LANDSCAPE CHRONICLES || urban backyard makeover

The time has finally come, yes I know you've all been waiting with bated breath - well hopefully at least some of you have!? The BIG backyard reveal!!!

I'll give you one last look at the bland before pic...

If you head back over here, this is where I ranted about my industrial glamour vision for our urban yard reno.  I think we managed to execute the essence of the vision BUT... the backyard ended up having more of a mid-century modern flava, still glam, less industrial.  Either way we LOVE! 

Drum roll please......

WHA BAM! Squealing with JOY! I didn't dare step foot outside last summer, now I can't stay away.

FETE || chic canadiana party

Happy Canada Day eh! My long weekend was pleasantly packed full of family, food and fireworks; my fave things ever...and in that order.  We hosted a Canada Day party on Sunday in our backyard; I had an idea to honour this special day in a way that included more than just red and white paper flags. Chic Canadiana was the theme, think woodland wonderful, beavers and moose, beer and bacon, all things coined classically Canadian. I get ridiculously excited by any occasion that allows me to let my inner party planner, crafter and hostess rear its' obsessive head, and this patriotic celebration was no exception. 

I dug out my wool Hudson's Bay Co. point blanket, with its iconic stripes, and used it as the inspiration for my master plan, bwah ha ha ha.

I prepared a food and bevy line-up that was quintessentially Canadian; Canadian Bacon Burgers, Poutine,  and Moose Tracks Ice Cream with a Maple Cookie topper.  We sipped on Canadian beer from our famed cottage country in Muskoka and cocktails infused with fresh Ontario strawberries.

I also got my craft on; I ordered some of these cute moose gift tags from Etsy and glued them to red take-out boxes from Michaels (I also raided Michaels for scrapbook paper, glue and string), made a catchy celebratory banner and wrapped vases with scrapbook paper to add a little oomph. 

I wanted to keep the classic Canadian red and white colour palette alive, but I freshened things up by using some pretty patterned paper. We handed out maple suckers and sparklers as party favours.

After the feast, we headed out the beach to take in the annual fireworks show, it was a lovely way to cap off the evening. 

The party was a success, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we all left feeling uber proud to be part of the true North strong and free.

FETE || stylish outdoor entertaining

Hi lovelies, just wanted to share a few quick pics with you from last night's Palm Springs inspired dinner party; it was the first time we've used the new backyard to host a dinner (promise pics of the yard are coming soon).

We were celebrating summer and couldn't have asked for more perfect weather, although I did ask the weather gods several times to please keep the rain away, it worked.

This was the scene...

Black, white and yellow with a splash of pink was the palette I played with, of course. The table seats 8 but was set for 6 and still a tight squeeze, but it seemed to work. I ended up making a table runner from fabric I had leftover from our wedding (cheated a little and only ironed the edges flat, it actually held together well, great shortcut if you don't like to sew).

Any excuse to craft, I'm on it, so I picked up these cute anchor stamps and some scrapbook paper from Michaels and made these little cards to bring some pink and whimsy into the table setting.

The flowers were meant to be bright and have a California feel to them. The market I go to didn't have the billy balls I desperately wanted, so I grabbed these nifty things, thought they fit the bill.

The menu was simple but risky; don't ask me why I decided to try 3 new recipes in a dinner party setting, I usually test them before hand to make sure they're up to snuff.  This time I just went with it and everyone seemed to like the food, and drinks of course were cold and plentiful :)

The menu; Citrus Marinated Shrimp Skewers with Grilled Pineapple to start, Arugula, Potato and Green Bean Salad, a Smitten Kitchen recipe (so amazing, it was totally delish) and Teriyaki Flank Steak (a fave amongst the group). 

For dessert these super refreshing, light and flavourful Strawberry Paletas I saw in Sweet Paul . TO.DIE.FOR! 

We laughed, we chatted, to be honest most of us were tired from work, but it was a relaxed evening and always great to get together

At the end of the night we lit up the fire and toasted marshmallows; our friends brought over a s'mores kit that came complete with sticks to put the marshies on, genius.

This was first of many summer backyard dinner parties in our household. Now, I'm on to the next, Canada Day party planning; was there a hostess badge in Girl Guides? I would have totally earned that one ;) ! Have a wonderful long weekend!

FETE || backyard dinner party inspiration

Happy first day of summer! The weather here in the Tdot is perfectly suited for this special day as it’s a scorching 43 degrees C (110 F)!  To celebrate the first official day of summer I tried to organize a big bash with friends; that went over like a lead balloon. All of my lovely pals had prior engagements such as traveling to Scandinavia, New York City and Vancouver, ya I guess these trump our backyard party ;). It’s a busy time of year as we all know, but I’ve managed to round up a few of our besties for a more intimate dinner party next week instead.

I’m sticking to the summery theme and will be stylin’ it up like a Palm Springs dream. As you will notice almost all of my parties, décor items, inspirations and loves are somehow related to the Palm Springs aesthetic; every time I try to veer away I end up back where I started, oh well I love so let’s roll with it.

Here’s what I’m thinking, a playful and coulourful palette with a summery menu to compliment.

I’m going to attempt to make these delicious looking ice pops from this month’s Sweet Paul mag.

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This will be our first official dinner party in the new yard – which I haven’t fully shown you yet, I was waiting until we had the trees planted to take the “after” pics, but we aren’t moving quickly on that so I’ll work on pics next week for the reveal! 

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And so it’s official, summer is here, time to let your hair go wavy and put the champagne on ice, let’s celebrate!

