I love hydrangeas!  They are the most perfect looking flower in your garden at this time of year on the West Coast. I am NOT a gardener at all…I’m lucky that Jason is! When planning our landscaping our words to the landscape designer were…”English type garden with lots of flowers and not too much maintenance”.  Well, we have a lot of  flowers…as for the maintenance…well, talk to Jason!  But I will say that hydrangeas are relatively low maintenance and their blooms are fabulous right now!

Walking around my yard on the weekend, I realized that we have at least 5 varieties of hydrangeas.

The cone type hydrangeas in the center are not quite blooming. They will be good to go in a week or so. They line both sides of our driveway and look quite stunning when they are in full bloom.

Some look like snowballs, others like lace. The same variety can range in color from blue to purple to pink depending on the acidity of the soil and the amount of sunlight or shade that the plant receives.  The more acidic the soil, the bluer the blooms will be.  If the soil is neutral, the blooms will be pink.  Also, the blooms can burn if they plants are in full sunlight.  For more information, click here.

I am by no means a florist, but I do love clipping hydrangeas and arranging them in vases.  They have almost an antique quality and don’t require much “arranging”.

I just purchased these faux white wood vases from Real Canadian Superstore for $5 each!

 

You really can’t go wrong with hydrangeas. No arranging experience necessary!

These arrangements were perfect for a casual summer BBQ on the weekend. They really didn’t cost anything, except the $10 spent on new vases that I can’t wait to use throughout the fall!

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There’s usually a week in February where I start to get spring fever!  It’s a bit odd, but we usually have one week of warm weather in the Vancouver area each February and you often see people pulling out the shorts and flip flops.  That week was last week, when temperatures hit 14 degrees Celsius.  Ok people…that’s not flip flop weather, but I loved that you could leave the house without a jacket and just a sweater.

I was so inspired by the weather that I had to bring “some spring” inside the house.  The potted daffs from the grocery store and the cheerful napkins from Superstore fit the bill for me!

I will admit that I have a love-hate relationship with Superstore.  I am not a fan of packing my own groceries and massively long lines at the till.  I am usually in a sweat by the time I’ve packed all of my groceries, racing to get them all back in my cart before the next order starts coming down the belt!  But you can find some really well priced, fun, seasonal items there, so sometimes it’s worth the stress!   I love these colourful, graphic napkins ($5 each).

Nothing says “spring” better than fresh flowers, so I indulged when I saw these orchids at Wal-Mart for $12.97.

Orchids can apparently last for a very long time but I’m NO greenthumb, so they usually last a month or two at my house, but $12.97 for a month or two is a lot less expensive than buying cut flowers weekly!

How do you “springterize” your home?  What little touches do you bring in because you know spring is coming?  We’d love to hear from you!

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As Laurel has mentioned, one of the quirky parts of being a blogger is that you celebrate the holidays well in advance in order to have material to hopefully inspire your readers.  Well, Valentine’s came early to our household last Friday night.  I had the idea to put on an elegant dinner in our bedroom with some of Jason’s favourite dishes (the menu will be featured later this week!).

My inspiration for the decor came from Chanel’s Paris to Bombay Fall 2011 Fashion Show (thanks Miss Amanda and Miss Robin!).  I’ve never seen anything like it and I wanted to bring some of the elements into the decor.

Like Laurel, I also wanted to repurpose items used from around my house to keep the budget down.  I love white and silver and added the odd touch of antique pink.

I really enjoyed getting creative and it was fun to put in the effort for a dinner for just Jason and I.  I wanted to create an atmosphere to show him that I love and appreciated him.  I hope he felt it!

Having dinner by a fireplace just makes the setting more romantic! Candles help too! I have a collection of mercury glass voltives that I have used for countless different events!

 

I used the two Aurora transparent chairs from Urban Barn http://www.urbanbarn.com/products/Furniture/Dining-Room/Chairs-and-Stools/aurora-transparent-chair/559 that I already had in my bedroom. The table is just a card table that I borrowed from Jason's parents. The candelabra was from my dining room.

 

I created arrangements using silver mint julep cups that I already had (Michael's has them in their wedding section for about $14). I bought some off white roses, antique pink tulips and white freesia. I went to ChocolaTas and picked out 3 chocolates that had pink on them and they wrapped them up for me!

 

 

I used the side table from our bedroom to hold additional flowers, candles and the tiered silver tray which was filled with goodies for the lavender chocolate fondue. The shot glass had pink Hershey's kisses in it...just another way to add a pop of colour!

 

 

 

I strung some of my pearl necklaces on the chandelier and added crystal garland from my black Christmas tree. I also added two mercury glass bird ornaments with feathers from my Christmas tree (I dropped one in the process...dang, I now down a bird!).

 

 

 

Cheers!! I think Jason enjoyed the meal....I sure did! And the ambiance played a huge part!

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Finally…..we are here…it’s been a long time in coming! Our blog launch has been the culmination of facebook page posts, happy tweeting and hours of brainstorming. It’s been a couple of years that we have thrown the idea around and we’re ready to take the plunge. Visit us to get our tips, our loves and our finds! Jump in with us!!

Today, we leave you with some pics of a birthday dinner party we hosted for my daughter. As much effort was put into this as for any event I’d host in my home. Purple was her color of choice..and I had fun with it! The kicker to the fancy party was that the menu was full of made up words..so the guests had no idea what they were ordering for each of their 5 courses…dessert first? A set of cutlery? Or puff pastry hors d’oevres? FUN!

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