Flowers on Friday: Daffodils

We were gifted a very beautiful bouquet of Daffodils last weekend. I will never tire of Daffodils!

I love them, what's not to love beautiful yellow flowers:

And slender long stems:

They remind me of my sister . . . crazy on the top, skinny on the bottom! haha (she's going to be mad I wrote that . . . or happy ??? I'm not sure.)
And after our post on The 6 vases you need to have . . . I go ahead and use a small juice pitcher to hold our daffodils!

I hope you have a great weekend. I'll be here Monday with our New Rocking Chair . . . I promise ;).

The 6 vases you have to have!

I LOVE reader requests . . . we've been doing this for almost 3 years now, and finding something to write about during projects can sometimes be a stretch. So if there is anything you want to know shoot me an email and ask!

Today's post came from an email I received asking about our flower vases! I do not remember who it came from . . . sorry!
The question basically asked, what flower vases should we own??

Basically I think that One Large vase and One small vase should be owned by everyone . . . if you are really in to minimalism the small vase could be a small tumbler ;).
But if you are a fresh flower addict like myself here are the basic vases you should have: 

1) A White Ceramic Pitcher:

It can be used for other things as well, but more than 50% of the time I use it as a vase.

2) A round glass "fish bowl" vase:

I found ours at Michaels, and I use it all the time, any bouquet I've put into it has looked amazing! I seriously Love this vase!

3) A Julep Cup:

Again, I found this at Michaels (p.s. Don't put it into the dishwasher). I use this little cup about as often as I use all of our other vases combined. Sometimes the flowers in a mixed bouquet die at different times. So when the first few flowers die, I pull the live flowers out (usually carnations), and place them in our julep cup to live for a few more days!

4) Medium Vase:

I love texture and I love white but it doesn't have to be textured and white. It's just nice to have a medium sized vase for medium sized bouquets. I find that this size about 10" tall is the perfect size for almost any bouquet.

5) A bud vase: *Optional

I know I said you should own a bud vase but I just use an oil bottle, it's rare that I receive a single stem but it does happen occasionally. For that reason we keep the white oil bottle around if we didn't already own one I'm not sure I would invest in one.

6) A Large honeycomb vase from Target! *Optional

Okay . . . it's a little specific but what I really mean to say is a Large Vase. This is also optional, because if you have the big white pitcher (number 1) you won't need a large vase.

And the best place to buy vases . . . second hand stores! Save yourself some money and search through your local thrift store for vases!! 

And of course you aren't limited to just traditional vases, if you are short on space here are some examples of unconventional things we've used as a vase:
A goblet: 

A mason jar inside an orchid pot: 

A cookie jar without the lid:

I hope you enjoyed today's reader request!!! I hope I didn't sound too bossy, but those are the vases that I've found work really well for us!! ;) haha

Target Vase

Target: "Bringing you things, you never knew you needed until you saw them on the shelf!"

We were in Target buying . . . flour . . . butter and wine (you know the staples ;). When a quick trip down the Home aisle resulted in the cutest vase I've ever seen! It's honeycomb pattern was so subtle, and you know I'm a sucker for white ceramic.

There were two sizes, a Large and a small size. I picked up the small size for $16.99. Although it's pretty darn big.

As per usual I'll be enforcing our One in / One out rule. Meaning We bought a new vase so one of our old vases is on it's way out.
Lee did remind me that the exact words out of my mouth when I saw my new vase were:

"I will get rid of every vase I own if I can have this ONE vase. 

It's . . . . sooooooo . . . . cute!!!" 

Okay so I'm not getting rid of all of them, but one for sure . . . maybe two!
I hope you have a great weekend filled with honeycomb vases from Target. ;) haha

Everyone has these on their face . . .

TULIPS!!
hahaha It's was an Oh so corny joke but it made me giggle.

I love this time of year, tulips are everywhere and they are so well priced. While I like all of the fancy varieties of tulips, in my opinion nothing beats a vase full of simple white ones.

There is something so elegant, yet kind of rustic about a bouquet full of tulips.

I hope you have a great weekend! We are headed to the Home and Garden show, I'll be posting lots of photos on our instagram account feel free to follow @minimanor

Grocery Store Decor

If you live up here in Canada you'll have heard of The Real Canadian Superstore. It's kind of like a slightly fancier (more food based) Walmart! Actually, the best way to describe it would probably be a cross between, a regular grocery store, a walmart and a target!
Lee did a quick grocery run on the weekend when we ran out of milk and came back with a little $7 bouquet!

And the reason I'm bringing up Superstore is because the little jug the flowers are in is also from Superstore! As well as a million other things you've seen around our manor (the stove top tray, the bathroom tray, a bunch of dishware, our coffee mugs, etc. . . ).

