Creativity....

"Creativity takes courage."-Henri Matisse

In the time since I last posted, Halloween and Thanksgiving have come and gone. My computer has all but died (no amount of resuscitation or intensive care seems to be enough) and I am knee deep in new certifications for the new-to-me job I will be starting in January.  I also made a very "adult" purchase today; I bought a new oven. Why did I have to buy a new one? As I was taking my perfectly browned, 15 pound turkey out of the oven for Thanksgiving dinner, my oven door fell right off. Crash, bang, boom. I saved the turkey but couldn't save the oven. Luckily the stove still worked and my pie had been baked in the morning. My guests didn't starve and all was well in the world. I am sure the waistlines of myself, and those belonging to my co-workers are the only to suffer through this oven-less ordeal. Sigh...

I have finally completed the "gallery wall" in my living room. I had been on the hunt for ages for pieces that both fit the space and spoke to me.  I am happy to say all of my gallery prints were purchased from local shops and/or are all printed printed locally and/or designed by local artists! I am proud to be from Atlantic Canada and am glad to continue to live in such a beautiful place so I may as well show it off !

Over five years I have collected or received these prints. As they are all unique and are all different styles I framed them in simple black gallery frames. Some frames were matted, others were not but the simple frames helped to keep the pieces uniform. I must admit, I was a little leery of traveling all of the way up to the ceiling in a fairly scattered way but I am glad I did! If you are interested in owning any of the above prints or checking out more local art and gift ware you can find them and much more in the links provided below! Happy decorating!
-m

Poster Boy - The Atlantic Canada print, and  many more of his fantastic screen printed and hand framed art can be found here.

The Girl From Away and English Muffin Print Shop- The lighthouse! You can find  it and other awesomeness here and here.

All others can be picked up at Dots and Loops (here), Kept (here) and Inkwell (here) which are some of my very favourite and adorably curated local shops! Check them out, you will not be disappointed!

Know Your Food...

"Know your food, know your farmers and know your kitchen."-Joel Salatin

I truly LOVE the farmers market and the fall is the best time to go. Veggies are fresh and the stands are positively teeming with ripe apples, peaches and plums. Roadside stands are full of variety and if you live anywhere with a decent farming industry, fresh and delicious produce is often just a few steps from your door. This time of year I go to the market weekly, whether it is the little stand on the bottom of my street, the Halifax Seaport market or any of the ones in the Valley. Plus, nothing beats a beer steamed sausage when you are hung over and can smell the wine from the night before seeping out of your pores. At least that is what I am told....

Last weekend I made hot pepper jelly. I refrained from setting my stove on fire this year (yay!) and managed to produce about fifty jars without any serious injury (apart from one burning eye, damn jalapenos!). I picked up the peppers for a song in the valley the day before and the entire process (minus the cost of the jars) cost about $20 and five hours of my Sunday. There is something fantastic about the "pop" the lids make as they seal. Yes, I sounds like a little old lady but canning is a dying art form and somebody has to carry the torch (honestly how many 20-somethings do you know making pickles, jams and jellies on their weekends?). Plus hot pepper jelly is the very best with a little goats cheese.

Want to make hot pepper jelly too? Find my recipe here. Happy marketing all and happy fall!
-m

I Believe In Love At First Sight For Houses..

"I believe in love at first sight for houses, not for people."- Danielle Steel

I do not believe in love at first sight, at least when it comes to houses. I saw about fifty. One of the fifty I maybe kind of loved but being out of my price range it was more like lust than love. My little house had a lot of "potential" when I bought it. It was filthy, unloved and beige. The entirety of the house was beige/yellow with the exception of a superbly bland, white and black exterior. My 80+ year old grandmother, who is wise, stylish and full of good taste told me it was a mistake. That it was a "money pit". She couldn't see the potential. I must admit, I have questioned the "potential" a lot myself, including on the day I took possession. Good things take time and luckily time is something I have a lot of.

In today's modern world, a world where most house hunting happens on line, curb appeal is important. With over saturated housing markets, any future home owner scans dozens of listings before they narrow down their few favourites that they may want to see in person. Without curb appeal, a house can quickly be overlooked. I am convinced that is one of the main reasons I was able to land my house. The poor beast was overlooked. Curb appeal can not only increase the value of your home, but it can increase the value of your neighbour's homes. Happy neighbours are wonderful things!

