Making the Most of our Little Porch

We finally got around to cleaning off our porch. It felt good to get everything clean!

Our apartment is on the second storey of a building, so we just have a little landing and then a porch leading to our front door. Not much room, but we knew we wanted to make the most of what we had.

But before we got started, we knew it would need a bit of a clean up.

We had bags of salt and soil by the door, all my gardening junk in the back corner behind the recyclnig bin, the BBQ in the corner and Garrett's bike up against the railing.

And here is what it looks like now!

We ended up getting two wooden BOLLÖ Chairs and a KALVÖ folding aluminum table from IKEA for $25 each. This is the perfect set up because we can fold them up and tuck them in against the house whenever we need more space on the porch. I took these pictures a week ago, but now there is a little pot of yellow roses on the tabble that my mom gave me that was the centrepiece from my birthday dinner.

By the door I am adding a planter filled with dragon wing begonias and purple wave petunias that will trail down the side, but I need to get more soil before I can plant them.

To store all the garden supplies and those big bags of salt for winter, we grabbed two big black plastic bins (IKEA $9-$11) to stack under the recycling bin. Our BBQ still tucks away in the corner, and we just wheel it out when we need it.

Whiskey is loving the new porch area, especially when we put up a little gate at the end and let him wander around out there, watching the sidewalk for enemies.

The little landing was in need of some lovin' too.

Much better!

In the plastic whiskey barrel ($16 at Canadian Tire), I planted cana in the middle, with dragon wing begonias around the side and three trailing plants inbetween - silvery licorice, something yellow and and something blue (I forget what they are called). I can't wait to see it become more lush! The glass orbs are solar lights I found at Walmart (3 for $10)

They really light up the stairs at night, which is nice for those late night walks with Whiskey.

The metal planter was turned into our herb garden this year. I've always had to keep my herb garden inside, so I'm excited to see how well it does out here!

Everytime I look down the landing I get a big smile on my face. I can't wait to see how it looks when the colour comes out. All the plants were purchased at my favourite garden centre Homestead Garden Growers. They are the same people who designed my front garden at the old apartment last year.

I plan to head back and get another strawberry plant from them this year, as well as a couple of plants for a smaller planter I would like to make near the door.

That last thing that needs an update is the shared garden down the steps.

The hostas are beautiful, but I'd love to add some colour in there soon!

- - -

Linked Up To:

Hodge:Podge

Blackberry-Lemon Greek Yogurt Popsicles

With all this hot weather we've been having, it's nice to have a cool treat at the end of a long walk with Whiskey. Rather than buying something that as just glorified frozen sugar water, I wanted to try and make something that was a little healthier with lots of flavour.

Using some berries, greek yogurt and honey that I already had, I put together these super delicious Blackberry-Lemon Greek Yogurt Popsicles. Not only did they hit the spot, but they were also ridiculously easy to make. I'm looking forward to experimenting with even more flavour combinations this summer.

I love the little bits of blackberry and even a little lemon zest from the yogurt.

What you'll need:
1 cup Blackberries
1 cup Lemon Greek Yogurt
1-2 tsp Raw Honey

Makes 6 small popsicles. Double the recipe to make more.

You can do any flavour combination that you want, using this measurements. I chose the Krema Lemon Greek Yogurt after we fell in love with the coconut version at the Green Living Show and Garrett's favourite berries are blackberries, so I knew those had to go in.

Using a mojito muddler, I mashed up the blackberries in a bowl. You could also do this with a fork or even a potato masher.

In a medium sized bowl, I mixed the berries into the yogurt and added some honey to make it a little bit sweeter. Taste the mixture and see if you want to had more.

For popsicle molds, I used one of these sets from IKEA. They were about $2 each, are the perfect size for a little treat and let you take one popsicle at a time as needed. To remove the frozen popsicles, I just run an individual holder under a little hot water and they pop out.

Bring on the summer heat :)

- - -

Linking up to:

Cowgirl Up! @ Craft Texas Girls
Between Naps on the Porch
Home Stories A 2 Z
Not Just A Housewife
The Winthrop Chronicles
Show and Share @ Southern Lovely
A Lettered Life

A Great Birthday Weekend

The great thing about having your birthday right before a weekend is that you get to declare it your "birthday weekend"! You can do whatever you want (within reason), everyone is super nice to you and calories don't count (right?)

On Thursday night (my actual birthday) we headed to my parents' house for dinner and cake.

My mom made some chocolate covered strawberries to nibble on when we got there.

As a special treat, they picked up a Tickle Your Tummy nut-free cake, topped with some of the chocolate covered strawberries and some smarties (family tradition!)

Happy Birthday to me :)

I am actually older than 5, but at a certain point it gets ridiculous to put that many candles on the cake.

Friday night was homemade pizza and movie night with some girlfriends. We ate junk food, laughed at inside jokes and cried at the movie ("Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" - Very cute, but also a big tear jerker).

Saturday night we went out with friends to celebrate my birthday at the drive-in. It is one of my all-time favourite summer activities and was exactly what I wanted to do on my birthday. Movies, popcorn, beer and the great outdoors. We saw "Men in Black III" and "21 Jump Street", and both were great.

We all brought lawn chairs so that we could sit outside and enjoy the night...which was really nice until it started to get chilly out. I was glad we had all brought blankets!

Whiskey loves the drive-in for all the people watching...and dropped popcorn. He spent the rest of the night burrowed with me in blankets.

