Little White Jug #3

My hydrangea is blooming and how could I resist cutting some for my latest little white jug flower arrangement? These beautiful blue hydrangea had turned pink in my garden but I had read that if you save your old used tea leaves and scatter them on the ground around the plant, it will turn the soil acidic causing the colour to change from pink to blue.

So last summer,  I faithfully saved all my old tea bags by the kitchen sink in a small stainless steel bowl, scattering them around the base of the plant whenever the bowl was full.

And wonder of wonder it worked.  Some of the pink is now lavender coloured, but other blooms are blue.

So many beautiful shades!

Turn the jug around, and every view is gorgeous with a wide range of soft pretty colours. 

Easter Eggs

Some Easter eggs I made by simply drawing directly onto each egg with a permanent ultra-fine tip blue marker.

A Simple Blue Bowl

As is so often the case, I love the simplicity of things. I am much attracted to the understated, the unadorned. I am very much of the "less is more" philosophy.


I love the look of this simple deep blue bowl, perched on a tree stump. Who needs a side table, when a beautiful wooden stump will do the job?



After admiring it for a time, I decided to add a shot of colour to the depths of the bowl's inky blueness... a single coral bloom plucked from a nearby plant that is wintering indoors. Photographed in the window for the light, but now back in place atop the stump.

Antiquing in Shakespeare

My latest vintage purchase... these shutters in an amazing shade of blue-green.

There is a hamlet just down the road from Stratford with the apt name of Shakespeare. In this quaint hamlet there is a small conglomeration of antique stores. And in a shop called Land & Ross Antiques, I found these wonderful shutters.

You can see a collection of these shutters leaning against the wall behind the white van in the middle photo. I came across them there but didn't buy any just then. That night, after seeing Twelfth Night at the Stratford Festival, I lay awake thinking about them and plotting what I might be able to do with them... for their lovely blue-greeness was calling to me.

By morning I knew that I wanted to bring a pair home with me and my dear patient husband agreed to return to take another look. And so we did. To top things off, I managed to get a wee deal. The sign said $45 each, those slightly damaged $15 each. I got the pair for $25.

I'll show you what I do with them in a future blog entry!

Hydrangea Blue

One of my favourite flowers is the hydrangea, especially those in shades of blue.

When I first planted my hydrangea shrub it was a lovely deep blue. Because of our soil, it gradually turned pink over a period of a couple of years.

I had read that soil needs to be acidic to produce blue blooms, so I buried an assortment of old iron nails that I had found washed up on a local riverbank, placing them all around the bush. Some say that this will not turn a pink hydrangea blue, others vouch for this method, claiming that the iron oxide from the rusty nails acidifies the soil. Would it work for me?

Much to my disappointment my hydrangea didn't produce a single bloom last year. But this year... there are blooms... and they have a decidedly blue cast to them!

Whimsy with Purpose

This wee blue chair, measuring only 5 1/2 inches wide by 12 inches tall, will be on sale at the Great Glebe Garage Sale on Saturday.

What a sweet perch it would make for a small potted plant or mini trellis for a plant to use for support in a garden pot. I made a little seat cushion for it that could be used to hold straight pins or as I've done here, brooches and jewelery pins. And surely, it is adorable enough to stand (oops... sit) all on its own.

Cold Beauty

Sometimes you come across a scene so beautiful it stops you in your tracks. It's a cold day here. Cold enough for the radio to issue warnings, to remind people to dress for the weather, and cold enough for the temperatures to make the front page of our city's newspaper. But look at what these cold temperatures can produce. This lovely scene greeted me this morning on my way to work. An example of Nature as artist.

Blue Monday

There was a lot of hype around Blue Monday. Turns out the formula used to calculate the day that is supposed to be the most depressing of the year may not be all that scientific. The whole thing may actually be more of an ingenious marketing ploy by a travel company. It may even be next Monday rather than today. But there's no arguing that this time of the year is certainly challenging and no matter which day, we can all use some ideas to get us through the winter blues.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Buy a single bloom to brighten up your living space.

2. Take a walk outside. Extra points if it is a sunny day. If it's really cold, enjoy the crunch and squeak of the snow underfoot.

3. Eat chocolate, even better if it's the dark variety.

4. Spread a little kindness, do someone a favour. It will make you feel good.

5. Write a note to someone you've been thinking about, or surprise someone with a phone call that you don't stay in close contact with.

6. Read a book or watch a movie that transports you somewhere far away.

A Different Perspective

I first noticed this painting in the window of the local thrift shop on one of my lunch hour jaunts. I was immediately drawn to it, feeling as though I was there underneath the snow-laden boughs, peeking out at the landscape that lay beyond. The snowy canopy reminded me of one from a particular afternoon walk along a trail when I had emerged from under a group of pine trees laden with clumps of snow, blue-shadowed in just the same way. I was so taken with the scene that I felt compelled to go into the shop (which doesn't take much prodding, truth be told, when it's a thrift shop) and fished it out of the window, to check the artist. As I suspected, it was Lawren Harris, one of Canada's Group of Seven. It is a partial view of his 1915 "Snow II".

