The Great Canadian Outdoors

I grew up in the Kawarthas, just outside of Peterborough. My family never spent summer weekends at the cottage because we lived in cottage country all year 'round. Our house overlooked Chemong Lake and we had a good sized back yard with a set of swings, a vegetable garden and stone barbeque that my Dad made.

 

View of Chemong Lake from our house, circa 1971.

Fast forward about 40 years. Now I'm living life as a city girl with a 4' x 10' balcony as my own personal slice of the outdoors. Not bad, considering this balcony is almost 25% bigger than my previous one. There are several parks nearby with plenty of room to roam, but some mornings I just want to step outside wearing pj's and with a cup of coffee in hand.

Here on the new balcony, I'm using the same ceramic garden stool, yellow urns and woven chairs that I had at the old place (you can see posts about the old balcony here & here), but there are some new additions. This year I invested in a strand of lights, an inexpensive rug and some real greenery.

 

I picked up two dwarf globe cedars at Home Depot this spring and planted them in the yellow urns. They seem to get just the right amount of moisture from Mother Nature's regular watering ;) The yellow rug is from HomeSense and it ties in perfectly with the colour palette.

I love the string of outdoor lights! Their warm glow gives the balcony so much ambiance in the evening hours. Inviting, isn't it?

So, how do you enjoy the Great Canadian Outdoors?

Happy Canada Day Weekend

To all my fellow Canadians, I wish you a happy, happy Canada Day weekend! I'm sure 97% of you are either on the road to the cottage or have already arrived there, but I'm also pretty sure that most still have internet access and are reading this outdoors with a beverage in hand.

In celebration of the national holiday, Lia Fagan of Mod Pieces is running her annual "Shop Like a Designer" sale, which means this weekend (June 28th to July 1st) everyone receives the trade discount of 25% off regular pricing. Just use the coupon code "OHCANADA" at checkout.

Lia started her business, Mod Pieces, by refurbishing vintage lamps and she is the "go-to" girl for custom shades. In fact, Lia created the custom size shades for the ceramic lily lamps in my guest bedroom:

Lia has recently added throw pillows to her design repertoire, and she has such a great eye for fun patterns and colours. I'll bet a few of these would look great on your couch!

I love this classic black & white combo:

 

This chartreuse & blue combo is perfect for summer decor:

 

Mod Pieces has two of these lamps available, "The Lilith Twins". They're so Mad Men:

The Mod Pieces "Shop Like a Designer" sale is on now and runs through midnight on Canada Day (Monday, July 1st).  Happy shopping!!

Thrifted Thursday Feature

Good morning!! I'm just popping in here to let everyone know that today I'm being featured in the Thrifted Thursday series over at Love on Sunday. I recently met blogger Amy, a talented graphic designer and fellow design aficionado, at the Christie Antiques Show. We share a similar love of thrifting, and I was more than happy to share the story of how I discovered & updated my campaign chest. While you're there, check out the rest of Amy's blog, it's a great read!

Click the photo above for a direct link to Amy's Thrifted Thursday post.

Google Reader Switcheroo

**If you already subscribe to Cherish Toronto via email, feel free to disregard this post.**

Hello readers :) This is a quick reminder that Google Reader will soon be a thing of the past. If you currently get your Cherish Toronto fix via Google Reader, you will need to switch to an alternate source before July 1, 2013.

May I suggest that you follow with bloglovin':

Alternately, you can sign up to receive Cherish Toronto posts directly to your email inbox by entering your email address in the "Subscribe" box near the top of the right sidebar.

That is all.

Pretty Crystal Door Knobs!!

A couple of weeks ago I swung by the Ginger's warehouse sale hoping to score a few more of the crystal handles that I used on the vanity doors in the master bath. No luck. However... I did spy two crystal door knobs in a brass finish. A necessary purchase? Not reeeeally. But at 67% off regular retail, I was dazzled by the sparkle and the price!

These crystal knobs replace two of the annoying lever handles in the master suite (I say annoying because they would always catch on my belt loops and pant drawstrings). Now one of these sparkling beauties leads into the closet and the other into the master bath. So lovely, don't you think?

Now if I can just find five more on sale.

PS - I looooove the way the master bedroom colour looks in the Instagram photo above. The colour is Gown (SR9), part of the Sarah Richardson Designer Palette for PARA Paints.