Lighthouse Marine Park in the summer without all the snow. It’s just as amazing and still feels like a whole different world. I’m glad we discovered this place. It’s our secret gem in Point Roberts, Washington.
There’s a little US town called Point Roberts that is part of Washington state but geographically separated from the rest of the US. It’s practically surrounded by Canada. To get there, you have to drive through Tsawwassen, BC to cross it’s little border or by boat if coming from US waters. It’s a small town and there’s really nothing there except for a few gas stations, US Post, a grocery store, a couple cafés, beach homes, a liquor store and a few mail outlets.
But last year on a snowy winter day, we decided to explore the little town. As we were driving, we spotted an entrance to a beach with a sign Lighthouse Marine Park. We didn’t know what to expect except for a snow covered beach. As we were driving into the parking lot, we started seeing these picnic huts covered in snow. It almost looked like an abandoned Nordic village. We were in awe. So we got out of the car, put on our parkas and explored.
There was absolutely nobody there. The border guards thought we were crazy to go to a beach on a cold snowy day. But look what we discovered. These are picnic shelters set right on the beach. We felt like we were in a different world – like somewhere Nordic. We probably spent close to an hour exploring and taking photos until we could no longer feel our frozen toes & fingers.
I decided to go back to see what it looks like in the summer without all the snow. It didn’t disappoint. See my summer photos of Lighthouse Marine Park here.
Olympic Provisions, is a must-visit on any Portland visit. Olympic Provisions serves food based around their concept of “American Charcuterie” which they make in-house, on-site. If you appreciate businesses with an original point-of-view, on-point branding, inspiring space design, you’ll love it here. Also, take a picture of the MEAT sign – everyone does.
We visited the Olympic Provisions Southeast location housed in The Olympic Mills Commerce Center, a beautifully converted 1920s cereal mill. The building is in the middle of a gritty industrial area where you wouldn’t expect to be a center of artisan activity. Have a walk around the building after your meal. It’s an impressive conversion with a variety of tennants, including a design studio and a tiny, cozy champagne bar.
I created these DIY Garden Starter Gift bags for friends we visited over the weekend who just moved into their new house. I thought it would be nice to give them something they could grow in their garden. So I went to our local garden store and picked out some of my favourite herbs – Rosemary, Sage & Basil then packaged them individually in personalized brown paper bags.
Here are the materials you need: Brown paper bags, pinking shears, sandwich bags, sheets of paper, tape & printer
1. Cut the top of the brown paper bag with pinking shears to a good height. Just enough to cover the plastic containers the herbs came in.
2. Once it’s cut, measure the length and height of the paper bags.
3. Open up Illustrator and make the document the size of the paper bag.
4. Create your graphic/artwork/illustration
5. Tape the paper bag in the middle of an 8.5 x 11″ sheet of paper (you might have to adjust the position of this later).
6. Press Print.
7. Depending on where you want your graphics printed on the bag, you will have to adjust the position of the paper bag on the 8.5 x 11″ sheet of paper.
8. Once printed, open up your bag and place the portion you had cut off from the top of the bag and use it as a base of the paper bag to thicken the bottom.
9. Place the herbs in a sandwich plastic bag. You might have to cut the plastic bag to the height of the plastic herb container.
10. Place the herb in the brown paper bag.
Voila! You just made a beautiful DIY Garden Starter Gift Bag. You can use store bought seedlings or use your own garden clippings. Enjoy!
Do you guys remember these monthly photos I used to do of Luna? I’ve been taking these monthly photos at home but just haven’t been posting them. It’s been a lot easier taking photos of her as she will willingly post & dance for me as I take a billion snap shots. At this stage of Luna’s life, she’s been really into dancing. When we walk into a store with music blasting, she will literally stop walking and will take a moment to dance. It always makes me giggle.
She did ballet this summer for 2 weeks everyday and loved it. She’s been begging since then to sign her up for another ballet class. I’m actually considering sending her to a professional ballet school in September. You know, those schools where they learn to dance real ballet and are taught by teachers who are graduates from top ballet institutions from around the world. They have pretty strict rules though like the hair must be pulled back tight in a bun and ballet uniforms should only be the Mondor brand. Yup, I’m actually considering it for Luna. It’s a full year program starting this September so once we sign up, we have to be fully committed.
But I think it’ll be good for her. Ballet provides grace, good posture, understanding of music & rhythm and creates confidence. I just think it would be so nice for her to have the proper skills and flexibility to be able to move her body to the sound of rhythm and feel free and confident doing it. My mom danced ballet for 18 yrs and was trained for a year with the famous Bolshoi Ballet Company from Russia. So I think my mom secretly hopes for Luna to follow her footsteps and form a love for ballet the way she did.
