My Blue Balcony

My outdoor space has come together quite nicely, and just in time for the great summer weather!  I decided on a blue colour scheme centered around my blue ceramic flower pot.  I've already spent so much time just hanging out and relaxing on the balcony.

It's a pretty small space but I definitely wanted a spot to eat meals and enough seating for when guests come over.

I picked up the great quatrefoil patterned outdoor carpet from Jysk along with the outdoor cushions.  I also keep my little recycling pail outside which I got at Giant Tiger.  It matches perfectly.  The furniture was from a combination of Zellers (before it became Target!), Canadian Tire, and Loblaws.  I'd still like to find something that can double as a side table or footstool between the two single chairs.  Haven't found the perfect piece yet though!

I also get to enjoy Littlefoot Gardens which is going to produce such good vegetables this summer!

The outdoor solar lights were a also a great find from Jysk.  I've never seen bottle lights before so I had to snatch them up!

Last year it was just an empty space with some furniture.

This year it's got some spunk!

Littlefoot Gardens is Back!

Before I moved into my condo, my mom and I had this amazing vegetable garden that produced such good crops year after year.  My friend Sarah named our vegetable patch "Littlefoot Gardens" and the name has stuck! (She's called me Littlefoot ever since we realized I have little feet...but FYI they are totally in proportion to my height and not that little :p)

I was worried by not having a yard that I wouldn't be able to grow vegetables and would miss out on one of my favourite summer activities.  Last year, I only grew flowers since I moved in the middle of the summer.  But I just knew I wanted my own little veggie garden again!  This summer marks the return of Littlefoot Gardens :)

I still have my pot of flowers for colour.  I love the pink in the gerbera daisies - they're my favourite!  In the green pot I have two jalapeno plants, then one patio tomato and another green pepper plant in the black pots.

I picked up the two hanging planters from IKEA.  The one on the left has green onions and the one on the right is full of buttercrunch lettuce.  I planted these from seed on a Monday, and by Thursday the lettuce was already sprouting! (Update: since drafting this post, both the lettuce and the onions are growing like gangbusters!)

Who wants to come over for dinner this summer?

How to Make a {Fake} Terrarium

When I was in Target on my vacation to Toronto, I bought a cute little bell jar and it just screamed terrarium. Mostly because I'm not sure what else you are supposed to use bell jars for.  In any case, I had seen a lot of them around and rounded up some pictures for inspiration.

Source: Plantzilla http://www.etsy.com/shop/Plantzilla?ref=seller_info

Source: http://jukavo.tumblr.com/post/50347472102

I knew I did not want a real one.  I know the whole point of them is that they are low maintenance, but I had visions of killing it.  So I wanted something that required NO maintenance!

Supplies:
Flower foam
Toothpicks
Moss
Fake plants

I picked up the flower foam at the Dollar Store and I got the moss and fake plants at Michael's.  I already had the toothpicks.  All the supplies came to about $9.00.  I recommend doing this project outdoors since the moss and foam cutting can get quite messy.

I started by cutting my flower foam in half.  It was a big thick brick and much too thick to fit inside the glass. Then, I put the two cut pieces side by side and traced around the bottom of my wooden base.  This gave me a general guide on how big the circle needed to be.

I cut out the circle using a steak knife...yeah no super high tech tools here!  I kept testing it in the base until it fit.  I needed to shave quite a bit off of the sides in order to make it the right height and diameter.  It doesn't need to be perfect since you will be covering it with moss anyway.  Make sure you leave enough room around the outside for the glass to fit around it.

I stuck two toothpicks in the centre of one half of the foam and attached the two pieces together.  Then I covered the circle in moss.  I thought about using glue, but I wasn't sure as to the quality of the moss I bought and I wanted a less permanent solution.  So I used the toothpicks again.  I cut them in half and stuck them in the moss right through the foam leaving barely a point visible.

I bought a fake plant that included 3 different flowers on it.  Depending on what you buy you might be able to skip this step.  I cut my flowers off and trimmed their stems.

 Then I stuck them in the moss covered foam!  You can do whatever arrangement you find appealing.

And there you have it, your own fake terrarium that requires no maintenance!  You can just admire it through the glass :)  From far away and under the glass, no one can tell it's fake.  In total, it cost me less than $25 including the jar (which I bought on clearance), and took only an hour to create!

Exploring the Cemetery

The day I left Toronto we had one last adventure!  Sarah and I explored Mount Pleasant Cemetery which is right across the street from her house.  I can’t say I have ever explored a cemetery before, but this one is HUGE and is set up with many paths, gardens, and water fountains within a cemetery.  It was a gorgeous, hot and sunny day in May and all the trees were coming out in bloom.  (This shot is currently my desktop background on my computer…isn't it pretty?)

Mount Pleasant is the burial place for many famous individuals.  Foster Hewitt (of Hockey Night in Canada fame) is buried there, along with Robertson Davies (Canadian author) and Northrop Frye (Canadian literary critic) just to name a few.  Sarah and I wanted to go and find all the graves of the famous Canadians buried there but Hewitt, Davies, and Frye were rather tricky to find, so I’m saving them for my next visit ;)

We did manage to find the plot of Glenn Gould (Canadian pianist).  This was the highlight since we are both musicians!  I liked how his gravestone was in the shape of a piano.

Here are Sir Frederick Banting and Dr. Charles Best, the discoverers of insulin (their names are always said together, so I was half expecting them to be buried beside each other…disappointingly they weren't).

William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s 10^th and longest serving Prime Minister!

It really is a lovely location, even if the normal circumstances for visiting are rather somber.

I’ll be back in the next few days with my tutorial on how to make a fake, no maintenance terrarium and some more house updates!

Target Adventure!

The beginning of May, when I was visiting my friend Sarah, one of the things we HAD to do was go to Target. That may sound silly to some of my United States readers, but we have never had Target in Canada.  Stores are starting to pop up around the country, but they have yet to arrive in Ottawa.  A bunch are in Toronto, so I knew we had to visit.  I wanted to see what all the hype was about and I wasn't disappointed!

Love Nate Berkus!  And if that tortoise shell had been in a different colour I would have been all over it.  (I totally thought it was ceramic...but it was plastic!)

How cute is this little green footstool?  And Sarah was smitten by these necklace holders.

And because I'm a super nerd, and had never seen it before, THEY HAVE A SEPARATE  ESCALATOR FOR YOUR SHOPPING CART!

I did make some purchases while I was there.  I got my mom some earrings for her birthday, a new t-shirt, and this cute glass bell jar from the clearance section.  It has a little glass dragon fly on top.  When I got it home, I made a fake terrarium to put inside it (thanks for the idea Sarah!).  I'll be doing a post on how to make your own terrarium in the next few days.  I love it up on my ladder shelf.

Such a fun little trip and I can't wait until Target is in Ottawa.  They have just enough different merchandise than other large box stores to make them stand out.  And their Dollar Section had some pretty good stuff in it too! One is opening up about 15 minutes away from me so it could be dangerous!