Thursday, March 29, 2012

Easter Feature |

I was featured on Printabelle!

Thanks for featuring my Easter Bark recipe! And Thanks for all of the other great Easter craft and recipe ideas you complied! What a fun and beautiful holiday it is!

A Few other inspiring and pretty Easter ideas:

Beautiful pastel rainbow ruffle cake from Bubble and Sweet.
Click here to get her complete instructions.
The Browy Blog's very own Rice Crispy Nest Treats.
The Full of Bliss blog  has some beautiful table scape ideas for Easter.
The Browy Blog's very own | Easter Tree
I want to try this craft | Mod Podge Easter Eggs that I found on the 'Our Family Journey' blog
*Great idea to use fake plastic eggs so that you can reuse them for decor every season and they wont break!


Another Mod Podge Easter Egg Craft using Spring Napkins | Found this project on the 'Brown Paper Packages' blog |


Neat DIY door decor from A Pretty life in the Suburbs |

Another beautiful project from A Pretty Life in the Suburbs | Easter Garland

The Browy Blog's very own | Umbrella Wreaths


LOVE this adorable craft idea from Disney Family Fun, and it is all about recycling! - I made them once as a kid but these ones even have cute little bodies made out of yogurt containers and cups | Grass Head Guys

The Browy Blog's very Own | Easter Cookies with Candy Corn


Mason Jar Planters from the CSI Project |

A super cute Easter Dip Presentation from Better Recipes |


Happy Easter! I hope you found some inspiring projects above to make your Easter extra bright this year!

Check out
THIS blog post from last year to see what Easter means to me!


Friday, March 23, 2012

Fishy Theme Baby Shower |

Awhile back I did a post on my ideas for a fish theme baby shower that I helped put on for a friend and her adorable son (who is now almost ONE!! WOW time flys!)

The mom and dad of the little guy we put the shower on for love fishing and met at a camp where they both used to cottage and fish.
So we thought a little 'fishy' theme would be just perfect!

I realized that I never posted photos of how everything came together.
So here are a few photos from the shower:

The Shower Invitation - complete with yellow, blue and green fish, bubbles and blocks!


The awesome cake was made by Wilma with Mill Street Cakes. The cake stand was made out of upside down sand pails and the cupcakes each had an alternating green and yellow fish on them. She made a little baby fishing for the cake topper! Too cute!

Table Centrepieces with LIVE fish in them. The green ribbon vases were placed on the table with blue table cloths and the blue ribbon vases were placed on green table cloth tables.
I found the the colourful tissue paper confetti at the grocery store and liked the 'boy colours' it came in and sprinkled it around each centrepiece.

The Food Table

Blue Punch with fish floating in it.

Fish Crackers and Swedish Fish placed in blue and green sand pails.

Fish folded napkins (tutorial HERE) and blue plates.

I used a tin can to look like a 'bait' can and put gummy worms in it.

Lots of fish theme candy...


Balloons and fish 'strung up' with twine in the archway.
The fish are a banner that reads 'Baby Levi'

A photo of Levi and one of mom and dad with their fish on their honeymoon.
We played a guessing game and asked guests to predict how many individual diapers would be given as gifts.

We also played a 'fishing for advice' game where a few ladies got to go fishing for one of the magnetic fish in the pail - each colour of fish had a corresponding question to go with it 'i.e. What advice would you give the new mommy to help her deal with sleepless nights' etc.

The Gift Table - Photos of the new baby were also playing on the TV throughout the shower.

Hope you had fun at your shower Levi!!

Looks like all these ladies and gifts have tired you out!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Looking Forward to Garden Season 2012 |

With all of this warm weather that we have been having I have been making plans for what we want to do with our gardens this year.

Last year I posted quite a few photo EARLY on in the summer, but not many from later in the summer when our flowers and veggies were growing big.

So I thought I would post a few 'reflection' photos of last year as well a few things that I want to try to do this coming season, based on what was successful last year, and what didn't really work out.


Here are some shots from our Garden 2011 |

Early Spring - Lots of Tulips in Bloom

When we cleaned out the gardens in early spring we put down brown mulch everywhere.

Fresh brown mulch.

The Front of the house once we cleaned out all the gardens and put down the mulch.


Our back deck planter, early summer. Herbs planted in the planter and two types of tomatoes and chives in the pots (see below for how big the tomato plant got).


We planted a birch tree in the back yard in late May, it was Ben's birthday gift.

We got two brown Muskoka Chairs and I made some outdoor pillows for on each of them.

Beautiful Bluebells.

LOTS of irises in late spring, purple, yellow and white.

An early summer rose attracting a bee.

Early summer Allium!

Pretty Solomon's Seal.

Mid Summer Lillies.

Beautiful orange roses on a bush that I got for my bridal shower.

In mid June we created this 'water garden' for on our deck. We got some water lettuce to put in the pot and a pump and fountain spout to make it more of a feature.

I planted Marigolds, purple potato plant and ivy in the front flower box.


A Snow Ivy and purple potato plants in the wall hanging at the back door.

Our table area on the deck with globe lights and green lanterns.
Our Fire Chimney.


I hung some plants and candles from an old curtain rod that I attached to the top of the deck planter.

The Rainbow Coleus did REALLY well in our backyard (as it gets mostly shade).

Mid August our tomatoes were almost ready for harvest!

Our Tomato plants did really well considering how much shade we get.


Plans for this coming season |


Last year we created a new garden area and I planted sunflowers and zinnia in it. BUT due to the fact that we get so little direct sunlight in the back yard they didn't do very well. So since the Rainbow Coleus did SO well in our back yard last year I definitely plan to plant more of it in that garden as well as in a few other areas such as along the garage and at the back of our yard.

I also want to plant a bunch of rainbow coleus along the front of the front garden to bring more colour to that area, as in July/August there wasn't a lot of colourful plants blooming in the front.

Last year we discovered that one of our lilac bushes right in front of our house had died (probably from the salt we had used on the front porch during the winter). SO we have taken that out this year and I hope to plant a nice Japanese Maple in its place.


While I liked having the herbs on the deck last year - there were some that I didn't use that often. I plan to plant Parsley and Dill again this year as I got good use out of those, but I plan to plant more florals in the planter this year to bring more colour to the deck area.

I would also like to fix up our fire pit area this year. The last owners laid cement slabs and have it off to the left corner of our back yard. It would be nice to center it in the yard and put some new stone down around our new fire chimney and maybe make some benches or table to place around the area.

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The Before & Afters of our Home


Home Improvements Slide Show

Click on the slideshow to open up a 'Gallery' mode where you can scroll through the images.

"Befores" - Images of our home when we bought it

In Front Of Our New Home!

In Front Of Our New Home!

Wish List For Our Home:

Wish List For Our Home:

Our New Home Songs |