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Petal Calculator :)

A wedding is not complete without flowers and petals, romance is in the air along with petals tossed into the air, scattered on the aisle or on the tables, in baskets for the flower girls or stuffed into confetti cones for your guests to throw after the ceremony.

It is always a mystery to work out how many petals you need when ordering them for your wedding, many times brides order the petals only to receive a small amount and are disappointed, not realising quite how many they will need for their wedding decorations.

We have been asked this question again today by one of our March brides, how many litres/pints should I order for a decent aisle scattering?

If you are stuck with this dilemma there is a brilliant petal calculator here, it is not in metric but I am sure with a bit of google help the quantities can be worked out :)

www.petalgarden.com/petalcalc.htm

Another word of advice being an avid petal scatterer!

Many of our weddings here in Spain are outside, it only takes one slight breeze to send your carefully placed petals flying, so whilst you are dreaming over these beautifully scattered aisles or tables, bear in mind with outside weddings that within one second all your petals could be across the other side of the lawn or in the pool, so it is always worthwhile to have a plan b if you have ordered petals and remember that the perfectly scattered aisle might not work if that pesky wind decides to pay us a visit. Float them in glassware, stuff them into confetti cones or risk a scatter but bear in mind that if there are none left on the tables when you sit down they are probably in the bushes on in the pool!

Today at Poppytalk Handmade

samantha french, slow industries, magic markings art, lulu dee

roll and tumble press

you sentimental idiot, spring olive

stephanie levy, a. favorite design, noisy dog studio

ooooooohhh, what do we have here?

Loving this new sticky tape from summersville! . A new design called bloomsbury professionally printed in classic black ink on white vinyl tape. 66 whole metres for your sticky taping pleasure, that's over 72 yards measureinh 2.5 cm wide (1 inch). Available here.

Winter Squash Poster Giveaway

Claudia Pearson is offering up a spring time poster for her march giveaway on her blog. Visit her here to enter!

Artist's House Tour: Scout & Catalogue.

Update: Breanna of Scout and Catalogue was in our market this past holiday season, and recently we asked her to share her home with us. This is what she sent us. (Similar text/photos was previously posted before at The Marion House Book blog.)

My name is Breanna and I'm the designer behind the accessories brand Scout & Catalogue. Eight months ago my boyfriend and I moved to Toronto from Mexico and have settled into a big character apartment in Parkdale. Since we arrived with only what could fit in our car, our place is still fairly empty, but we are slowly managing to fill it with new and used items and (after reviewing these photos) apparently a whole lot of chairs...

The studio is where we both spend the most time - I've somehow managed to take over 99% of the space, leaving my boyfriend with only a teeny corner - and it is almost always a bit of a mess. I like to refer to it as a 'working studio' to justify the disorder. It's the biggest room in the house and I always feel lucky that I have so much dedicated space for Scout & Catalogue.

I found this metal shelf on the side of our street, cleaned off the cobwebs and hauled it inside to our upstairs hallway. It's still waiting to get casters on the bottom - one of the many projects on our to-do list. I change what is on it all the time - currently I've grouped together some natural items I've collected in my travels, a small brass giraffe and a framed silk-screened mustache print made years ago by my very talented friend Ngaire Leach - she certainly saw that trend coming.

Normally bathrooms don't end up in house tours but I spend an inordinate amount of time bent over our bathtub dyeing scarves so I thought I would show you the photogenic corner of it. Everything else in the room is a little rough around the edges (it's a rental) but there is a skylight which makes for a pretty amazing bath time.

We found four of these chairs at the Goodwill for $1.50 each - they are currently being used to fill awkward spaces which, as we live in an old house that has been split into 3 apartments, our place seems to have a lot of. Our bed is still right on the floor - soon we'll build a frame for it and maybe even spring for a dresser. Exciting stuff!

We found this wooden ironing board at the Goodwill (a common theme throughout our house) and it's currently employed as a bookshelf.

