/2 cup cranberries

3/4 cup salted sunflower seeds

Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp sugar

1 and 1/2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp dijon mustard

1/4 tsp black pepper

You can make both the salad and dressing the day before, but don't mix them together until the day that you plan on serving the salad.

Mix together when you're ready!

This salad has a wonderful combination of crunchy, sweet, creamy and tangy. 

If you haven't made broccoli salad before, definitely give it a try.

If you have, what other ingredients have you put in that I didn't mention above? I'm always up for suggestions.

Spring Flowers

A while ago in one of my posts I put a picture up of what I thought were crocuses. I assumed this because the flowers that were in bloom at the store were all crocuses and thought the ones I bought would be the same when they bloomed.

It turns out they are daffodils. I'm perfectly fine with that, as I like daffodils just as much.

I can't believe how quickly they're growing.

 Daffodils really remind me of the UK. They grow everywhere around this time there. 

I can wait for the snow to melt so I can get started on my gardening. I have big plans for the backyard and the flower beds in the front.

What is your favourite spring flower?

Front Entrance - Before and After

Here are some pictures of our front entrance from when we bought our house and now. 

Before - Toffee coloured paint and builders light (not shown).

After - Lighter paint colour.

After - my antique sewing machine base table, upcycled candle holders and mosaic lamp.

After - Painting that hangs in the entrance.

New front entrance light.

Crocuses I bought this weekend and re-potted in a pot that my Mom gave me. I can't wait for spring!

New Thrift Store Finds

Last Sunday my Mom and I went to our local Value Village. We were lured in by a sale they had on. All of their clothing, accessories and footwear were on sale for 50% off. How could you resist. The official sale started on my Birthday, but if you were a card member you got to shop a day early. Knowing that it would be busy, we went for when the store opened at 10. We made it there about 5 minutes before it opened and there were around 30 other people waiting to get in. Thankfully we only had to wait 5 minutes, because it was absolutely freezing outside (about minus 10 before the wind chill).

When we got in we started looking through aisles and aisles of clothing. It was amazing how many nice things there were. A lot of the items I picked out were brand new (some with tags still on, others that were just visibly unworn). I'm not a brand whore or anything, but I know that some of the brands do offer better quality than others and I was finding some great stuff from some pretty decent stores. I found tops from Gap, Zara and Smart Set to name a few. Some of these tops would have been at least $30 to start and they were on sale for between $1.50 and $4.

I ended up bringing home 6 tops, 2 cardigans, 1 pair of pants, an infinity scarf, a hat for my niece and some stuff for the house for $57 including taxes.

If anyone reading this is not too sure about shopping for clothing at thrift stores, please give it a chance. Yes, there are some pretty weird and sometimes ugly things hanging on the racks, but within those things are some real gems. It's worth a look. I always just bring everything home and give them a good wash with lots of laundry detergent and voila! Ready to wear.

As I said previously I got some stuff for the house. I had a coupon for 25% off everything in the household section, which was great. As with the clothing you sometimes have to sift through some pretty crazy stuff, but it's just a matter of keeping your eyes peeled.

I picked up this little lamp for $5.25. The middle is glass and the base is wrought iron. It's got the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil monkeys around the base. Very cute and quirky!

Hear no evil.

See no evil.

Large solid brass platter with etched and painted floral design. This was a little more pricey at $15, but I couldn't leave it.

 Platter Detail

Platter detail

My Mom also found some great deals. We ended up staying there until 12:30 because I had to leave for Lola's puppy school. If it weren't for that, we probably could have spent a lot longer looking for bargains.

Thrift Store Chandelier

A while ago I wrote a post about some things I found at my local thrift store. I found an awesome chandelier that  I bought for our front entrance way. I knew I wanted to change it in some way, but wasn't sure how.

I started off by taking all of the 'crystals' (plastic crystals) off of the light. They were held on by pieces of wire that were secured by being bent around itself. They were super easy to remove.

At first I thought I wanted to paint it, but then I realized that I would probably put hours into painting it, only to have it look almost the same as when I started. I decided to leave it as is.

I got my Dad to help me install it. I still have a fear of doing electric work, so I left it up to someone who knew what they were doing.

 Chandelier Before

Chandelier After

I was so pleased that it actually worked once it was all wired up (you never know when you buy from a thrift store!)

It's so much nicer than the basic builders light that was there before. It was so worth the $9.99 that I paid for it and then some!

It's my Birthday Today

Today was my Birthday. I took a day off from work, as I don't really have any desire to work on my Birthday. For at least the past 8 years I haven't worked on this day, and I'd like to keep up the tradition if possible.

I had a really nice day today. I met up with my Mom, Dad, sister and my two nieces who I adore. We started off the day with some Starbucks. Right now I'm really into their Cinnamon Dolce Latte (sweet cinnamon latte) with no whipped cream. It's sweet and spicy and rather delicious. We also did a quick tour of the new Ikea in our town. I'd never been and wanted to check it out when it wasn't the weekend. Essentially it had everything the old Ikea had, but it was just more spread out and had more things in stock. We then went out for lunch. I got a side salad and lobster and shrimp linguine. It was really yummy and really filling at the same time. We ended our day by looking around a few shops and picking up some MDF moulding for our other bathroom to frame our mirror in the same way as our other bathroom.

My wonderful family got me some amazing gifts. I've taken some pictures of some of them to share.

 My husband got me this wicker and bamboo trunk. I've wanted one for behind the sofa for a while now and finally found this one. It's got a lid with room for storage inside and a drawer at the bottom.

He also got me this room divider as the two came as a set. I still have to find a more permanent home for this, but I love the way it looks.

 My Mom and Dad got me this vase to go with my vase collection. The colour of it is so pretty and looks amazing when the sun is shining. I've moved some of the vases around and will repost shortly.

Mom and Dad also got me this beautiful necklace. It's made of sterling silver and amethyst (my birthstone).

Another gift from Mom and Dad. It's a teacup with a lid and a tea infuser for loose leaf tea. It's going to be perfect for work. Maybe I'll get to drink some of my tea while it's still warm!

 My nieces got me this book. Very cute.

This is from my sister and my brother in law. It's a deep plum coloured vase that's around 3 feet tall. It's going to look great with some long grass, flowers or twigs in it.

My Mother and Father in law sent these glass snow drop flowers and vase to me in the mail from England. They are made near where we all used to live at the Sunderland Glass Centre. They are so delicate and pretty. I'm glad they all made it in one piece.

 

My godmother paid me a surprise visit tonight. She gave me this framed painting of my hand print from when I was little. I thought this was so thoughtful of her. She's been holding on to this for around 25 years and has moved a few times too. It made me feel very special. I'm going to hang it in my craft room, as it goes way back to when I first started making crafts and art. 

I got so many more nice things from everyone including some shirts, a sweater, a scarf  and so much more. I had such a nice day and wouldn't have changed it at all.