IKEA Drawers + Martha Stewart Paint

I've had this small set of IKEA drawers in my closet for quite a few years.  It holds bracelets, belts and other accessories.  It's always been fairly plain looking as I've never done anything to pretty it up.  But I was in Home Depot checking out the Martha Stewart paint colours and thought... why not?
So I started with this...

Painted the frame Seal...

And the drawers Sharkey Gray...

I may add some knobs but haven't found anything stunning yet.

I lined each of the drawer bottoms with different scrapbook paper...

And here it is in my closet, prettying things up just a bit!

How do you store jewelery and accessories?  Have you used the Martha Stewart paint for any projects?  Show me!

My Garden - Update

Well I haven't kept you updated on my front garden like I promised in April, but I have been taking pictures!  Here's what it looked like then...

By mid-May, the columbine was blooming and the foxgloves had started as well.

The rose of sharon by our front door was also showing signs of life - a good thing as it was a gift from my parents.  My mom would have been fairly disappointed if I couldn't keep it alive.  She is much better at gardening than I am!

There was a huge change in the foxgloves by the beginning of June!

Two weeks later, the garden looked like this, with all the dianthus in full bloom!

I added some filler plants (I forget the name) to the rose of sharon pot by the front door as it was looking a little sparse.  (Please excuse that garden hose - I should have moved it!)

I didn't take any more pictures until the end of August, when I had cleaned up the bloomed-out foxgloves and daisies.  The echinacea is blooming there on the right.

And the rose of sharon finally has flowers on it - it has been going like crazy!

I am thinking of changing a few things next spring.  I will be pulling out the daisies as they fell over when they were flowering and smothered the dianthus for about three weeks before I intervened.  There are also some butterfly bushes on the far left that I will replace as well... I'm just not sure what I'll replace them with!  Any suggestions?

Mirrored Vignette

After looking for an affordable piece of mirrored furniture for about a year, I was so excited when I found this small dresser at Home Sense in November.

It's small enough to fit in our living room, but large enough to have a bit of presence and some storage too!  But I have been having a lot of trouble with what exactly to put on top of the dresser, and how to arrange it.

Just after Christmas, it looked like this:

A bit of a victim of what was just hanging around and needed some place to go, as you can tell by the sad poinsettia, still in it's cheap gold wrapper.  And right now, it's the best place for our phone, which is not helping the "pretty" factor!

In April, I'd finally ditched the Christmas flower and moved on to something more springy.

However, while it doesn't really show in this picture, those adorable gray boxes are just not the right match with my light gray chairs.

And this is where I am today.  I finally hung the picture, but I'm not sure if that's quite right either.  I picked up the bird tray from the fantastic store House/Boat (I cannot find a website!) when we were on Salt Spring Island in May.

I like some elements, but I know this look isn't set in stone either.  Do you have any suggestions of what I should try next?

My Front Garden

About a month after we bought our place, our front garden was dug up to deal with some water drainage issues.  The dirt was pushed roughly back into place when they were done and for almost two years we did nothing with it!  So embarrassing - I'm sure the other townhouse units were wondering what kind of slackers had moved in!  Here is the giant hole...

The trim you see on the very right is our door - the hole was about 6 feet deep.

Last spring, I grabbed some random packs of seeds as I was inspired to plant something.  This happens to me quite a lot - I will see seeds, bulbs or plants and buy them without a plan of where exactly they are going to go... we are running out of room!

I planted the seeds sometime in May last year by jamming three rows of seeds into one pot.  (I like plants, but I don't love them as you can tell by how I treat them, haha.)  Here is what they looked like in June...

So I had a giant corner of dirt for a front garden and all these little plants growing in pots in the backyard...  It took me a surprisingly long time to put two & two together!

We had purchased a hydrangea plant to take up the majority of the front area.  I love hydrangeas (we have 2 in the back garden, too) and they grow very well in our area.  But beyond that, I had no idea where to start.

My Mom is much more plant-savvy than I am.  Over the phone, I gave her the names of the plants (from the empty packets of seeds I kept as cheat sheets as I had no clue what the plants were by just looking at them).  In about 30 seconds she told me what would work best where, based on height and when they flower.

By the time my parents came to visit that July, there was still only the hydrangea in the front garden.  Mom and Dad helped us organize and plant the rest of the seedlings in one afternoon.   Of course I forgot to take a picture that day, so the first one I have of it is from six weeks after the plants went in the ground.

 None of the plants flowered last year, except one or two buds on the dianthus (second row from the front) and the hydrangea, as you can see.


This year, however, I think things will be different.  Here is how it looked last week...

A little fuller than last year, and the foxgloves (on the right, against the wall) are now almost twice as tall as when I took this picture!

First flowers of the year, on the columbine...

I will update you again when there more are flowers, and will also show you around our back yard sometime this spring or summer!

Behind The Scenes

I promise I do have plans to share some of my favourite things in my own home!   However, trying to co-ordinate tidiness and decent lighting has, for some reason, been difficult these last few weeks.

In the meantime, I will share this (kinda grainy, oops!) picture of the adorable salt and pepper shakers I came across at Pier 1 just before Easter.  So cute!

More "real life" things to come!