To increase my curb appeal I did four very inexpensive things. They included painting my door a punchy colour and tearing off the horrible storm door (the one that kept catching my heels!). I put up shutters, window boxes and did a teensy, tiny bit of gardening (which includes flower pots).  I figure everything cost less than $200 total and the change is dramatic. It amazes me how the little things make a huge difference!

This is my little house on the day I bought her, look at how naked and sad she looks!

Adding shutters reminded me of the change you see in a persons face when they go from having no eyebrows to painting them on. They frame your face and make your eyes "pop". Only problem was that shutters wouldn't fit on my lower windows, they were too close together...sigh.. The six shutters on the top cost $66.00. Thankfully my dad was around to help me put them up! Painting the door cost as much as a gallon of paint!

This is where the window boxes came in. They balanced the black on the top and evened everything out! Plus they will be so fun to decorate with evergreen boughs and Christmas garb in December! These were a gift from my dad (he is the best!) but I am certain they cost no more than $100 to have made. 

Tahhhh-dahh! Xo

So Long Summer..

"So long summer, hello fall!"-Everyone on the East Coast

Even though it is still technically summer by dates, the weather is quickly changing and it feels like fall. Starbucks is advertising pumpkin spiced lattes, university students are already a little homesick and all of my flower pots have abruptly gone to seed. I am certain many people are beginning to mourn the loss of summer and how abruptly she came to an end. I am a little bummed but I love fall and feel like there is so much to look forward to. Dark lipsticks, tights, scarves and boots. Pumpkins, jellies and kitchens slightly nutty with the warm aroma of cinnamon (honestly, I can't get enough cinnamon). The leaves change and the air is crisp. I really can't see what there isn't to love about fall.

Summer did fly by and here in Nova Scotia the weather was uncharacteristically humid and cool. Beach days were few and far between but I made the best of it with a trip home to the beautiful Prince Edward Island (where you honestly can't drive straight in one direction for more than 20 minutes without reaching the ocean). I antiqued, went to the beach and spent lots of time with family and good friends. Some pictures from my summer adventures are below! Happy fall everyone!

              Halifax Public Gardens

                Dee Dee's icecream 

                 Chester Nova Scotia

              Greenwhich beach, PEI

                    Sun dried laundry 

        Raspberries from my garden 

              A red dirt road on PEI

           Yellow canola field on PEI

                     East Point, PEI

         Province House, Charlottetown

        Nanny and Papa in the gardens 

            East Point lighthouse 

          Inside of a little lighthouse 

Vegetables Are A Must On A Diet...

"Vegetables are a must on a diet; I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie."- Jim Davis

Zucchini is one of the most versatile veggies on the block that is why I was more then happy to take a couple of my neighbours garden variety giants off their hands. The best thing about home grown zucchini is that they grow to be massive, like a great big squash. Grocery store varieties are often limb and small. I have been baking slices with a little oil, salt, pepper and parm. and they are delicious. I have used some sliced in lasagna instead of noodles and I even made an epic pot of tomato sauce riddled with half moons of tender, garlicky zucchini. I personally feel it is painfully underrated; The Edward Norton or Sam Rockwell of the vegetable garden.

I also had a little fun tricking all kinds of people at home and at work into eating the green and yellow vegetable. You see zucchini (like the potato) when grated and mixed into cake and bread batters yields the most tender and moist baked goods. No matter how much oil, butter or soda one uses, nothing will compare to that of a treat made with shredded zucchini in the moist department.  I have so much zucchini that I experimented a little and made a lemon zucchini loaf and a chocolate sheet cake both teeming with zucchini. Neither lasted long on the nursing desk at work. Respiratory therapists, ward clerks, ward aids, nurses, physicians, physiotherapists and cleaning personnel made quick work of both and I ended up with many people requesting both recipes. Success! Satiating the three pm sweet tooth and grumbly bellies while providing full servings of veggies one recipe at a time....ah no, I though that would sound cool, kind of like a super hero. Totally didn't...shifty eyes. Anyway recipes to follow!
-m

Lemony Zucchini Loaf (adapted from all recipes)

• 1.5 cups of shredded zucchini (I grated it on the smaller side of my cheese grater...skin and all!)
• 3/4 c white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• 1.5 c of all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of lemon extract if you have it (don't really need it! Be flexible people!)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbs (you can do half if you are not a cinnamon buff like moi!)
• zest from one lemon

Lemon glaze....

