Party of Four : Friends at Our Place

On Sunday evening a couple from the 'hood came over for a visit. Kim and Chris are some new friends we met while dog walking. 'Wait a minute', you might be thinking, 'you don't have a dog'. And you are right, we don't. But they do; a handsome fellow named Henry helped to make the introductions. Anyway, bonding over a shared love of animals lead us to having a friendly glass of wine together.

For snacks we had some green grapes, these Marinated Olive, Tomato and Cheese Hors D'eourves, and some small open-faced sandwiches (aka Crostini) spread with three different toppings. The food was quite tasty, if I do say so myself, and I'll share the recipes for the toppings tomorrow.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year : First Signs of Spring Around Our Place

Someone around here has worse spring fever than I do -- Nick had all the garden furniture and terracotta plant-pots out from under the tarp, where they spent the winter all tightly covered and bungee-corded together, before I had a chance to take a 'before' picture. But I'm certainly not going to complain because setting up my favourite room in the house is something I look forward to from the day the last bungee is hooked in the fall until the first day it is sprung loose.

Of course, as is always the case in Toronto during April, the first little peek of nice weather was immediately followed by some miserable weather, and the wooden stuff was all moved again so it is underneath the awning, protected from the cold rain that fell most of yesterday, all through the night and into today when it still falls as I type this. In fact, we'd be naive to expect that we won't still get yet another dusting of snow before the dreaded season is over, but a thermometer that showed two consecutive days with temperatures on the plus side are sure signs of the good days to come and we want to be ready to take full advantage.

Here are some shots taken around our place on the weekend.

From Grungy to Pretty in 30 Seconds

Here's a little idea that saved a ceramic plant-pot from being hidden away or getting tossed in the trash.I loved the colour and the raised dot pattern on this plant pot when I saw it and thought it would be a great new home for one of my African Violet plants. Then after the first watering completely overflowed the attached saucer I realized that this pot was going to be a certain water-ring leaver on any wooden furniture I placed it upon. Our vintage round wooden table was ruined by a water-ring caused by another plant overflowing once, so I am wary of this problem. I tried to pry the saucer off the burgundy pot but that was a no-go as it seemed to be sealed on during the ceramic firing stage, so unless I wanted to break it, the saucer was staying. So, I just put the whole thing into a larger plant saucer that I had, and we lived happily ever after .... for a little while.It wasn't long until I began to notice the minerals in the soil were forming a very hard and unattractive white crusty finish to the bottom of the pot. I tried to scrub it off but it wasn't budging. But it was only a plant pot, so I just stuck it to the back of a multiple plant table where the other plants would hide the grunge.It stayed there, not really getting the light it needed, until recently when I took the 30 seconds that were required to turn the whole thing into a display worthy centre piece. All I needed was an inexpensive bag of polished stones that I found at the dollar store. It was as easy as one-two-three. Now the old saucer is completely hidden and the new one is plenty big to catch the drainage when I water the plant. (Did you know that you're supposed to water house-plants until a bit of water runs out the bottom of the pot? A good deep watering is much better for your plants than are more frequent lighter waterings. Some people water their plants in the sink or bathtub because of that and let them drain there, but I have too many plants to do that.)

Possibly the Best Quilt Ever : Cats by Wendi at Shiny Happy World

c="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/cat-quilt-by-shiny-happy-world-6.jpg" alt="cat-quilt-by-shiny-happy-world-6" width="640" height="637" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23007 blk-brdr">Before I proceed with this week's 'Pet Related Post' I must make it clear that full credit for what you're going to see here today goes to Wendi over at the blog aptly named Shiny Happy World. I am merely the portal through which you can see something really good!Isn't this cat quilt fantastic? It's almost hard to believe that someone made this by hand.