Gotta Love some Grocery Store Decor! and a thoughtful husband!  :)

Flowers on Friday: Orchids and Thistle

As I mentioned it was my Birthday on Monday! I turned 29, the real 29 . . . not the 29 I'm planning on telling people I am for the next 10 years ;).

For my Birthday some very sweet friends of ours picked out an amazing bouquet of flowers for me!!

I LOVED this bouquet! And it takes some very special people to pick out the perfect vase to go with it!

There are orchids, some tropical leaves, some thistle and I have no idea what those puffy yellow things are but I'm IN LOVE with them! If Lee and I were getting married again . . . THIS would be my wedding bouquet! The combination of bright yellows with dark purples has always been a favorite of mine!

A BIG thank you to S, M, C and C! And of course Olive!  You all have been a HUGE blessing in our lives!

Flowers on Friday: Farewell to Fall

We hosted some friends and their super sweet kids on Halloween night. It was so much fun to trick or treat around with the kids and walk through the haunted house!
As a thank you for having them we were given a beautiful bouquet of fall flowers!

I thought I'd share them with you today because after this it's going to be all Christmas Flowers! Paper whites, poinsettias, mini spruce trees, amaryllis, the list goes on.

Here's our farewell to fall!

We have tons to show you next week . . . we have a giveaway, some book reviews, and a couple great project! I can't wait to show you!
See you then!!!!

Fall Flowers

We're gearing up for our Fall Decor post on Monday. Today I just have a very lovely bunch of fall flowers Lee brought home from work earlier this week. We've been looking for a second car for a few months now and we have had NO LUCK. I was getting a bit frustrated, anything over 300,000km is not what I consider "low mileage", and if your car smells like you've been hot boxing cigarette smoke for the last 5 years it's not in Immaculate condition. And last, the sentence "No Accidents . . . claimed" is just plain worrisome! Phew I'm glad I got all of that off of my chest! So if you have an abundance of car hunting luck, send a little my way!
Lee could sense my frustration, I've been more than a little grumpy being stuck at home with no car. He brought home some Beautiful Yellow Sunflowers to cheer me up!

We're suspending our car  hunting this weekend for Canadian THANKSGIVING! Gobble Gobble! This year it's my sister's turn, so we'll be heading over there for dinner! But in case you're looking for some thanksgiving ideas check out our posts under Holiday!!

Mother-in-Law Flowers on Friday

We had a visit from Lee's Mom this week and she brought us a very sweet, very thoughtful bouquet of flowers!

 I love the contrast of the orange and the dark purple!!

Hope you have a great weekend! We have a finished kitchen project to share first thing Monday morning . . . see you then!

The Most Beautiful Bouquet . . . ever!

I might have stretched the truth slightly with the title of this post, but I think this is the most beautiful bouquet I've ever had in my house!!!
I've said it before, and I'll say it again . . . Peonies are amazing!
I grabbed this 10 bloom bouquet from the grocery store for $9.99 (I love peony season).

 The buds were all closed up so as far as I knew we were getting purple-y pink peonies . . . one hour later they had opened up and I got my first glimpse of the amazing Yellow interior (the Stamens).

 I was so pleasantly surprised, until another hour passed and the smell came . . . these particular peony's don't have a 'pleasant' smell. But they are so beautiful I put them beside an open window and admired them from afar!

This is where blogging really has it's advantages . . . you can see them . . . but you can't smell them. haha

Hope you have a great weekend! We're on the hunt for patio furniture this weekend, and fabric . . . I'm a perpetual fabric hunter!! ;).

Spring in Canada

Lee brought home a lovely bouquet of Alstromeria and Mums from the grocery store. I popped them into my favorite vase, and placed them on the coffee table.
We've had a couple of exceptionally cold Spring days here in BC, and when I saw the pretty Spring flowers, in front of our blazing fire, I thought "Doesn't that completely sum up Spring in Canada".

Once the rain cleared and we had some Sun, I moved them in front of the living room windows . . . so they could enjoy the view! ;P

Happy Spring . . . wherever you are! :)

My Favorite Vase!

I LOVE a little bouquet on a side table.

Especially when it's in a favorite vase of mine. I love the little fish bowl vase. It's actually the easiest shape to work with. Because the opening is small it groups flowers close together, but the base is wide so you can angle the stems to find the perfect spot.

And lastly, we get a lot of questions about the little ant that sits on our side table. I think that a room is never complete without some whimsy and our little ant is definitely silly!

Flowers on Friday: Front Yard

It's official Spring has Sprung at this manor.
I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing spring bulbs popping up. Every year I think it's amazing!

