Etsy ♥

I am loving... chalkboard prints for the kitchen.

Via Say It Sweet

Via Oliver Rue

Via Chris Loves Julia

Via Print Press

Via The Word Shop

Amy

Fifty Shades of Grey & Black

Yes, I finally succumbed to curiosity and read Fifty Shades of Grey this past weekend... but of course that is not what this post is really about...

We have taken the plunge and decided to paint the exteriors of the windows black.

Via Houzz

I never would have guessed there were so many shades of black. It is almost as difficult to pick out the perfect black as it is to pick out the perfect white! We think we have finally settled on General Paint's Black Bear but still need to actually test it on the house.

We are still undecided on the colour of the french doors. Dave would like for them to stay white but I am partial to painting them black as well. Not only will they match the windows but the black will help hide the dog paw prints that eternally cover the bottom half of the doors.

White?

Black?

Or maybe we should compromise and go grey? Although I would probably still lean towards a darker charcoal grey. (I apologize for the cheesy Paint renderings... I was feeling to lazy to fight with Photoshop and couldn't even locate the original copy of this photo...)

Grey?

We will eventually be adding a Juliette balcony railing on the second floor which will also be black or oil rubbed bronze.

Via Westline Distributors

Would the black on black be too much and the balcony railing just get lost? Does the balcony rail help the white option look more balanced? Is the grey option more balanced or just too much for one wall?

Black?

White?

Grey?

Too many possibilities... and don't even get me started on how many shades of grey there are too choose from... definitely more than fifty.

What would be your vote?

Amy

Penny Tile ♥

Once again I am feeling like there are simply not enough surfaces in my house to tile.

I absolutely love the mini penny round tiles on this week's episode of Sarah 101 "Baker's Kitchen".

via HGTV

via HGTV

via HGTV

 To make matters worse the tiles come in several fantastic colour options...

Ming Green, via Creekside Tile

Bianca Carrara, via Creekside Tile

Oriental White, via Creekside Tile

For more of Sarah 101, check out the shopping guide and episode gallery or watch the full episode online.

Amy

Fruits & Flowers

For our anniversaries Dave and I have developed the tradition of buying gifts that are a fun twist on the traditional anniversary gifts.

The traditional anniversary gift for the fourth wedding anniversary is "fruits and flowers". So when we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary back in May, we decided to combine our presents and buy a new fruit tree for the front yard.

This past weekend, with our flowers beds constructed, we finally got around to buying our tree.

We decided on a Honeycrisp Apple - primarily due to its compact size - it should only grow to 4 meters tall and spread to about 1.5 m wide.

Right now it looks pretty tiny but hopefully in a couple years it will grow up to match the apple tree on the other side of the house that we planted when we moved in seven years ago.

Amy

Productive Long Weekend

Since high levels of snow and water in the mountains made a backcountry trip undesirable, we used the Canada Day long weekend to tackle the landscaping in the front yard. 

We had finished the concrete steps and sidewalk last year but there were still large holes and forest of weeds were there should have been flower beds.

We began by digging in french drains for the downspouts - the same as we did in the back yard.

We plan to replace the two downspouts on either side of the front porch with rain chains so we connected the french drains to pots the rain chains can drain into. We concreted the pots into place to make sure they are good and sturdy. Then we concreted a floor drain into the bottom of the pot.

Next we pulled out all of the weeds, dug out the construction debris and set to work stacking stones.

Four days of hard labour later, we had beautiful raised rundle stone flower beds.

Our house is finally beginning to look like a home and not a construction site.

Before

After

Now I just need some plants...

Amy