The Friday Five: Watering Cans

Are you already tending to your spring/summer garden or is still too cold? The grass gets a bit greener and flowers (or leaves) are blooming every day now. Spring’s arrival is such a wonderful time of the year, isn’t it?

While the rain may be responsible for some of your garden’s growth, you mustn’t forget to water the plants and flowers that the rain may not reach. The best tool for this job is a watering can, of course!

s

1-gallon watering can, $5.97, Lowe’s

watering-can-plastic

3L watering can, $5.49, Home Hardware

watering can-Karim-Rashid

Karim Rashid watering can, $29.99AUD

white-watering-can

Esschert Design Russion watering can, $35.96

Gracious-Home-Burgon & Ball-watering can

Burgon & Ball watering can, $60-$65, Gracious Home

Have a wonderful weekend!

Event: Wine, Thai, & Blogger Time

Last weekend, a bunch of bloggers got together at Melissa’s (The Sweet Escape) fun and colourful loft for a wine tasting event sponsored by local favourites Union Wines and Linda Modern Thai. Lucky us, right?

wine+food

The first wine was Union Gold and this stack of white plates didn’t stay empty for long.

Andrew von Teichman from Union Wines was on hand to teach us about four varieties of wines (gold, white, noir, & red) and to make sure our glasses were never empty! Union is a virtual winery owned and operated by Andrew and his partner Allan Jackson (former owner of Jackson-Triggs), and it sources all grapes from the Niagara region. All Union wine varieties are less than $20 a bottle and are available at select LCBO stores.

The chefs from Toronto’s Linda Modern Thai served up some delicious nibbles that paired extremely well with the four wines we tasted over the course of the afternoon.

Union-Wines-Linda-Modern-Thai-Blogger-Brunch-White-Cabana

Union Wines and Linda Modern Thai made an excellent pair.

Sweet-Escape-White-Cabana

Melissa’s home has so many beautiful vintage details.

Sweet-Escape-White-Cabana-1

Melissa’s milk glass collection looks amazing on her floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

Read Melissa’s recap of the afternoon (her photos are much more colourful than mine) and see her beautiful home in Covet Garden Home. Thanks for hosting, Melissa, and thanks for spoiling us, Union & Linda!

Photos by Jordana.

Marketplace: Mother’s Day Shopping at Etsy

Here’s my second round-up of Etsy goods that may make wonderful Mother’s Day gifts.

Clockwise from top: silhouette portrait, $65+, Le Papier Studio; felted organic wool slippers, $75, In Wool; Mother’s Day card, $3.50, The Little Illustrator; Dear Mom greeting card, $3.75, Rittenhouse Trades; white leather purse, $95, Meita Lev; concrete candlestick holder, $38, Zeitegeist Factory; deluxe handmade spa gift set, $38, Tokyo Factory; white decorative bird bowl, $10, The Tweet Life

p.s. Mother’s Day is next Sunday May 11th.

*affiliate links have been used

Uptown: Kitchen Counter Style

Now that all the reno dust has settled in my kitchen, I get to play around with my countertop displays. On one side of the kitchen, I’m housing my toaster, kettle, and knife block. I’ve left a large part of the counter free of gadgets because it’s a nice long workspace. On the other side, on the counter between the stove and the fridge, I added my new little white radio, but the line-up isn’t as good-looking as I know it could be.

white-cabana-kitchen-style-1

I put a little request for style advice out on Instagram and the IG community had some great responses (thanks Giulia, Anita, @TouchofPink2012, @erinpconner), so I tried them out.

First, I tried gathering some things into a small tray…

white-cabana-kitchen-style-3

Next, I tested out a larger one…

white-cabana-kitchen-style-4

I had the trays in the house already, so it was no big deal to test them out. I also have little containers in a variety of materials that I played around with – they’d be perfect for holding sea salt (not that I really ever cook with a whole lot of salt, but this is not about practicality, it’s about style!).

Finally, I placed a piece of artwork behind my radio and Soda Stream. The painting that I leaned against the wall might be too big for the space; I also think that I want to hang it on one of the kitchen walls.

white-cabana-kitchen-style-2

And that’s about as far as I got. I need more styling practice. I also realize that I never actually use paper towels, so it’s really pointless to have them taking up valuable counter real estate. More changes ahead!

Erica Cook is such a styling master and I would like to follow her lead. I’ve been on the lookout for fancy black & white bottles of cooking supplies (what I would use them all for is beyond me), but I’ve had zero luck as of yet. Take a look:

Erica-Cook-kitchen-style-instagram-1

Erica Cook’s IG

Erica-Cook-kitchen-style-Instagram-2

Erica Cook’s IG

I am really enjoying being on the styling stage of my house reno. It’s about time!

Update: I just found this article about how to style a kitchen countertop on The Everygirl. The photos are beautiful. I’m afraid of styling the countertop too much – I’d rather have an empty counter so I have space for food prep than a countertop full of cookbooks and bowls of just-for-show lemons.