Amy surprised me with some of her awesome Margarita Cupcakes! As soon as people saw the candles, the whole drive-in started singing Happy Birthday. Awesome :)

Another great thing about this weekend is that I got some awesome presents. I was so spoiled!

My parents found this awesome fajita skillet to make my own sizzling fajitas on the BBQ with a wooden base to set it on the table afterwards. I can't wait to try this!
They also picked up a great summer purse and some sandals. A good reminder to switch over from the winter purse I have still been using.

Garrett was so sweet and picked some goodies for me from Anthropolgie. After years of window shopping there, it was nice to finally have something in my home!

The embroidered tea towel looks perfect on the kitchen cart, but I've give strict orders not to dry with it. I want to keep it pretty as long as I can! I love all the vintagey little details

The set of six bowls are the perfect size for fruit salad, ice cream or oatmeal.

Every bowl had a different pattern, which looks awesome!

They have a new home on the open shelf above our sink, alongside my favourite red teapot and my Andy Warhol print of John Wayne.

Garrett's parents gave me a beautiful mercury glass candle that was also from Anthropologie, as well as a straw hat that goes great with the purse my parents gave me.

The candle already next to a cute Pottery Barn monogram candle my sister gave me a couple of years ago.


I had a great birthday weekend and now I feel like this year is off to a great start :)

A Muddy Hike

The weather has been ridiculously nice right now and we've been trying to stay outdoors whenever we can. Dinners on our porch or family and friend's decks. Sitting on a blanket in the park or Whiskey's favourite - going for walks.

We're lucky to have some fellow dog loving friends who don't mind taking the pooches out for a big hike, which lets our little buddy do some exploring.

On a walk last weekend, he came across a decoy turkey out in field and had to investigate it.

Once he realized that 1) it wasn't real and 2) he couldn't eat it, he came bounding back to the group.

That is one happy dog!

While us ladies took a walk through the woods, the guys hopped on some ATVs to do a little off roading, but unfortuately there was an accident with one of the ATVs....

...and they had to come back together to get the Gator to pull the ATV out of some mud.

Heading back for the rescue mission. Nothing like a man on a John Deere :)

And nothing like a man covered in mud too. No stopping in for some shopping on the way home with this one, haha

Whiskey was exhausted from all his plastic turkey hunting and fell alseep like this in the back seat, with his head bobbing back and forth.

As soon as we got home these two needed a shower. And I found a garbage bag for those shoes. But if that's what life is like living with these two yahoos, I'll take it. They sure keep things interesting :)

Hope you're all having an awesome weekend!

Memories of Childhood Birthday Parties

Thank you for all your sweet birthday messages, comments and emails yesterday! I loved every one :)

Growing up, I always had the best birthday parties or at least in my eyes they were :)  My mom would make a big colourful sign for the occasion, lots of yummy treats and always a few little surprises. There were many years of bonfires, swimming, sleepovers and fireworks (because sometimes my birthday fell on the May Long Weekend. I always thought they were for me).

Recently my mom and I were reminiscing about some of the birthday parties she held for us kids over the years. There was always a theme - mermaids, dalmations, Snow White (can you tell we liked Disney movies?). I wish I could have found some photos to share, but back then people didn't take as many pictures as we do now. I take a minimum of 10 picture for every food display angle I do and if I had to pay for film instead of doing it digital I wouldn't take that many either.

For my Little Mermaid birthday I remember lots of swimming and some gummy fish set in blue jello to look like aquariums. I would have gone nuts for this Under the Sea theme, complete with a "sand castle" cake.

My sister loved her Snow White themed party (and would have loved this one), although she had a giant red apple pinata that was so well made that you couldn't break it open. We still laugh about that one. I think my dad or someone's son had to crack it open with a baseball bat in the end.

She also requested this Martha Stewart's Igloo Cake one year, which was just about one of the hardest cakes my mom ever made. It involved so many steps and we never did find a way to make those marizpan penquins nut-free, so she had plastic ones instead. But I have to admit it tasted pretty darn good.

The most memorable year was when my parents hosted an outdoor carnival in our backyard with lots of games. The most popular one was a big kiddie pool full of water where kids could "fish" for toys in the bottom using a rod with a magnet on the end. Trying to be clever, my mom dyed the water blue to look more like the ocean, not unlike this tub from Crafts-N-Things for Children.

Of course there was one little boy (the local doctor's son) who had to get right in the water to fish...and came out with legs that were so blue you thought he had a medical condition.

For my first big sleepover birthday (with many a squealing girl in the pool), we did a bonfire theme. Recently we found the video from that party and I'll admit that you can hardly hear what we are saying from all the squealing. Why do preteen girls do that so much?

The cake had little bonfires on it with pretzels logs, similar to these cupcakes by Trish at Sweetology.

Even though I haven't had pinatas, sparklers or gift bags in many years, I've still had some great birthdays.

Like the year my university roommates surprised me by "renting" my parents' rental property next door and surprising me with a night out.

Or the time I celebrated my birthday with new friends while at the Cannes Film Festival, and had drinks with the actress Jena Malone.

There has still been many a bonfire.

And quite a few cakes. (This was the year the power went out and my sister had to make it by candlelight on the back porch.)

And even a belated surprise birthday last summer (Amy really got me with that one!)

And this weekend will be good too, when I head out with some friends to the local Drive-In.

As long as there are friends, cake and lots of laughs, I'm happy to celebrate my birthday for many years to come :)