WISH Wednesday #26

When I saw this pretty bedroom with aqua walls and red accents I thought it would perfect for a spring WISH Wednesday.   I love pretty much everything about this room - in fact I love it so much I pinned it twice on Pintrest on two separate days.  Is that love or is it memory loss? Hmm, hard questions.

House and Home

This room perfectly contrasts the sweetness of light pastel colours in the white and aqua with the bold red accents and the dark wood bed frame and flooring.  I love the natural wicker in the baskets and rug at the foot of the bed.  I love the stacks of vintage quilts on the wicker trunks.  I love ... pretty much everything about this room.  


Is this a room you would pin twice?  (It's now the new Pintrest rating system)

 

Spring Trends - Coloured Glass

While I like to think I'm not influenced by trends in decorating and the decor in our house is timeless, in fact I know that isn't true.  I try to spend our hard-earned money on things that will stand the test of time and that I will love for years to come, so when it comes to trend reports I tend to view them with a jaundiced eye.  This time however, when I read the three spring trends that Style at Home magazine has come out with, I was impressed (you can read more about them here, here, and here).   


So lets have a look at what direction they are predicting home decorating will be going and how I see those trends fitting into our house.


1.  Florals - I've always been a closet Laura Ashley lover - even in the days of no florals during the past decade or two - so to hear that florals are making a come-back is very exciting.  Now I have been taught well over the past decade or so and I can't say I would be considering covering any large pieces of furniture in florals any time soon, but to buy bedding or kitchen towels or pillows or rugs or art or dishes covered in flowers - well count me in!

See we already have a floral duvet cover

2.  Orange - While I'm warming up to orange, there just aren't many places that I could see putting orange around my house - especially the Pantone's colour of the year, tangerine.  We have little bits of bright pure orange in the basement and accents of a rusty orangey brown colour in the living room, but that is about it.  So while I don't have any objection to this colour it doesn't suit our house very well.  I would definitely wear this colour and I could see putting a tangerine tablecloth on the table as I use tablecloths in any colour.

3.  Coloured Glass - Not only do I like coloured glass, but the trend is specifically for my favourite colours - glass in pale blues and earthy greens.  I'm all about blues and greens and this is definitely my favourite of the three trends. 

In fact I liked the idea so much that I went around the house and gathered all the blue glass I could find and arranged it on a chest in the living room.  I had never had them all in one place before  - I liked it!   


I really felt I should do my duty to incorporate some of the other spring trends so I bought some orange tulips to add to the display - they hit both the orange and the floral trends, right?  ;)  I love blue and orange together so this was definitely a winner with me.

 

When I gathered the blue glassware from around the house I was surprised by how many memories were attached to the containers.  Some of the glassware was just from HomeSense or the dollar store, but several pieces were from family trips we have taken around Ontario or even to England and one was from our son's wedding last year.

So what do you think - do these three spring trends appeal to you?  Will you be incorporating any of them into your home?

Easter Update

I hope you all had a lovely Easter with lots of good food and truckloads of chocolate.  I know I did!


I showed you the pink tablecloth from Bangladesh that I was going to use for our Easter dinner so I wanted to show you a picture or two of how the table looked with all the dishes on it.  I tried to stick to pink, gold, and white in the dishes and table linens although I didn't have enough serving dishes in those colours so had to add one that had some black flowers on it.

And the carrot cake looked very similar to how I decorated the first half that I served my friend, but my friend lent me a little rabbit for the garden.  Which meant that "our garden" was being nibbled on by both mice and a rabbit.  

Linked to Table Top Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

An Easter Lunch

I hope you are all having as lovely sunny weather this weekend as we are.  The sunshine is so welcome.  We have flowers all over the house and Easter eggs on display and branches of pussy willows - spring is definitely here.


As I mentioned when I showed you the Carrot Garden Carrot Cake (which you can read about here) I invited a friend over for an Easter lunch so we could have a visit and enjoy the dessert.  I had so much fun decorating the table for our lunch that I wanted to show you around.

I couldn't decide which tablecloth to use so I asked for William's input and this is the one that he thought was the most springy.  I love this tablecloth for its natural linen colour and the pretty sprinkle of wildflowers across it.  It was one of my first thrift store finds from several years ago and it still makes me happy when I put it on the table (although it doesn't iron as smooth as some of my tablecloths because it is made of linen).

The other thing I like about this tablecloth is that it coordinates well with my blue and white dishes so that is what I set out for our lunch.  I also used our blue and white Pottery Barn serviettes and the orange Mickey Mouse napkin rings (more because of the orange than the Mickey Mouse I might add).  I like how even the salad coordinates.  

For lunch we had salad with tons of different vegetables layered in the Anthropologie bowls, finishing off with the red pepper and carrots so it looked pretty.  I also added sliced egg on top just before we ate.  We had the carrot cake for dessert.  It was so yummy.

