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Happy Friday! If you’ve had the frigid, distinctly un-spring-like temperatures that we’ve had for the last couple of weeks, I hope things are starting to warm up and look a little bit sunnier for you as we head into the weekend. Grab a cozy beverage, and I’ll catch you up on everything that’s been going on around here!
The back deck project is nearly done! (Don’t mind all the field dust all over everything. They’ve been plowing and planting the fields here.) We just have a few little things left to do, like finishing the siding around where the railing was added on and adding some landscaping around the bottom of the deck to make it settle into the backyard a bit better. Currently, it kind of sticks out like a sore thumb, but of course, it will take time for the plants to fill in around it and get everything just right. Adding the pergola has transformed the deck in such a big way, and has instantly turned a plain, exposed deck into a cozy little outdoor room. We chose an all-weather pergola, so there will be no maintenance for decades, and we can just relax and enjoy. It was so easy to put together as well, and that part of the project went so quickly once we got everything measured and organized. I filled my new all-weather planters with cheerful white geraniums and added a mix of collected pots with various other blooms around the deck as well, so it’s looking quite welcoming all of a sudden. I just need to decide on the right bird bath one day, and then I think my vision will be complete. 🙂
Have you heard of the term “Maycember?” Basically, it refers to the fact that May can be so busy for young families with activities of all kinds for school, sports, graduations, etc. that it can feel like another December. We’ve been having a bit of that this year with soccer games or practices every single day, non-stop practices and rehearsals after school, and a very busy work schedule with lots of projects on the go, and so many homes to photograph for our photography clients. I have to admit that some of it has been self-inflicted since we’ve just been trying to make the most of our time with Kennedy home. Anyway, it feels like there’s always something going on, and yet, never enough time to do everything we want to do. It’s good to know there’s a word for it, and we’re definitely not the only ones running around like chickens with our heads cut off at this time of year.
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I shared a post from Kennedy a couple of weeks ago where she had taken some of her sketches of different spring blooms and turned them into digital line art. I really thought they were so beautiful and I started thinking that they would work so well as framed prints. The style lends itself to interiors of all types, from modern to traditional, and I suggested that she could maybe open a little Etsy shop to share her various sketches as affordable printable art that people could use in their homes. She loved the idea and her little shop was born. She’s been working away at it, sketching various blooms and plants that have been specially requested and turning them into high-res printables and she’s just launched her first collection! She did some research into it, and it turns out that a lot of the printable art available on Etsy is AI, so it’s neat that these are all hand-drawn and I think it’s a really fun, easy way to support a young artist. You can find her shop here: Kennedy Morgan Designs on Etsy
My summer kitchen update is really starting to take shape now! I have to admit that this is going to sound really weird, but I’m actually daydreaming about being out in the driveway painting in the sun with all my cabinet doors lined up on sawhorses. I do know what I’m getting myself into, because I’ve painted our kitchen cabinets before, about 10 years ago, but I do genuinely enjoy big painting projects like this. The plan is that I’ll be making small, realistic improvements to the space to finally complete my vision for this room, rather than doing a complete full-scale renovation. First of all, a big renovation really isn’t needed because it’s a great kitchen with a layout that works. And second of all, the cabinetry is old, but it was custom and high-quality, and honestly, I just like the style of our cabinetry a lot more than much of what’s popular in home design these days. So we’ll be changing things like paint color, hardware, and plumbing fixtures, and adding some millwork and soft textiles to make this large room cozy and welcoming. I can’t wait to get started!
It’s been so cold here. Like, historically cold. I read somewhere that May hasn’t been this cold in Southern Ontario since 1967! I’m very thankful that we got so much of our back deck project finished earlier in the spring, but of course there are a few lingering things we need to finish up that haven’t been able to get to with the cold weather. And then there’s the rest of the property! I have so much to do out there, but with all the constant wind and rain, it just hasn’t been practical to get out in the garden, so I feel like we’re about a month behind on all the regular spring tasks like mulching, dividing perennials, and adding new plantings. Since we’re so unprotected from the wind out here with no other houses around us, it makes gardening in bad weather a bit more challenging, but I know eventually the weather has to warm up, and we’ll get everything sorted out.
NEWS AND FINDS
-I had the chance to record a podcast episode earlier this week with a friend who will be launching a new project. We talked about The Creek Line House, Art & Spaces, and how I manage to juggle both while still loving what I do. It was a lovely chat. 🙂 I’ll let you know when the episode is live!
-My new summer wheels are here! There’s definitely a certain amount of nostalgia with Huffy bikes for me, since I and so many of my friends had them for riding around the neighborhood when I was growing up. Huffy sent over this new retro-style Beach Cruiser bike and it has me inspired to get out on some pedal powered adventures this summer, preferably with some flowers or fresh produce from the farmer’s market tucked into the cute front basket and an iced coffee in the cup holder. Hoping to get it up and running this weekend!
-I can’t wait to see this beautiful faucet in our kitchen. It’s just waiting patiently in the box for me to start painting the cabinets, and then I think it will really be the pièce de résistance along the main wall in our kitchen. We went with the bronzed gold color, and I think it’s just going to be the perfect updated-but-still-traditional choice for our newly refreshed kitchen.
-One of the questions I get asked most often about our house is if our living room and dining room ceilings are original. The answer is that they aren’t even close to being original, but we’ve come to love them so much. When we moved in, we had a suspended ceiling in these two spaces, and we worked with Decorative Ceiling Tiles to switch out the drop-in tiles for beautiful new ones that make it look like an original painted pressed-tin ceiling. We meant for this to be just a temporary solution, but we’ve loved it so much that we ended up keeping it. If you don’t have a weird suspended ceiling, they have glue-up tiles for regular ceilings as well! A great resource for easy home updates.
-It’s that time of year when I start to really, fully appreciate my indestructible doormats. These things are amazing. You just hose them down once or twice a year, and they look brand new again. No more sad, worn-out doormats making your porch look abused and neglected. It’s so nice to start the season with a presentable-looking front porch without having to run out and buy new mats for every door.
-Have you tried the Ninja Creami? I know they’re already crazy popular and not so “new,” but I’ve never tried one, and I’m so intrigued. If you’ve never heard of the Ninja Creami, you can make healthy ice cream (or not-so-healthy ice cream – your choice) using the ingredients of your choosing. You just mix things like almond milk, protein powder, fruit, nut butters, or anything delicious like that in the little container, freeze it, and then the super powerful machine whips it up into ice cream in just a few seconds. That, combined with my new back deck and a summer breeze, sounds like a dream come true. Let me know your favorite recipes if you have one!
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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.