5 Steps to Making Your Office More Productive

Posted on April 21, 2016 by B

KBB_markers Us freelancers are strange creatures. We keep strange hours, and work strange days, and we develop strange workflow habits. People who telecommute or have another special arrangement with their employers can understand too the challenges we face working from home. On top of the continuous distractions that come with running a household and having a pet and/or kids, it’s a wonder we can find a dedicated, organized space to pay our bills let alone run a small business. Having an unproductive work space can make this journey an uphill battle for even the most dedicated of business owners, so here are five solutions I’ve implemented in some of the offices and homes I’ve organized (as well as my own!) to make them more productive.

Make it light. If you can’t see anything you won’t be able to do anything- or at the very least, you won’t be able to do anything very well. Makes sense, no?

Make it comfortable. Almost as important as your desk (or your counter, or your diniing table, or wherever you work), the seating that you choose can make a big difference to how long and how comfortably you can focus on your work. Obviously you don’t want to be so comfortable that you never want to leave your desk (I have enough problems with that anyway!) but you do want to be able to get up from your desk with some feeling still left in your back. Or avoid this altogether and invest in a stand-up desk- just make sure you pair it with a specialized mat underneath designed to minimize the impact prolonged standing has on your back, hips, knees and feet.

Make it ergonomic. A bright desk lamp and an appropriately comfortable chair are two important ingredients in the ergonomics of your work space, but make sure you aren’t forgetting other important considerations. Is your desk tall enough for your legs to fit underneath? Do you have a place to put your feet? Do you have an accessible electricity supply? Does your work space allow for enough storage to house the things you need on a daily basis to maintain your flow at work? Fitting together all of these elements is like fitting together a jigsaw puzzle- as soon as you have one or two of these answers figured out, the rest are going to start conveniently falling into place.

Make it convenient. Obviously it would be wonderful if we all had the means to create a work space that’s configured exactly the way we want it. However, depending on your position at work, or the conditions of your home life you find yourself in less-than-ideal working conditions. In that case, it’s important that you concentrate on the convenience of your working space. I’ve known many small businesses owners who have run companies from their dining room tables. However, if your dining room table is always covered in junk, or is crowded with kids doing their homework, you may want to consider creating a dedicated space on your kitchen counter, or even on your dressing table to house the necessary supplies to fire off a quick email, pay some bills, or look up an address.

Make it your own. Each individual has their own set of wants and needs that they feel is conducive to a productive workflow. It doesn’t matter if they are deemed necessary by others. What matters is that these are the items that give you the pleasure and convenience required to have a successful workday. I call this set of items your “office essentials” and I’ve shared what’s on my list here. No matter what’s on your list, it should be in amply supply and well within your reach.

Working from home isn’t always easy and without a lot of discipline it can be a challenge to maintain focus even in the most organized of work spaces. But hopefully with a more productive work space, (one that’s designed to fit your needs and store the essentials necessary for you to run your business) you’ll be better equipped to face all of the little battles that life throws your way.

KBwB-BFlower-50 Have you tried any of these solutions in your home? Is there anything you’d like to add to my list? Comment below or drop me a line at keepingbusyb@gmail.com. I’m always looking for ways to improve my productivity (and by that I mean makeover my desk). I could definitely use your help!

Writing and learning about productivity is kind of my jam. If you’d like to read some of my other thoughts on cultivating a more productive lifestyle, why not mosey on over to my productivity page here?

That One Silly Thing

Posted on April 20, 2016 by B

LoveTheDesk2-FINAL-800

This is going to seem silly, but ever since I was a little girl I have wanted, no, longed for a coloring caddy. You know, one of those organizers designed to hold all of your different art supplies- they’re often available at office or craft supply stores, and sometimes come pre-filled with markers, pencil crayons and other coloring items. I’ve even seen caddies for other types of art supplies, like craft scissors with fancy edges.

Be still my beating heart.

It wasn’t that I suffered from a lack of art supplies; it’s just that the coloring caddy never really materialized. The years went by and my desire for the caddy faded and became this distant dream of mine, like having a gift wrap station in my apartment or meeting Ryan Gosling. These things would all be nice, sure, but are definitely unattainable.

That is, until Christmas 2015 when Santa arrived bearing a sack of coloring books, pencil crayons and markers. And they were all for me. (Cue evil laughter.) The idea of the caddy resurfaced in my mind. My recent change to an open-concept workspace meant I had virtually zero storage. Suddenly the caddy seemed less like a distant dream, and more like a logical solution.