At the other end of the room is the fireplace and I recently switched out our mantel decor.  It had been a very busy, but fun rainbow arrangement (which you can see here) so I wanted something soothing and simple this time around.  The sap bucket on the right side of the mantel was sent to me by Donna at Anglo in Quebec when I won the chalkboard sap bucket (which I have been meaning to post about, but want to get some chalk so that I can write on the chalkboard ...  it would make more sense after all.  You can actually see the chalkboard bucket on our sideboard in the first photo).  It was so sweet of her to send the extra sap bucket along and I'm loving having these tall containers to display nature in.

And finally I want to wish you all a very happy Easter - from our family to yours!

Carrot Garden Carrot Cake

I was looking for something fun to make for an Easter dessert when I came across this idea on the Betty Crocker website.  I loved how cute the carrots looked, but decided to make some changes.  I let the idea rattle around in my brain for a few days and, as usually happens, inspiration struck - I decided I wanted to make a carrot garden.  In order to do that I would need to make a cake instead of cupcakes so it looked more like a field and I would need to add a few embellishments to it.  


One of the things I thought would be cute would be to have a little spade to put in the garden - but where to get one?  Then on Monday when I attended my art class what do I see sitting on the table beside  my paint palette, but a little spade just the right size.  I asked my friend if I could borrow it and then invited her over for an Easter lunch so she could enjoy the treat.  Not only does she love artsy/crafty things, but she adores carrot cake so she was the perfect person to make this for (well that and my family for Easter dinner).

So I got to work finding some fruit roll-up that would work to make carrots. 

It wasn't as easy as you would think to find orange and green fruit roll-up and I ended up using several boxes to get enough.  Oh, well - it's all in the name of art!

I cut the orange and green sections of the fruit roll-up into pieces that were about 3 cms (or just over an inch) in length.  I cut the green into a fringe and rolled it to make the leaves and then I rolled the piece of orange around that to make the carrot.

I had a grand time rolling and rolling  and before you know it a few carrots ...

... had turned into heaps of carrots.

I made the soil for the garden by putting some chocolate biscuits in a baggie and crushing them with my fingers.

It seems remarkable to me that I have never made a carrot cake before, but that is the truth.  So I did what I always do when I need a tried and true recipe - I Googled Canadian Living recipes and found this one.  Not only did it sound delicious, but according to their website it is their most popular recipe ever and it is also Canada's favourite carrot cake.  Sounded like a good choice to me.  Canadian Living didn't let me down - the carrot cake tasted fantastic.  I've posted the recipe here for reference and put the changes I made in italics after.




Ingredients:2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour 2 tsp (10 mL) baking powder2 tsp (10 mL) cinnamon1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda3/4 tsp (4 mL) salt1/2 tsp (2 mL) nutmeg 3/4 cup (175 mL) granulated sugar3/4 cup (175 mL) packed brown sugar3 eggs3/4 cup (175 mL) vegetable oil1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla2 cups (500 mL) grated carrots1 cup (250 mL) drained crushed canned pineapple1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped pecansIcing:1 8 oz (250g) package cream cheese, softened1/4 cup (60 mL) butter, softened1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla1 cup (250 mL) icing sugar
Note:  I used whole-wheat flour instead of the all-purpose flour and it turned out fine and was that much healthier.  I also added 1/2 tsp of ground ginger and 1 cup of raisins.
Preparation:1. Grease and flour 13- x 9-inch (3.5 L) metal cake pan; set aside.2. In large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. 3. In separate bowl, beat together granulated and brown sugars, eggs, oil and vanilla until smooth4. Pour over flour mixture and stir just until moistened.5.  Stir in carrots, pineapple and pecans. 6. Spread in prepared pan and bake in centre of 350°F (180°C) oven for 40 minutes or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool in pan on rack. (Make-ahead: Cover with plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 2 days. Or over-wrap with heavy duty foil and freeze for up to 2 weeks; let thaw before continuing.)Icing: In bowl, beat cream cheese with butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Beat in icing sugar, onethird at a time, until smooth. Spread over top of cake.

I divided the 9 x 13 cake into two so I could serve one half to my friend today and the other half to the family on Easter Sunday.

I made a little sign that said "Jennifer's Garden" out of cardboard and glued it to half a wooden chopstick.  When my husband saw the cake, he thought we needed a little family of field mice to go in the side of the cake so he went and found some Playmobil mice and made a little home for them.  He even made a tunnel hole on top of the cake and put one of the mice chewing on a carrot up in the field - it was adorable!

The cake was so much fun to make and tasted great too!  In the past I have never known what to serve for Easter dinner dessert as we don't have a set tradition, but this just might become a new one. What do you have for Easter dinner dessert?

Linked to Bunny Blog Hop at On Sutton Place,
Inspiration Friday at At the Picket Fence,
Party Ideas at Funky Junk Interiors,
Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table and Dreaming,
WOW Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style