It’s time for our (sometimes) weekly update on random things going on in my little corner of the world! Let’s chat. 🙂 By the way, we had snow here this week for just one day and I kind of loved it.
We find ourselves in a stay-at-home order once again and schools are closed, which means that our kids are back to doing their school from home. It’s definitely not an ideal situation as far as my own productivity goes, but I definitely kind of love being able to have a front row view of their learning process. They also actually mostly enjoy it and it’s nice to be home together without me being the one coming up with things to keep everyone entertained and productive all the time. It would be great if it could be just a quick at-home break for them this time though, because Jack really does love to be in school, and Kennedy has art this “quadmester”, which she’s amazing at, so they would really both get a lot out of an in-person experience right now. We’ll see! Fingers crossed!
Get a better look at this little space here.
Daffodil season. I absolutely love daffodil season, but somehow every year I manage to forget how great it is by the time fall rolls around and it’s time to plant more. I always get a few more white tulips in, but I kind of go “maybe I don’t need to worry about more daffodils this year”. Every single time. I would love to have them in larger drifts along the long, skinny part of our yard where I started creating my naturalized meadow garden last year and I think I’ve figured out a great way to do it. Instead of digging a million little holes, I think what I’ll try instead is to nestle the bulbs down in the longer grass in drifts, then I’ll top them in a few inches of garden soil, since that area could stand to be built up a little more anyway. As helper as I’ve discovered garden dibbers to be when it comes to planting bulbs, it will be so much easier to just bring a bunch of soil over there in a wheelbarrow and just pat everything down firmly with a shovel.
We made some progress on our back stairwell project! You might remember that we started on the demo work in our back stairwell off the kitchen way back in January. We kind of intended it to be a lockdown project, but since we were still considered essential, and most of our clients were considered essential as well, we basically worked at our little photography business throughout the entire lockdown and ended up with really no extra time on our hands at all. We had a couple of free days in a row this past weekend and we managed to make a pretty great leap forward, which was just so satisfying. The new back door, as well as the window above the door, have both been installed and the light back there is just amazing now! I keep thinking that someone has left the back door open because there’s just so much light coming out of that stairwell. We have two more new windows to install as well, so it’s going to get even brighter. Yay!
I went on a little book buying spree for my birthday and I have to say that I’ve been feeling very spoiled every time I sit down in the living room and look up at the shelves in there. I had to pick up Where the Crawdads Sing because that book has just been so popular and everyone seems to love it, then I also ordered Sunday Suppers, Made for Living, and Garden Secrets of Bunny Mellon. I’ve only had the chance to spend a few minutes with each one so far, but I’m hoping to put together real reviews for most of them because so far they all seem really special. I’m particularly excited about the Bunny Mellon book, of course because it’s that time of year when all I want to do is get out in the garden. I always feel like it’s so interesting to read about what books people choose, don’t you?
Jacquie Lawson e-cards might be my favorite thing ever. There’s an e-card service called Jacquie Lawson that my grandma has used for years to send us the most delightful little e-cards for just about every holiday and occasion. Every time she sent us one, my kids and I would end up over on their website watching all the different little cards over and over again. Each card is basically a little hand-drawn animation that lasts about a minute and depicts the most beautiful scene you could imagine for every scenario, from springtime gardens, to fireworks in the summer, to family gathering together during the fall harvest for Thanksgiving. At Christmas they put out a different animated advent calendar every year with different activities and games to “open” each day. If I haven’t told you about this before and you haven’t yet been introduced to Jacquie Lawson, I apologize for taking this long. Jack and I were just sending a little thank you note to my grandma earlier this week, so I was reminded of how delightful they are and I thought I’d better share. 🙂
OTHER NEWS WORTH MENTIONING
-The Brooke and Lou garden and outdoor collection this year is ridiculously beautiful. If you really want to spoil your porch, these large basket planters are stunning. They would look so amazing with the all-weather white square planters I shared with you last week. Anyway, their garden and outdoor collection is 15% right now with code GETOUTSIDE, and I just thought you should know. 🙂
-Also, E-cloth has 20% off site-wide to celebrate earth day! E-cloth is my go-to for everything, especially their polishing cloths and deep clean mop system.
-If you’d like to stay better updated on what I’m up to on a daily basis, consider following me over on Instagram @creeklinehouse and @art_and_spaces
-I’ve been asked a few times by neighbours and passers by about the giant barn light that we’ve installed on our garage, and this light here looks super similar in shape and size to ours. We’re still working on that garage update from last fall and I promise to share more as soon as we have news to report! At least we have one showstopper of a light! 🙂
-If you’re in need of some motivation for keeping a clean and tidy home without feeling completely overwhelmed, you can find the homekeeping book I wrote a few years ago over on Amazon. I actually still use it as a reference when I’m putting together my monthly lists.
OTHER RECENT POSTS
- How to Get New Curtains to Hang Straight
- Etu Home Colorblock Vase Review
- How to Fix Stretched Succulents
- Five Things on a Friday 4/16/21
This post contains affiliate links.
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.