LANDSCAPE CHRONICLES || modern backyard patio project

Ever dream of an urban oasis that’s a little bit boutique hotel and a lot bit relaxing and lush?   Well...that’s all I can think about these days and now we're one step closer; we have a patio!  The backyard patio project has turned out to be one of the easiest and best experiences we’ve had since owning this house.  The decision on what material to use, the layout and how much grass to leave, was much more painful (as per usual with us) than the actual execution. Here’s how it all went down…

Parkview Building Supplies, whom I’ve mentioned before - pure awesomeness they are – plunked down in our front yard 6 humungo bags of crushed aggregate and concrete sand, one 4 yard bin and the 24x36” ivory limestone pavers we picked out.

The landscapers showed up with shovel in hand and were enthusiastic in their digging efforts; they excavated 8 inches.

From what I could see, as I spied from the bedroom window, they used the crushed aggregate to build the base and topped with concrete sand for the stone to rest on; you have to create a foundation that won’t shift once the stones have been laid in place, so they tell me :) . They leveled it off, with a slight slope to allow for drainage, not visible to the eye. 

Once it was all flush they began to lay the stone. You know how fast the roadrunner moves, meep, meep? Well they moved faster; 3 guys for 2 days and they were done, quickest installation ever! AND as a bonus they offered to lay the sod for us and they prepped the garden beds using triple mix, amaze!

Alas…she is everything I ever imagined, a perfectly symmetrical, mid-century modern dream.  It’s one of those projects that gives you a pit in your stomach, it’s so permanent and so expensive that no matter how it turns out you have to live with.  We couldn’t be happier with the result. It feels like it’s been there all along and it’s beyond exciting to finally have that extra space to lounge and entertain in. Now, let the fun begin, furniture placement, styling and accessorizing woohoo!

Apologies, not the most glam pic, shot through the screen of the second floor window (where I spied from)

LANDSCAPE CHRONICLES || pretty progress report

What an unbelievably gloomy day here in the Big Smoke, my Hunter boots are getting a real workout!  On the sunny side, there’s been some progress with the backyard reno, so I thought I’d share a few quick tidbits to get you up to speed.

Starting with the juiciest nugget first, we bought a fire pit! A legit, marvellously modern, glorious bowl o’ flames to stare endlessly at whilst listening to the heartbreaking sounds of the baby racoons squeal and the constant rumble of the streetcar passing by, aaaahhhh city life.

Here’s the dream. I so desperately wanted this pit, I love the light gray colour, obvi, and the mod river rock. Canadian made (Paloform) which is cool, but too freakin’ expensive.

And this is the reality. I still love, just not the exact look I was going for, but for $2000 less than its superior counterpart, we opted for this pretty Restoration Hardware model with lava rocks.  It's propane fueled, so it does have a cord that comes out of the side and knobs to adjust flame height (which they don't show in this lovely photo, grrrr). The propane has proven to be excellent, we get approximately 10 hours of burn time per 20 lb tank. 

She glows like a bride on her wedding day and I have to admit it’s kinda starting to feel like a hip boutique hotel back there.

LANDSCAPE CHRONICLES || backyard design scheme

Glorious, glorious, what a wonderful sunny day; seems like the most appropriate time to post our final design for the backyard reno.  Actually, we are pretty lucky, right now the yard is a blank slate and there aren't any major quirks; the only thing that’s staying is the deck which was here when we moved in, but everything else is being primped and polished.  

Main objective for this petite space = create two  functional areas for entertaining, one for  dining and one for lounging.  Since the lawn has been such a nightmare (can't get it to grow) we decided to simply cover the beast with a natural stone patio, problem solved,  this will be the lounge area. This means the dining area will be up top on the walk-out deck (I’m kind of cursing this decision now since I’m having a biatch of time finding a table to fit). 

Here’s a pic from last year before we moved in, didn’t I tell you, total mud pit!  

I’m sooo looking forward to having a sexy space where we can entertain, have a glass of wine or toast marshmallows over the fire pit, can you imagine?  I’m also uber excited to have a real garden, funny as this may seems since I’m a major hazard to the plant world; thankfully hubby spent his summers landscaping during high school. 

I'll leave you with a few pics that inspired us when creating this design; let's hope the backyard looks even half as fab as any of these outdoor dreams. 

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LANDSCAPE CHRONICLES || industrial glamour inspiration

Talk about beautiful weather, these past few days have been lovely; the sun brings with it both freckles and anticipation of our upcoming landscape overhaul!  Yup, we’re tackling the great outdoors; a full chicification of the backyard and front of the house.  When we moved in last summer we had a mud-pit out back, but coming from a teeny tiny condo we were pumped about any type of greenish/brown space; as for the the front of the house, let me tell you, she’s not a looker.

So, we’ve decided to make it more functional, do some soft and hard landscaping and turn it into something FA-BU-LOUS! What’s on the list (P.S. lists are my life, drives hubby insane): painting the fence, porch and back deck, adding a limestone patio to the backyard, furnishing a lounge and outdoor dining area and planting the gardens with all new foliage.

My fave part of his whole project, creating a vision board of course, I give you  “Industrial Glamour”.  

I completely heart these ghost chairs, but the seats are narrow and they aren’t the most comfy so I didn’t want to commit to them for our dining room, but I’m thinking they might work for outdoor dining? Pairing them with an industrial style sawhorse table will be tres chic.

I'd also love to hang a cool light fixture – the one above from Design Within Reach, is a great mix of industrial and glamour with the brass finish and exposed filament. We’ve already purchased a Cane Line sofa for the lounge area (it has charcoal coloured cushions), it was the floor model and was such a STEAL so I snapped it up.

Our budget for this project is decent, but most of it will go towards labour so I’ll need to get creative with the decor – apparently according to hubby this or this is not in the budget, boooo. We have some DIY projects on the horizon which will help keep the funds in check and allow us to splurge on a natural gas/propane fire pit!

Lots of decisions to make in the next few weeks, time to roll up the sleeves and dig deep into the savings account!