It was after Christmas, and I was poor but neither of those things were going to stop me from seizing my crazy childhood dream of organizing all of my art supplies in that magical caddy. Sometimes when life gives you lemons you have to make lemonade.

My lemonade came in the form of an old metal shower caddy from IKEA that’s followed me from apartment to apartment and held everything from actual shower supplies, to towels- even baking supplies. Up until recently I had been hoarding it in a box destined for a garage sale but I decided to give it new purpose by adding felt feet to the bottom to prevent scratching, and a selection of glass jars I stole from my pantry.

It may not be the picture-perfect caddy that I always dreamed of, but it’s that one special item, that one silly thing that brightens up my day every time I look at it. The handle is perfect to cart it off to wherever I feel like working, whether it be working on my latest coloring book picture or making a birthday card for a friend.

My desk is where I spend the majority of my time and it’s worth it to me to surround myself with special things that make the ordinary tasks in my day feel extraordinary. It may be a foolish thing to wish for, but if that one silly thing increases my focus, improves my functionality and puts a smile on my face, I’m going to do it! My only regret is that I didn’t do it years sooner.

KBwB-BFlower-50 Have you ever lusted after anything that seemed ridiculous? Have you D.I.Y’d anything for your desk? Do you also hoard old shower caddies like I do? I want to hear all about it. Drop me a line at keepingbusyb@gmail.com or comment below.

Looking for ways to change up your office and get happy? I talk about makeovers here, my office essentials here, and how to get to your organizing happy place here, here and here.

Baking with B: Cappuccino Cupcakes

Posted on April 19, 2016 by B

BFoodPix-ChocMuff1-031-1500

Don’t be fooled by these tasty little fellas. They’re masquerading as chocolate cupcakes but they’ve taken on a little more of a grown-up flavor. No, there’s no booze in them (although that might be an interesting experiment) but is there espresso powder which probably means they’re not that appropriate for the kiddos. Or maybe you’re baby-sitting and want to return the kids full of sugar and caffeine. In that case, I give you permission to bake away. Nothing goes better with coffee than chocolate anyway.

Cappuccino Cupcakes (makes 24)

1 c. butter

1 3/4 c. sugar

4 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3 c. cake flour (spooned and leveled)

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c. buttermilk

3 tbsp espresso powder

1 c. semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

Bring cold ingredients to room temperature before starting to mix your batter. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease or line 24 standard muffin cups. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time, until combined. Beat in vanilla. In another large bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder and salt. Add 1/3 c. of the dry ingredients to wet ingredients, beating to combine. Beat in 3/4 c. buttermilk, another 1/3 c. of the flour mixture and alternate between buttermilk and flour mixture until all ingredients are combined. Do not overmix.

In a small bowl, combine espresso powder and 2 tsp hot water. Stir espresso and chopped chocolate into batter and divide among muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let cool in pans first, about 5 minutes before transferring to racks.

B’s Tip: You can use whichever icing recipe you like, but my particular favorite for this recipe is just straight up chocolate. For an extra caffeine kick, you may want to try mixing it in with extra coffee or espresso.

Happy baking!

KBwB-Flower-50

Baking with B (usually) appears every other Monday on the blog. I just love cupcakes though, which is why I’m feeling extra generous this week. Find proof on just how crazy I am about cupcakes here. Find out why I like baking so much here. For more of my baking, click here. And for even more recipe inspiration, check out my Pinterest full of food eye candy that will have you licking your computer. Promise.

Making cupcakes for a crowd? Never fear. I shared my method on how do it here. Want more cupcake recipes? I’ve got some delicious ones here.

Cupcakes for the Masses

Posted on April 18, 2016 by B

7BFP-SpringCupcake-SQ1000-05 There was another birthday party at the office. Guess what happened. This.

The request this time was for cupcakes, of all flavors, and after I briefly considered opening a bakery, I decided the only way to approach this task was to make it as efficient and simple as possible. (Who says you can’t mix productivity and baking?) See, I’m a not a professional cake decorator or baker (although sometimes I pretend to be when I break out my cake decorating kit with all of the fancy icing tips) and although I do enjoy having people over for coffee or brunch, I’m not really accustomed to making things for a large group of people, let alone bake and decorate cupcakes en masse.

So maybe I cheated a little bit and made a giant batch of my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe (which you can find here and multiply according to your needs). Despite the numerous (and extremely varied) requests I received, I decided to narrow down my flavors to three classic options: plain vanilla, chocolate chip and butterscotch chip. Oh, and they were all going to have buttercream icing too. Ba-bam. Who could argue with that?