What I didn't expect though, was the discovery that the painting had been placed upside down in the display. And right-side up, the scene was not nearly as interesting to me, just a group of snowy trees. What I took to be the trunks of the two trees at the centre are actually the tips. What I thought was snowy ground was actually the sky. Disappointed, I replaced the painting, careful to put it back in the window right-side up.

A few days later I was passing by the window and noticed that someone had shifted the whole display. The painting had been moved over a little and again was upside down. How peculiar. What is it about this painting that makes people see it so differently than they way it was painted?

Taking this as an omen, I decided to buy it (not really a major purchase at $1.99). The painting is a reminder to keep an open mind, to try and see things in different ways. Maybe we should all turn the artwork in our homes upside down now and then, just to see things from a different perspective.

More Swagging...

My swag-making event continued yesterday when M. and L. came over to make three swags. The top is one of theirs. I love the jaunty red bow placed to one side like that! I had lots of boughs left over from Saturday's event, so I was glad to have them put to use, and delighted to have M. and L. over to share what was a horrible weather day. I decided to make one with the blue spruce boughs keeping to a blue, grey, silver colour theme. I hung it on my blue fence, and if you are a regular reader then you know which blue fence I'm talking about!

Blue on Blue

Finally, I get to see how snow looks on the fence since I painted it blue. The wreath, festooned with blue-coloured berries, was picked up at a thrift shop, a great place to find holdiay ornaments at a fraction of the price you'd pay at regular stores. It makes sense not to spend a fortune when a decoration is going to be exposed to all sorts of weather. The blue wreath looks pretty but I think something red would really pop!

Autumn Arrangement # 3

Thought I'd try out another fall arrangement using the wee orange chair I found at a thrift shop for $5.00 back in September and talked about in my post of September 25th. The blue fence continues to be an interesting backdrop for my arrangements, from cafe tables set with summer drinks or tea to autumn displays. It will be interesting to see how it looks in the winter with snow. Since we just painted the fence this summer, we haven't experienced this new colour in all seasons yet, and the jury is out as far as I am concerned. Not sure if it will remain blue, or perhaps this particualr shade of blue, more than short term. We'll see.

Orange You Blue?

It all started last spring when I admired a wall in friend D.'s home (photo at top of this post). There was an orange lamp that made the wall, painted a beautiful shade of blue, pop! Or perhaps it was the other way around, the blue wall made the orange lamp pop. In any case... next thing I knew I was bowled over with a photograph of King Tut's pendant from the book Life and Death of a Pharaoh: Tutankhamen by Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt. I was struck once again by how striking these two colours are together. Shortly after that M. surprised me with a card for my birthday that contained the same colours. It seemed like I was being bombarded with this really attractive colour combination. So it wasn't surprising when I was shopping for sweaters for my youngest today and I came across this one from Italy. I wondered why we don't see more rooms decorated in these colours. Sure enough, as I flipped through the October 2010 issue of Style at Home magazine this evening, on p. 89 there it was... a gorgeous vignette using a blue table and artwork in these colours (last photo).

Cozy Corner

I'm so pleased with the $15 dollar chairs now that I've painted them blue and also with the $1.99 blue gingham tablecloth, a find from V.V.'s. The little cafe scene is tucked away in a cozy corner of the garden. A lovely place for afternoon tea.

Garden Tools Caddy

Back in May of last year I posted (http://creative-by-nature.blogspot.com/2009/05/garage-sale-find-1.html) about a garage sale find, a red wooden toolbox. And at the time I tried out a few ways that I thought I might put it to use. One of those ways was as a garden caddy, and that is exactly how I ended up using it. When my neighbour (and fellow-gardener) saw mine she remembered that she had one hidden away and decided to dig hers out to use in just the same way. But oh my, M’s is such a wonderful shade of deep blue. Don’t they look happy together?

Cosying Up to the Blues

Have you ever been drawn to something simply because of its colour? A gorgeous blend of blues and purples, this handknit shawl had to come home with me from the thrift shop where I found it. Its soft nubbly texture will offer cosy warmth to whatever it adorns.

Blue Door

Before too long I am going to have enough blue doors to create a series. I came across this particular blue door while strolling down Lorne Avenue in what is known as McGill's student ghetto.

This blue door has the gingerbread details and old stone walls to up the charm factor. And is it just me, or do you also see a robot face in the door's lower portion?

Featuring Blue #6

Well well, who knew that the top of a fire hydrant could look so decorative when you approach it from above? And lucky for me, the tops of our city's are painted a lovely shade of blue!

Featuring Blue #5

Just what everyone can use on a hot humid sunny summer's day. This sign was a stand-out on a street filled with signs. Or maybe that was just because of my search for anything blue. No, graphically, I think it packs a lot of punch!

Featuring Blue #4

I was in Montreal a few days ago and saw these large blue windows just across the street from Place Ville Marie, and because I am on the lookout for things blue, they jumped right out. They practically screamed "photograph me!" ... and so I did.