A Cheery Kitchen

Bunny plate from Emma Bridgewater.

 I finally finished decorating the kitchen and while it's quirky as ever and I probably did a horrible job with the painting, it is at least Cheery.

The wallpaper took forever to remove.  Granted, we were using a cheese knife to scrape it off the walls, real tools being unavailable to us during this pandemic time, but twenty five years on the walls, and perhaps a very strong glue, were also to blame.

In the end MrBP spent an entire Saturday removing the most stubborn portions.  The walls underneath were a mess!
Finally after a month my Amazon order of a wallpaper removal kit (too little too late), sandpaper and paintbrushes arrived.  You wouldn't know I'd just had a delivery from Hermes.ca I was so excited.
I spent a couple of hours sanding the walls before priming them with the Farrow & Ball mid-tone primer.

Primer starting to go on along the top.
Look at the former wall colour!

This wall was in terrible shape and needed so much sanding.
The primer is finally going on here too.

 As the actual colour went up, Farrow & Ball's Cook's Blue, I thought it might be a bit too much.

 The fortunate thing is there's not very much wall space in the kitchen that needed painting, just snippets here and there.  As my Lil Rascal said, it's sort of an "accent wall situation".

 The bench below the coat hooks turned out well I thought, and this is with no sewing.  Rather than ruin my beloved Schumacher "La Menagerie" fabric I decided to just wrap it around the cushion and hire a real sewer to stitch up the cover when the lockdown lifts.

 I really love this little bit of wall leading into the back stair, the juxtaposition of the Cook's Blue next to Farrow & Ball's Green-Blue is my favourite.
Also that bunny plate is my favourite!

 Here is a bigger view of the kitchen from the bottom of the back stairs, above and below.

 The whole kitchen seems brighter and fresher, also in part due to removing the window coverings of course.  The trim needs painting, as does the tin ceiling, that will improve things further.

 I like that the cheery Cook's Blue sets off my colourful items from Emma Bridgewater, like this strawberry apron above.

 The skirt sink in the powder room didn't turn out too badly even though I sewed it up myself.

 In the end we did three simple things with this kitchen: we replaced the blue counter on the island with a wooden butcher block, removed the window coverings, and replaced the wallpaper with Cook's Blue.
(We also replaced the refrigerator after it just went kaput and stopped working about a month ago.  Due to Covid19 we had to bring the new fridge into the house and get rid of the old one by ourselves... we made Fred and Barney look like geniuses.)

 I also love the way Cook's Blue sets off copper cookware.

 The views outside to the cedar hedge are much brighter without the Roman blinds, and it's easier to spot the cardinals and the blue jays.

 Of course my absolute favourite thing about this kitchen is the built in pantry cupboard with the glass fronts.

With some copper tools hanging on the side.
I bought those at a Brocante in France.

Polish pottery, Emma Bridgewater and a jug from Aunt Deb.

In other news I am having a difficult time with the blog admin, I can't leave comments on my own blog!  I'm considering just removing the comment form completely until I can sort it out.  In the meantime if you'd like to chat please email me at mopphilosopher@gmail.com
I've been thinking over a post on my Home Uniform of dresses or a skirt, as well as some good frocks I found at Brooks Brothers a month or so ago. Stay tuned, and be well.
xoxDani

Kitchen Flowers

Emma Bridgewater tea mug.
Inspiration for some yellow tulips in a vase.

 This is the time of year, more so than any other, when I really crave the colour and life provided by some flowers in the kitchen.
I trotted over to Sweet Violets yesterday morning to pick up some yellow tulips for the countertop and these primula for the windowsills in the kitchen.  Primula are in the shops at the perfect time, clearly I'm not the only one who's looking to brighten things up the end of January.

I always like to see the girls who run the flower shop, they're a lovely bunch.  Sara was helping me with my bouquets and so I was able to get an update on her chickens, yes she has chickens and they're quite the characters too!  The last time I was in she was taking them back and forth to the veterinarian in a laundry basket due to illness, now they are happily healthy and she told me she's getting better at giving them care when they're sick all by herself.

When I returned home I was thinking about those chickens as I walked Scout around the neighbourhood in the sunshine.  Then, what did I come across but a magnificent, bright green wooden chicken coop with all the bells and whistles, parked right in the garden at our neighbour The Chef's house!

Looks like we'll be getting some new neighbours, I wonder when the chickens will actually arrive?  I'll attempt a photo of the coop at least on a day when the sun makes a return appearance.

What have you got planned for this last Saturday in January?  We're going to stock up on groceries and champagne, I'm hosting a birthday dinner tonight for someone special, details tomorrow!
Have a really wonderful day today, I hope it's colourful,
xoxDani

Happy Easter

Wishing you a lovely Easter Sunday whatever you're up to.
It is Spring here today, we've just emerged from an intense ice storm, all has melted and the neighbourhood feels like a fresh beginning.
Peace and love to you today,
xoxDani

Mop Philosophy Monday

 Have you ever noticed that groupings of three or five are somehow so cohesive and pleasing to the eye?
There is a design lesson in there somewhere that I am not qualified to give.  In the meantime, this is the way I like to group together three Emma Bridgewater vessels for the simple roses from our garden.

I like the way the three together look from a distance: the blue, the white and the vivid pinks.

The beautiful binding on this book eerily echoes the design on the EB vessels.
Have you read The Folded Clock by Heidi Julavits?  I loved it.

 As far as recent trickery goes, you'll be very pleased to know that I hid MrBP's Father's Day gift from him in plain sight.

A wrapped book hidden in plain sight, hehehe.

 All this past week the wrapped book lay quite peacefully on the fireplace mantel, undetected.
The book inside?  Well, have you read anything about The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks?  It sounds excellent, fingers crossed our MrBP likes it.

 Just to cover all the bases I did procure a bottle of MrBP's favourite scotch whiskey:

Bowmore

 Oil pastels are notoriously difficult to work with but look at the magic created by Middle Rascal Daughter:

 Though she's knee-deep into her Classics degree I really admire the way she's kept up with her artistic hobbies.  Art as a practice is such a lovely outlet for creativity and emotion, don't you think?

As far as news from the Mop Philosophy Kitchen, I'm happy to report that I successfully wrestled with 18 pounds of asparagus these last weeks.  Have I mentioned that we have a friend who is a litigator by day and a gentleman farmer on the weekends?  He does grow the best asparagus you ever could taste:

Mostly I roasted it.

 We ate a LOT of roasted asparagus and then I lost my mind and decided to bake up some asparagus breadsticks:

Sounds weird but they turned out quite well.
It was simple pizza dough with asparagus pressed in, salted and baked.

 I served them with a red lentil dahl:

 In sartorial news I've been wearing denim, chambray and blue, blue, blue.  You can check it all out on the Frock Philosophy blog.

Eileen Fisher denim chambray dress.
Running out the door to get into some mischief.

Thank you for sticking with me here on the blog you Darling Tooties.
Hope your Monday is happy and your whole week too,
xoxDani