Last fall I planted 50 Purple Tulips and 50 White ones. They bloom at different times, purple first and then the white should be next. I figured since our hydrangeas don't bloom until later in the Spring it might be nice to have some color and life out there.
Here's what popped up this week:

Seriously, I think bulbs are so cool, you plant them . . . basically forget about them, and then BAM!
Here's what else has been blooming, our Hydrangeas have leaves and so do the maple trees:

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Weather permitting we'll be in the yard all weekend, cleaning up from Winter and getting started on some spring planting.
We should have a great post about our garden for you next week, as well as a fantastic giveaway and a library . . . or should I say OFFICE update!!!

Flowers on Friday: Dining Room

To simply call today's post Flowers on Friday doesn't do the post justice. It's Lots and Lots and Lots of flowers on Friday.
For some reason or another we had 4 bouquets in the house at one time . . . It could be because I have a super sweet husband or I could have bought them for my self at the market, on sale 4 bunches for $10. Or Oprah could have sent them over to let me know how much she loves the blog ;).  Either way I ended up with a whole schwack of flowers on the dining room table!!!

Happy Spring!!!!

Master Bathroom

I am CRAZY about trays as you can see from our Boot Tray post, our powder room tray, and the tray beside the stove. I think that a beautiful white porcelain tray not only looks fabulous, but it protects our surfaces. Which is definitely important on granite counters but also important on tile counters because grout is super porous.
We have a large tub 'deck' which is super handy, but it always looked messy because we would (meaning I would, Lee has one bath product beside the tub . . . it's called soap) leave all my bath products around the tub deck. I found this round tray at Superstore and it fit with about 2 cm to spare! It's perfect!!!

I don't have many bath products, a special exfoliating mask (from the dermatologist, I have sensitive skin), an organic skin cleanser made by Boots (found at Target), and some extra soap because getting out of a warm tub to get a new bar of soap sucks!
Oh and of coarse Fresh Flowers . . . I bathe daily beside fresh flowers, me, Oprah and the Queen have so much in common ;) hehe just kidding.

Now a little bit about the bathroom layout and the rest of Master Bath Redo plans.
This half of our bathroom is made up of the TUB and the Shower. The shower is AWESOME, I always thought that a shower bathtub combination was A-Ok but it was before I knew the joy of a separate shower, it's . . . it's just plain awesome. There is so much more room, I know it's not always possible to have a separate shower but if it is I would definitely put one in again.

Now onto something I would never put in again (Note: this was a builder choice NOT ours) a two person TUB! Never again!
First It's a HUGE pain to clean! I have to take off my socks, roll up my pants and clean the tub while standing in it!
(Please excuse the color difference, I'm still figuring out the new camera, the picture on the right is how the tile actually looks ;) 

Two it's a HUGE waste of water, I'm a bath person, so to have a bath in this tub by myself is a BIG waste of water. I guess maybe it depends on how much you bathe with your spouse but I definitely wouldn't recommend a two person tub!

So what's left:
-Artwork or something to hang over the tub, maybe a mirror.
-New Towel bars, toilet paper dispenser, and hand towel holder
-Some hooks for wet towels
-New toothbrush holder
-Some Serious cabinet organization
-New light over the mirror and sink
&
-Maybe a new light fixture above the tub.
-And one day in the far far future I would like to replace our giant mirror with a round multifaceted mirror!!

So that's where we are so far in the Master Bath. I'm hoping to have the rest of it done by MONDAY! But so far I am LOVING the Sharkey Grey wall color, everything looks so much  nicer and sparklier  against the grey!

Flower's on Friday: Purple!

I LOVE tulips, Love'em! I'm especially loving the Double Tulips (ones that have tons of petals).

And my newest Cheapest Shopping triumph (found at Chapters) . . . a $2 unglazed porcelain knitted vase! I might have bought more then 1 I might have bought 6 :) hehe 3 for me and 3 for my mom!

Flowers on Friday: Living Room

Just a cute little mixed bouquet from the super market:

The vase is from Home Outfitters.
Hope you have a GREAT weekend, we celebrating the 7th Anniversary of Lee's 29th Birthday, also known as his 36th birthday!
I'm also Putting the finishing touches on my new DESK!! :) Can't wait to share on Monday!!

Flowers on Friday: Dec 2, 2011

It's been a while since we've posted a flowers on Friday. That Lee . . . slacker!! :)

I finally had to grab this little guy for myself . . . from the grocery store . . . oh, how the mighty have fallen! : P 

I love the little white flowers and how they cascade over the edges. You also might notice, our new coffee table basket (if you're wondering it's from Jysk). I've been trying to figure out a way to add some interest to the wide expanse of coffee table, and I think a basket tray fits perfectly, it's HUGE (more pictures of the basket tray to come next week).

I hope you all have a beautiful weekend!! Fingers crossed we FINALLY finish the barn door this weekend!!!