• Juice from one lemon
• 1/2- 1 cup of white sugar
• tsp of vanilla 

Pre-heat old Bessie to 325 degrees and grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan.  In a bowl combine all of the liquids plus the zucchini and lemon zest then beat until thoroughly mixed. In a separate bowl mix all dry ingredients with a whisk then slowly add to wet ingredients and mix until JUST blended (don't over do it people, you will have a hard lump of dough). Pour into pan and bake for about 45 minutes until a knife or toothpick comes out clean. When that bad boy is cooling, combine lemon juice, vanilla and sugar (go with the cup if you find it too tart!) in a sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil to dissolve sugar. While loaf is cooling, brush multiple times with glaze for a beautiful shiny finish. or poke some holes in the top and pour some over for a little extra tart zing!

Chocolate zucchini sheet cake and the best ever chocolate buttercream!

• 1/2 c of oil of your choice
• 1.5 c of sugar
• 1/2 cup of buttermilk (but regular milk works too!)
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 egg at room temp
• 2 heaping cups of grated raw zucchini (I left the skin on and just grated it all on the cheese grater's smaller grate!)
• 2 c of all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup of cocoa powder (I used dutch proc.)

Pre heat over to 350 and grease a 9x13 cake pan or baking dish. In a large bowl mix together oil, sugar, milk, vanilla and the egg.  Add zucchini and mix until just incorporated. In a separate bowl combine all of the other dry ingredients and give a spin with a whisk to mix well and break up any lumps (cocoa is extremely lumpy!). Slowly add to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined (a little flour visible is fine!). Pour into baking dish and bake in oven for 25-28 minutes, until knife or toothpick comes clean and the edges begin to pull away from the side of the pan a little bit. Allow to cool completely and then dust with icing sugar or frost with chocolate butter cream. Please find recipe below for the best buttercream ever.....dun dun dun.

Best ever (!!!!) chocolate buttercream

• 1 c softened butter
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 3-4 tbs of cream (I only had 5% coffee cream...it worked and I bet plain old milk would too!)
• 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
• 3.5 cups of icing sugar (powdered sugar)

In a stand mixer or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream and butter until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla followed by the icing sugar a half a cup at a time (or it will be snowing sugar in your kitchen!). Whip on med or high until all mixed, smooth and pale in colour. Lick the beaters ('cause life is too short and it is seriously the best ever!). Frost your cake with a nice thick layer. This is also dreamy piped on to cupcakes and birthday cakes!

A Good Deal Is Only A Deal..

I"A good deal is only a deal when you actually need it ." Nanny lecturing my Papa

I have many qualities and some are more endearing than others. One of the least endearing ones is how much I love the thrill of a sale. Yes, I said a thrill. Not much can make me happier than getting an amazing deal on something I need. I will wait and scour and wait and scour for the perfect price. Don't get me wrong, I am not cheap and have no problem paying full price for something. I really do believe there are certain things you should not be looking to get a good deal on and those would include a hair cut and furniture (often times you do get what you pay for!). I also believe that buying fresh local produce is worth every penny. My general mindset is why pay someone for something you could do yourself and why pay full price when you can wait and get it on sale.

Why am I telling you this about myself? Well I took a risk this week that could have gone either way. This risk was taken due to an incredible price on a can of paint. I have needed to paint my final spare room since the day I moved in. It was the only room I didn't paint and the only room that was stuck in a boring, beige funk. When I moved in it was the best colour in the entire house and although I am not really a fan of neutral beige, it won by a long shot over the rusty brown and nicotine yellow that danced upon all of the other walls in the house. My plan had been to paint that room a light, airy grey. I even had the colour picked out and the swatches taped to the wall but the little make-over kept being pushed to the side as one project popped up after another. This week I was at Kent looking for Adirondack chairs and hoping they would be on sale (see it is a disease...) when I wandered through the paint isle and noticed a mis-tint . Now a mis-tint is a can of paint that was tinted wrong by the paint machine. It is never a true colour and therefore can't be replicated and a swatch can not be found to see what it may look like on a wall. Because of all of this they are usually half price. Mis-tints generally go for $20, which is a great deal if you are looking for a very cheap face lift (and let us be honest, paint is cheap to begin with!) but most of the times the colours are hideous. Well this can was $7. Yes, $7. That is the price of a grande' latte at Starbucks. It was what appeared to be a robin's egg blue and it was a paint and primer in one which was a $55 can of paint. Clearly my disease of good deals would not let me leave it there. Even though it was not at all what I wanted I figured it had to beat beige and if I hated it, it was a little time and $7 wasted.