Once my batter was mixed, I divided into three separate mixing bowls. I left one batch plain and stirred in 1 c. of chocolate chips into one, and 1 c. of butterscotch chips into another, stirring gently to mix. I baked them according to the instructions here and left them on a rack to cool completely before decorating.

To “color-code” all of the flavors, I found three different patterns of muffin cups and decided to coordinate them with three different colors of frosting to further increase the recognition. Making several colors of frosting can be labor-intensive but luckily isn’t too difficult once you’ve made yourself a big batch of icing and separate it accordingly. I never worry about making too much icing- it’s always handy to have some extra on-hand to clean up mistakes. In my case, having too much icing was a little bit of a happy accident- I wasn’t initially going to draw flowers but I couldn’t resist using up the rest of those sweet spring colors.

It feels silly to admit it now, but baking such a large amount of cupcakes was a (needlessly) intimidating experience for me. Despite the fact that they were not among my best or most exciting baking adventures, they were definitely one of the simplest and weren’t any less tasty. It was worth it to see the look on everyone’s face when I brought a giant plate of them out into the waiting room. It reminds me that I bake for my own enjoyment and for others; my baking is for sharing, and not for impressing other people.

Besides, sharing is totally calorie-free.

KBwB-BFlower-50

Why just stick with baking a big ol’ batch of vanilla? If you’re the mood to change things up a little bit, I’ve baked chocolate cupcakes, banana cupcakes and a whole whack-load of muffins here, here, here and here. Or if you mosey on by the blog tomorrow, I might have another super special cupcake recipe to share with you too!

Baking with B appears every other Monday on the Keeping Busy with B Blog. Find out why I like baking so much here. For more of my baking, click here. And for even more recipe inspiration, check out my Pinterest full of food eye candy that will have you licking your computer. Promise.

How to Get Your Outdoors Ready for Spring

Posted on April 11, 2016 by B

KBB_plantpot_watering_can Every spring there is always, always, always someone who- without fail- will bust out the shorts way too early. In Canada, that’s always a sure sign of spring- our winters are stereotypically long and cold and once the snow melts, we’re craving warm and sunny weather the same way we crave poutine.

Inevitably, this means as soon as the ground thaws we’re chomping at the bit to clean up our patios and yards and here we have this down to a strategy. It’s hard to know for sure when winter had decided to have its last blast (once, I saw it snow in May) so we’re cautious, and we watch, and wait, and plan. (I talk a little bit more about my own personal outdoor strategy here.)

For me, this usually means taking an inventory of all of my gardening supplies, and making lists as to what I need, and the projects that I need to get done. From here, it’s easy to create a budget and an estimated timeline for getting the space ready for the outdoor season. I like to coordinate this with a big clean-up of my outdoor space, although you might want to break up this task over several days or weeks depending on the size and nature of your space. It might be best to wait for drier, warmer weather to start on any big building or gardening projects.

I’m known around the office as having a little bit of a green thumb, and I honestly think it’s because if I don’t know something about a plant, I’ll look it up. Knowledge is power, and when it comes to gardening you can save a lot of time and effort by keeping yourself informed about the nature of your climate zone, the type of soil you have, and how much light and water your garden receives. It’s easy then to choose flowers and plants that you know will thrive in your garden’s natural conditions, and then takes a lot of the guesswork out for you.

When buying plants I make sure to take notes on the type of care the plant requires and I keep these notes updated throughout the season so next year I look at what worked for me, and what I could improve on. Unless you love experimenting with plants like I do, you might want to skip this step but it’s a practice that I hope will help with my future gardening skills. Part of the fun is learning something new about it every day, and watching the beautiful results.

Last but not least, make sure you’ve replaced, repaired or cleaned all of your doormats or indoor/outdoor rugs. Even though the weather might not be warm enough yet for planting, it creates a sense of excitement to get your transition spaces (like doorways, porches, decks, walkways and mud rooms) prepped and ready for the season.

Once the prep work is done all you have to do it wait, and watch, and dream, and get ready. Even more buds will start appearing on the trees and the grass will get greener. Soon it will be time to start gardening and cleaning the patio furniture and before you know it we’ll be laughing our way through long summer evenings with friends, enjoying the results of long, hard work with beautiful plants and outdoor spaces.

Soon. Soon.

KBwB-BFlower-50 Got any plans for your garden that you’d love to share? Drop me a line at keepingbusyb@gmail.com or comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Maybe I’ll get some more inspiration for my porch!

