Add some Colour to your life!

Let's celebrate spring and bring some colour back into our wardrobe.  I'm done with my drab black and grey t-shirts.  I just love the colours of spring.  Mint green, blues, corals, orange, pinks, neon brights. 

It's so easy with these stretch bracelets.  Just pop one on and you have instant colour. I've used materials such as premium glass firepolish beads from Czechoslovakia, semi-precious stones, sterling silver beads, premium cord and care in making. 

Mix and match.  Just pop one on and you have instant colour.

To celebrate spring I'm having a bracelet sale in my etsy shop.
BOGO Sale.  Buy one get the 2nd one (at same or lesser value) for 1/2 price.
Limited time offer.

Bunny Tales

As a nice diversion from my morning here are some pictures from my garden over the last couple of days.

As you can see he's pretty comfortable in our backyard.  In fact, he and his siblings have become playmates for our dog!  It's become a pretty leisurely chase around the garden now.

We're getting so close I'm sure before I know it he'll be expecting a proper dinner invitation.

I'm pretty sure I know who is eating our tulip leaves.

Happy Spring!

I'm not sure what happened to March but it sure has come and gone quickly.  While I'm still trying to grapple with the idea of spring the Easter weekend is already before us.  The snow has melted in the front yard and glimpses of spring are starting to be seen as the first bulbs push themselves through the soil.  In the backyard there is still mounds of snow mixed with inches of wet, sloppy grass by the midday sun.  

Our backyard is visited daily by two or three local rabbits and our dog is most interested to greet them and as often as possible.  This makes for lots of paw wiping when she gets back in the house and that is a sure sign of spring.  I've noticed the birds singing.  I don't know if they have always been there and their voices muffled by the snow or they have just returned from a southern winter but it sure sounds nice. The garden is wet and brown but there is hope out and there and a sense of excitement as to the possibilities.  Spring is a very welcome sight to me.

Happy Easter!  

May you enjoy your weekend with some rest, sunshine and friends and family.

Oh my bleeding heart.

One of my favourite spring flowers.  It makes a rainy day look beautiful. This one greets us as we walk up to the front door.

Can it really be May tomorrow?

A Spring Celebration

There are dark skies here this morning.  Looks like rain will be headed our way.  Our plum tree with its blossoms of white looks especially beautiful against the dark background.  It's a sad kind of tree with it's gnarled branches and our makeshift support system trying to hold it up.  Each year we think it might be its last but surprisingly each spring it returns to life and we exhale a sigh of relief.  It lost its mate a couple of years ago and there still is a gap in the yard because of it.

I took this picture of it this morning but it really didn't capture what I was seeing. Beautiful tiny white blossoms against a blue gray sky.

So I took this one closer up. You can see the cluster of blossoms. So Pretty!

A little closer and you notice the slender yellow stamens.  

Little bursts of yellow surrounding the white blooms.

Upon closer inspection it's revealed that the stamen stems are white and it's only the tips that are yellow.

It's like a natural display of fireworks.  The tree is celebrating another spring.

In the last year I have made a conscious effort to pay more attention to the details.  Not the kind that I relentlessly try to organize on my lists. Those types of details actually require less of my attention.  No, I mean the kind of details that I can so easily pass. The little things. Details of nature. Flowers, birds, leaves on a tree, rocks, shells or a fallen branch.  Sometimes I have to remind myself to do this.  It's easy for me to get distracted with other things.  As I get outside with my new camera it has opened up an undiscovered world - even in my own backyard. Learning to use all the settings and buttons has made me stop and look and stop and look even more.

~

 No dance competitions or major driving for us this weekend.  This is good as I have been nursing a bout of sciatica in the last week and a half.  I was feeling pretty good by Wednesday until I started to do some  housework.  Why did I feel it was necessary that day to clean the leather sofa in the family room?  Oh well, I have learned that I just need to take care of it, rest it, ice it, gently walk and stretch it.  It's feeling pretty good today so I'm optimistic I'm headed in the right direction.

Have a good weekend friends!

The Dog Days of Spring??!!

You've probably been wondering where I've been the last week or so. The truth is we didn't make a cake last week so I didn't have anything to post!! I'm sure we can rectify that situation fairly quickly!

Yesterday was a strange day for weather.  By mid morning it was almost 20°C and a few hours later it was 24°C with a humidex close to 30°C.  Wow! (Today at the same time it is only 10°C) Big fluctuations in temperatures lately. Definitely keeping us on our toes for choosing clothes in the morning.

 I didn't realize how warm it was until I noticed my shag area rug rolling around on the grass...oh wait, that's Mabel.  She loves lying out in the hot 'summer' sun.

...I can assure our groomer that a phonecall in the near future is necessary!

I was inspired by my niece Chloé and her recent garden pictures and I took a few myself.

I have a lovely rogue patch of purple pansies growing in my grass this year.  Such a pretty sight.

I'll have to get some tips from Chloé when I see her next.  Although I use my camera everyday for product shots I still haven't had much time to play with it for other things.  Learning everytime I use it which is half the fun!

Cake and Celebrations

Sydney made this beautiful spring inspired cake for her Nana's 80th birthday on the weekend.

Love the spring colours!

 The cake was delicious.  Lemon scented vanilla cake with almond buttercream icing.

Yum!

Forget Spring it was Summer in the Air this week.

Wow! What a week.  We've been saying for a while now what happened to winter?  Well now it's what happened to spring?  With temperatures soaring to 26°C and sunshine galore you felt you were hopelessly behind in the gardening department only to be reassured it was only March.  The trees are budding, the birds are out and there is green, lots of green in the garden.  Sandals, pedicured toes and tank tops are the style du jour.
Some spring summer inspired designs!

Have a great weekend friends!

Spring Break

It's amazing what just a few degrees latitude can bring you.  It's March break for us here so we visited my parents up at Lake Muskoka this weekend.  On Friday when we left Whitby, it was freezing with a windchill making it feel like -20°C.  Not far along the highway we were met with snowsqualls, highwinds and overall not fun driving conditions. Although Muskoka  had less snow than it normally does it was a bit of a shock to us as we haven't had any significant snow on the ground for a while.  While only a two hour drive north of us it was definitely still winter at my parents.

Spring was definitely in the air on Sunday.  It was bright and sunny and the temperature climbed to 10°C.

There were definite signs of spring.

 With Muskoka being such a big and busy lake you rarely can see reflections in the water.

 This was my view of the sky while lying on the dock. The sun on my face felt like summer.

Back in Whitby it was 16°C and we were greeted by these at our front doorstep.

Spring is definitely coming!

In My Backyard

Well there was quite a bit of commotion outside my window a few minutes ago.  A slight bang on the window, the sounds of wings flapping and such.  I went to the window and looked out to the ground below the birdfeeder thinking I would see a bird that had been stunned by his misguided flight into our window.  Instead, there was nothing...until I looked up at the fence...and this is what I saw.

Wow isn't he spectacular.  I think it's a peregrine falcon or maybe a hawk but I'm not actually sure. 

  Maybe someone knows?

Anyways, quite a treat to see so close up and he was quite accommodating to stay while I ran for my camera and snapped these pictures.