A Nasturtium-Inspired Home

I took these photos of the nasturtiums in our garden a few days ago. They are finally hitting their stride now that they are days weeks away from being done-in by a killer frost. They are full and lush and gorgeous. I just love the yellow and orange flowers against the gray-blue table. It's one of my favourite colour combinations.

All those dreamy blues and yellowy-oranges got me wondering what a nasturtium-inspired home would look like. Thanks to Pinterest and Google and other internet wonders I was able to bring my blue-mixed-with-yellow-gold-orange house to life. Let's have a look.

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I'm glad you found us. Isn't it just as I described it - dark blue gray siding with a bright sunny yellow front door. Not everyone is as flowery in describing colours as I am, but it took me ages to find just the right shade of blue and yellow so I have to gush a little.

Come on inside. Do you like the wallpaper? I just had to use it somewhere in my home. It creates a big impact in a small space, don't you think?

the Hunted Interior

Please have a seat in our living room. Would you like something to drink?

BHG

Why is it that everyone ends up in the kitchen when you entertain. Come in and make yourself comfortable while I finish dinner.

Katie Rosenfeld Design

I hope you're hungry because I've cooked lots of food. Please have a seat and I'll be right back with dinner (and maybe some cutlery since I seem to have forgotten to set the table).

Homedit

It's such a cool evening - why don't we move to the library so we can sit by the fire and chat. Don't worry about the chairs - they may look like they are falling apart, but they're really tough as nails.

It's getting late isn't it? I'll show you to your room. This first room is our bedroom.

Southern Living

And just down the hall is the kid's bedroom. They are very tidy children, aren't they? Maybe that is because we only allow them to have one small, handcrafted wooden toy. It certainly helps keep the house in order.

BHG

Here's your bedroom.  I hope you are comfortable. There's everything you need - with some magazines to read, lots of pillows in case you are a two or three pillow type person, and a bowl ... hmmm ... can't remember why I left you a bowl?  I'm sure there was a good reason, but I can't remember it. At least it looks pretty.

Thistlewood Farms

And here is your bathroom. Careful you don't bonk your head on the light. I just had to have it even if it is a bit big for the bathroom.

Architect Design

I'm so glad you were able to come for a visit in our nasturtium-inspired home. It's not everyone that can fall in love with a colour combination and then stick with it ... thoughout ... every... last ... room, now is it?

p.s. you guys are the best with all your delightful comments on my last post - totally filled me with joy!

Today is Bouquet Day

I decided to have a poinsettia as my bouquet this week because the red and white geraniums from last week are still going strong so I didn't want to buy more cut flowers.  Instead I used the poinsettia that I was given last week at the party to make a table arrangement.

I chose this burgandy plaid blanket as a table covering to compliment the greens and creams of the poinsettia and the gold of the pot.  The plaid blanket is a thrift store find that I find interesting because it was a blanket used on Air Canada in its former life. 

Then to complete the tablescape I used some bead stars that I made last year at my Christmas craft party (which you can read about here).  I love the sparkle of the silver along with the complimentary pinky-reds and brown beads. 

Do you get a poinsettia every year?  I sometimes do and sometimes don't - because truth to tell I can't stand a poinsettia after Christmas and want them out of the house.  Maybe I won't feel that way about a cream one, but for me the red ones are stale-dated come New Year's.

Today is Bouquet Day

Today's bouquet is a little more elaborate than some because I'm having my annual Christmas craft party this weekend and wanted something special.  

Do you remember the mantel that I showed in my post about how Sarah Richardson decorates for Christmas in the city (you can see it in the pictures below).  Did you notice the container the flowers are in?  Well Sarah apparently used a container from the hardware store that is for applying mud to drywall.  I loved its simplicity so I went and looked for one too.  Sure enough in with all the rough-and-tough drywall equipment are these pretty stainless steel troughs.

I bought one of the troughs and decided to use it for the flowers for my party.  As you can see below the label is stuck on there so it will last through countless drywall projects.  Anyone know how to remove it?  

Unlike Sarah, I love red at Christmas, especially when paired with white - think Nordic Christmas or candy canes - so I bought red carnations and white chrysanthemums to fill the container. 

I like the flowers on the table, but for the party we need the table for crafts so the flowers are on our mantel (and that way you can't see the label glue either).

I've been busy getting ready for the party - I'll share the crafts we did next week.

Today is Bouquet Day

So here's how arranging the bouquet went this week...

I bought some chrysanthemums at the grocery store because they are inexpensive and I wanted to offset the cost of buying a bigger bunch of flowers next week for my second annual Christmas craft party that I have for my art class.  I selected some pretty chrysanthemums that look like mini-sunflowers and then decided to pair them with my sunflower tablecloth from France.  Brilliant ... except the yellow of the flowers didn't match the yellow in the tablecloth.  Right, so I switched the sunflower tablecloth for a yellow and white striped placemat. That looked great.  I took some pictures and then looked at last week's bouquet - yep, yellow flowers with a yellow and white tablecloth.  Nope, that won't do.  I can't have those pictures side-by-side on my Pinterest Bouquet Board, which is pretty much my selection criterion when I buy the flowers.  Solving the problem involved an emergency trip to the grocery store while Jonathan was cooking the pizza to buy more chrysanthemums to mix things up a bit.  I selected some deep purpley-pink chrysanthemums this time.  I ironed another tablecloth and changed the vase and stood back to admire.  Ah Perfection!  