I’m thinking we’ll try it for a year and see how she does and feels about it…
During our short trip to Parksville, we went to an artisan market and found these beautiful soaps by Carriage 44. It was nice to see well branded products amongst the more folky country look normally found at artisan markets. I picked up a couple of their rose soap and coffee ones as well. They were individually packaged in these simple hemp & paper bags with a stamp of their logo and they smell so good too!
Since moving into our house 5 years ago, we always knew that one day, we would have to re-do our front yard. But moving into an older home meant prioritizing the renovation projects. First thing on our list was renovate the studio space, then replace all the windows, then the big kitchen reno happened last summer. While all of these were happening, our front yard was slowly turning into a jungle. We got to a point where we couldn’t stand it anymore so before summer started, we decided to finally renovate our front yard.
We knew it was not a DIY kind of project so we hired a professional landscape/gardener who has done a lot of work in our area. The whole project took only 3 days. I left for a little holiday to Whistler then came back 4 days later with a brand new front yard. Amazing!
Before starting the project, we pinned a lot of inspirational images we found online. We were going for a modern but yet beachy look to fit our little blue rancher and our seaside neighbourhood (the beach is only 2 blocks away from our house). Our main priority was it had to be low maintenance and a space for us to be able to hang out and for Luna to play freely.
We are extremely happy with it. The new cedar fence created a room like atmosphere to the front yard and made it safe for Luna to play outside without running out to the street. It has become our extended outdoor living room. The french style loungers we found at a local vintage store for only $30 each! The white side table is from West Elm. It’s amazing how an outdoor space can really change the way we live in our home.
Summer is truly my favourite time of the year. I love how the days are longer which makes us all go to bed a whole lot later. We’ve been spending our days at the beach, going for long walks, berry picking, swimming, eating lots of ice cream, going on little weekend getaways and simply enjoying the outdoors. Our home cooking has also changed to more simpler and fresher ingredients and our evening glasses filled with lychee campari (totally my new favourite drink!). How I wish summer could stay with us longer. We continue to enjoy these glorious summer days.
Happy summer to all my lovely readers. xoxo
Photos via instagram.
I was cleaning up my studio today and found a recipe book I’ve forgotten I had. It’s called ‘Brittles, Barks & Bonbons‘ by Charity Ferreira. I decided to try out the Rocky Road Bark recipe as I had all the ingredients at home and looked really easy to make. Here is the recipe according to the book:
1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 1/5 cups pecan pieces (about 8 ounces), lightly toasted
Instructions:
1. Line a jelly-roll pan with waxed paper. Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of hot water, stirring frequently until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat.
2. Stir in 1 1/5 cups of the marshmallow and 1 cup of the pecans. Scrape the mixture onto the pan and spread out with a spatula to 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle the remaining marshmallows and pecans over the top, gently pressing them into the chocolate to adhere.
3. Refrigerate the bark until completely firm, about 2 hours. Break or cut into chunks. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day, or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
I made a few additions to the recipe. After spreading the mixture on the pan, I sprinkled a bit of sea salt on top and shredded coconut. Enjoy!
Summer is all about quick weekend getaways and doing a whole lot of swimming. Over the weekend, we hopped on the ferry and headed to Parksville (a city on Vancouver Island). We stayed overnight at a cute little place by the beach and went swimming, collected shells, checked out the annual sandcastle competition at the beach, evening & morning beach strolls and explored. I love these little weekend getaways. It’s an easy mini vacation and we get to explore a place we’ve never been before. This is what summer is all about.
Last week, we went out berry picking and came home with a box full of raspberries. I had an urge to bake and try out a new recipe and found this. It was perfect as I had all the ingredients at home. Here are the ingredients according to Smells Like Home:
1½ cups sugar, divided
1 tsp baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
Zest of 1 lemon
2 sticks (½ lb) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg
4 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
4 tsp cornstarch
Juice of 1 lemon
Visit Smells Like Home for full instructions.
I substituted the strawberries to raspberries & later to blueberries. It was really easy to make and makes the house smell really good too! You do have to make sure it’s completely at room temperature before slicing it up to make perfect squares. It was so good that I couldn’t stop eating it. It’s blueberry season and I had a container of blueberries from our local farm waiting to be used so after successfully making it with raspberries, I tried it out the next day with blueberries and it was amazing! In fact, I preferred it with blueberries. But both are so good, it just depends on which fruit you prefer.
Sharing with you a photo a lovely customer has sent us of the Vintage Romanian table runner on her beautiful dining table. I’m always happy to hear back from our customers and to see a little piece of The New Domestic in their home. Thank you Ingrid!
To all of our customers out there, if you feel like snapping a photo of something you’ve bought from us and want to share on our blog, send it to me by email and include any link you may have (blog/shop/portfolio) that I can also share. I love seeing our products in use! xo, Nerissa