An apartment is never complete without industrial carpeting - especially when it's old and pulling up around the edges. Thankfully our very shy cat 'Mouse' came along to distract you from it. This is the stairway from the main floor to the top floor of our place and a prime example of our apartments tendency for 'awkward spaces'. You will notice we've remedied the situation with another chair. The photo is of my boyfriends mother from the 70's and is one of our favourite possessions.

This picnic table is one of my favourite pieces in the house. My boyfriend found it for free on Craigslist and then fixed it up and painted it black. It holds tons of people and always gets lots of compliments. The Mexican flags we brought back from our time down there - these white ones are normally used to denote a wedding.

We bought this large hand carved wooden bowl in the Mexican town San Miguel de Allende - such a gorgeous place that everyone should put on their travel itinerary. The dolls were purchased down there as well although they were made in the Chiapas - the most southern state in Mexico. The wooden tools were my great-grandfathers - a carpenter who brought them with him when he emigrated to Canada from England.

Not surprisingly I've tried to cover up the absence of a sofa with more chairs! Our coffee table is a vintage Coleman cooler topped with our favourite board game - Scrabble. The snakes are another little item from Mexico - we love their wooden children's toys.

Scout and Catalogue can be found here.

Snow Day Breakfast: 10 Grain Cardamom-Spiced Pancakes

By Jeannette Ordas of Everybody likes Sandwiches

While it seems everywhere else in North America has been suffering from the ravages of winter, Vancouver has been left pretty unscathed. That is until this past Saturday when snow not only fell from the sky but managed to stick on the ground as well. For better or worse, we Vancouverites aren't a hearty winter breed. Here winter means dark days, endless rain and temperatures that rarely fall below freezing. So when snow threatens to fall, we panic. We can't drive in the snow and we complain endlessly when there's more than an inch on the ground. The only thing to do is to make friends with the snow. Or just stay indoors and be cozy. And this past Sunday morning, remaining indoors and getting cozy is just what I did.

These pancakes are hearty and wholesome and nicely spiced. Originally, I was going to blend up some old-fashioned rolled oats to make some oat flour, but when I spotted a bag of 10 Grain cereal in my cupboards I went with the easiest option. And it was a fine choice. The batter is thick but as long as you smooth out the tops after you add them to the pan, they easily cook all the way through.

It's the perfect weekend lazy breakfast, but it's quick enough to whip up a batch mid-week. So enjoy a filling breakfast while watching the snow fall.

If you don't have a bag of 10 grain cereal in your cupboard, just whirl some whole oats in your food processor for a bit until they break down slightly and use that instead. You can also add in some cornmeal, ground flax, wheat germ, or whatever odd bits of grain you can pulverize to create your own mix.

10 Grain Cardamom-Spiced Pancakes
3/4 cup 10 grain cereal (I used Bob's Red Mill)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
pinch nutmeg
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon coconut oil or melted butter

Add the dry ingredients (cereal to the brown sugar) into a large bowl and fluff with a fork until well combined.

In a small bowl, combine the egg, yogurt, milk and oil together. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Let sit for 10 minutes until it rises a bit.

Heat a heavy pan and melt part of the coconut oil or butter. Use the rest of the oil when the pan dries out between batches. Add a heaping tablespoon of batter and lightly smooth out the tops with a spoon, pushing out the batter (as it's quite thick). Cook until bubbles appear on the surface and the sides appear golden. Flip and cook for about one more minute. Repeat until all pancakes are made. Serve with maple syrup and fresh fruit.

Green Dreams

Guest post by Cori Kindred

hello poppytalk readers! cori kindred here again, on this sunny, chilly day. so my boyfriend and i might be moving soon into a house (!) with a backyard (!!!). i haven't had a backyard in years, so i've been getting excited about how i'm going to decorate and fix it up.

first up: twinkle lights to add a sprinkle of magic.