The tablecloth I used was bought at a thrift store.  I love the simple embroidery and the cheery flowers.  The thing that makes me smile is how many different shades of green and even brown they used on the stems and leaves. It's like they wanted to use up every scrap in their embroidery basket.

Chrysanthemums are such a versatile flower.  They come with little round heads or daisy shapes or layers of petals like the traditional blossoms or even weird spidery versions.  They are such a long lasting cut flower.  I remember when I was living in the Netherlands as an exchange student for a year when I was 17 we went down to see the flower auctions and they gave us each a bouquet of chrysanthemums to take home.  I gave the flowers to my host mother.  She changed the water and trimmed the stems and four weeks later the chrysanthemums were still going strong although the leaves were looking a little worse for wear by then so she asked if we could get rid of them.  Secretly I wanted to keep them and see how long the flowers would last, but it was her home so I gave her permission to dispose of them.  But really four weeks is phenomenal.

Chrysanthemums are a humble flower and not one of the popular ones like hydrangeas and roses, but they have their charms.  Do you like them?

Oh, and did you know that the Flower of the Month for November is chrysanthemums.  Perfect timing, no?

Today is Bouquet Day

It has finally happened!  There are no more flowers to be picked from the garden - the frost took the last of them a few days ago.  Which means I will have to rely on the grocery store from now until spring. 

the last flower from the garden on our sideboard

Yesterday I bought a bouquet of yellow freesia when I was getting some milk.  Don't you love freesia.  They have such pretty complex flowers arranged along their stem and they come in such a variety of gorgeous colours.  Fortunately the store only had a few colours or I might still be there trying to chose which ones to buy.

The bouquet came with lots of fern leaves, but I separated them and added the fern leaves to the blue salvia that we had on the table all last week and is still going strong.

I paired the freesia with one of my favourite thrift store tablecloths (do I say that every week?)  I have a collection of different gingham cloths - yellow, beige, brown, navy, red - and I love how they look on the table.  This one has been used a lot and has a few spots, but I still love it.

I'm not sure why, but looking at my Bouquet Day pictures side-by-side on my Pinterest Bouquet Day board makes me ridiculously happy.  I love seeing the progression of flowers that have bloomed in the garden and the pairing of the different colours of flowers with the tablecloths. Almost nobody visits this board so I feel like it is my secret place, just for my own enjoyment (which I'm sharing with all of you). 

Today is Bouquet Day

  

Looks like my prediction last week was wrong - I was able to scrounge one more bouquet out of our garden.  Despite a frost or two, the blue salvia were still going strong so I cut some to put on our table.

I think they look like lavender and thus sort of French which inspired me to pair the salvia with a linen tablecloth.  I got this tablecloth at a thrift store several years ago and have used it lots which accounts for the softness of the linen and the fadedness of the printed flowers.  A vintage mason jar as a vase was the obvious choice with all that French country look happening. 

What are you up to this weekend?  I thought we were going to the cottage, but last minute change of plans has us home and kicking back.  

P.S.  I swear I ironed the tablecloth - linen just keeps you humble when it comes to wrinkles.

Today is Bouquet Day

There are a lot of beginnings and endings in this post.  These are probably the last of the flowers/leaves from the garden. We've already had a frost and there really wasn't much to pick today so I doubt there will be anything left by next week.   You never know what I'll find though - I'm a good scrounger.

Today's bouquet is a collection of the last of this and the last of that.  I found the goldenrod growing in our window well and the warmth from the house had prolonged its season.  The nasturtium and the rudbeckia flowers were the very last ones growing in the garden.  There were only a handful of Japanese lanterns left and most had been damaged by the frost.  The amur maple and spirea leaves are almost completely red now and will be dropping from the bushes soon.  Only the rose hips will remain throughout the winter.

I had to use the fall runner again this week because it will only be appropriate for a short while longer and then we will be on to Christmas.

The other thing I'm running out of, apart from flowers, is daylight.  I hurried last night after work to pick the flowers and take some photos, but I had to retake most of them again today in the daylight. Which is a lovely segue to my notable first.  The last photo was taken with my camera on manual setting - tada!!!  I was playing around with the settings so I could let more light in (I can't wow you with any technical language) and it did really help.  I'm going to have to get my tripod out and try some more like that.

I'm curious to see if I can find any flowers in the garden next week or will I be buying them from the grocery store?

Do you have big plans for the weekend?  Are you dressing up and going to a Hallowe'en party?  I have smaller plans that involve visiting family and friends and no costume, which suits me fine.