Now I must remind you at this point that it is August. August on the East coast is humid and muggy and there is very little air circulation in older homes (like mine) that have the windows propped up with old books and pieces of dowel. To say I was sweaty and hot after painting my basically free paint on the walls is an understatement. When I left the room 2 hours and two coats of a bright blue later I looked as if I had jumped into the shower fully clothed (and not in the attractive way, if there is an attractive way to do that!). I must confess I waited an entire day to look at the finished room. It was brighter than I anticipated from the the little thumb print of dried paint on the top of the lid. In day light and with the room put together I surprisingly  love it. It was the best $7 I have spent in a long time and potentially the cheapest update my house has had to date. The next time you are in the paint section at your favourite hardware store make sure to check out the mis-tints, you may find what you didn`t know you were looking for!
-m

Before....

After...

I Advise Keeping Four Feet On The Floor...

"I advise keeping four feet on the floor and all hands on deck."- Anne Launders

As I type this I have a chai tea in hand, there are stars in the sky and I am cuddled up with a blanket on my deck. Sounds peaceful right? Things are good around here, my deck and I are old friends again.

One week ago my deck and I were not friends, we were hardly even acquaintances. I was fumbling with a book of matches and with the idea of putting myself and my deck out of our misery (but arson is a felony and my insurance probably wouldn't have accepted insanity as my plea). All I can say is that the people who built the deck and then chose to very sloppily apply a brown solid stain were lucky I didn't know where they currently live. They would have had a burning poop bag on their front porch to say the very least. Solid stain the the worst. It peels, it rubs off and eventually it needs to be scraped and/or stripped. I plead with you fellow deck owners. We are in this together and although solid stains look "right some nice" when they are fresh and new, they quickly turn into the spawn of Satan and what will soon become the bane of your existence. My deck should have been stripped and stained the year I moved in but it was just such a big under taking that I kept putting it off. Finally I could no longer stand the look of it and I put my foot down on my inner procrastinator. "It won't be that bad.." I told myself. "A few hours work and it will totally be worth it"...my pep talk included. My inner cheerleader was so wrong. I can honestly say that painting my entire house; trim, ceilings and all was a walk in the park compared to revitalising my poor back deck.

What I did was I bought a deck revitaliser and stripper in one. It was made by Thompson's Water Seal. I brushed it on and then let it sit for five to ten minutes allowing it to work it's magic on the old rotten solid stain.  I then pressure washed it all. This took approximately ten hours (but who is counting). The floor came up easily, it was the rungs that gave me a hard time. Next I had to sand (I chose to use my handy palm sander...the rotor dug into the wood!) the rungs to get off the rest of that stubborn stain. This took about four hours (again, I wasn't counting..). Next I went to home depot and had a horrible time deciding on what to use to finish it. Ultimately I would have preferred to use just clear sealer but because the knots in the wood seemed to have a death grip on the old dark stain I chose a transparent stain and water sealer in one. Deck stains come in solid, semi transparent, transparent and clear. I wanted something I would never have to strip off again and something that would protect the wood. I went with Thompson's Water Seal again and I chose the colour "honey", hoping it would make the knots less apparent while giving the deck a uniform appearance. I made the right choice but again fellow deck owners, I urge you to just use a clear waterproofer if your deck is new or untreated. Let your decks naturally turn grey while protecting them. Low maintenance is good my friends. Staining the deck took a full day.

Although I complained and yes it was the worst project to date, I am so happy with how my little deck turned out. Water beads on it and it looks mighty fine if I do say so myself. You would never know the deck it six years old. If I continue to treat it every few years it should last me for many more to come. I must be getting old if decks are so high on my priority list....sigh. Happy rejuvenating all.
-m

Before......

Stripped and bare....

What I used...

Going on and then finished !