I’ve been feeling all spring-y and talking a lot about gardening lately. For my current favorite gardening reads, click here. If you want to see this awesome porch o’ mine (and I am in no way biased) click here.

The Greatest Marketing Campaign There Never Was

Posted on April 8, 2016 by B

KBB_yellow_mums

This little springtime marketing story is actually borrowed from a long-term client of mine. She has a large, beautiful garden that requires a lot of love and care, and it’s a huge time commitment for someone like her who is not only a professor; she also runs a small business in her free time. (You can tell why she and I get along well!) To help things run smoothly she employs a gardener to help with the general garden maintenance.

She told me this story about how a few years before I joined her company, she had found a beautiful chrysanthemum plant that had been left on her porch, along with a card wishing her happy spring. Obviously, she was touched at the gift but there was one problem- the card that arrived with the plant hadn’t been signed.

My client has a good relationship with many of her neighbors on the street so she asked around, thinking that one of them had dropped off the plant as a neighborly gift. It was a nice idea, but no such luck: none of them had left the plant, and no one had received a similar gift either.

It was spring and getting to be that time of year when the ground was warm enough to start cleaning up the yard. Normally the local gardening company she had employed for years would contact her to arrange a date for the annual clean-up. However, a few weeks went by and she had yet to hear from them, so my client took initiative and called them herself, hoping that they hadn’t gone out of business.

When asked why they hadn’t called her to schedule a date, the manager of the company responded, “Didn’t you get our card?”

“What card?” my client asked.

“The card we left with the plant on your porch.”

My client and her gardener had a good laugh once my client explained to her that they hadn’t signed the card, and the gardener admitted that it was a honest mistake to assume that my client would have known that the flowers had come from their company.

It’s a funny story but also a great lesson about making sure you’ve got all of the details of your marketing campaign managed before you execute it. The initial idea is great: for the price of leaving a glossy, impersonal calling card to drum up repeat business, the business owners chose instead to leave a unique, personalized gift as a way of thanking previous customers. But without leaving a call-to-action or a means of contacting them (let alone identify who they were), customers were left wondering whether or not they still had a gardener and whether or not they had a secret admirer on their hands.

The moral of the story? Great ideas are the way to getting people’s attention and standing out from the competition, but they’re not worth executing if you don’t get all of the details down first.

But maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe they just got carried away with all of the beauty of spring. Who could blame them?

KBwB-BFlower-50 Do you have a marketing fail that you’d like to share about something that happened to a friend of yours that was most definitely not you? (Wink, wink). Comment below or send me an email at keepingbusyb@gmail.com. I promise I won’t name names.

For other thoughts about marketing and running a small business, click here. I’m constantly full of new stories to share!

Baking with B: Blueberry Cake with Lemon-Yogurt Drizzle

Posted on April 7, 2016 by B

BFoodPix-Blueberrycake-09 I bet y’all want to know what I baked for Easter. It was never an elaborate affair in my household growing up, but now that I’m older and live on my own there’s something nice about having an excuse to have family members over for brunch. This past year the victim was my dad, and he claimed to love the quiche that I made him, although personally I think he liked this cake even more. Don’t tell him- the cake was ten times easier to make!

Blueberry Cake with Lemon-Yogurt Drizzle (serves 8)

Cake

Use your favorite vanilla cake recipe, your favorite pre-packaged mix, or the recipe for my classic vanilla cupcakes here. (Yes! They work in cake format as well.)

Filling

3/4 c. blueberry pie filling

Drizzle

1/3 c. Greek yogurt, plain

6 tbsp icing sugar

lemon juice, to taste

Preheat oven to 325F, then prep your vanilla cake batter. (You can use whichever recipe you’d like, although I highly recommend the one posted here. I may or may not be a little biased.) Grease 2 8-inch round cake pans and bake according to your recipe (approximately 25 minutes or so, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean). Let cakes stand in pan for ten minutes or so to cool before transferring them onto a wire rack.

B’s Tip: You must let both layers cool completely before assembling. Trust me on this one- you’re going to end up ladling out portions of your cake with a spoon if you don’t!

Transfer one cake onto a large serving dish or platter. Generously spread blueberry pie filling over top, taking care to leave approximately half an inch border around the perimeter so all the blueberry goodness doesn’t squirt out. Gently sandwich the second cake overtop of the first one. You may wish to add more blueberry filling to your middle layer by spreading more filling along the side of your cake using the tip of your knife.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together yogurt and icing sugar until a paste is formed. Add lemon juice as desired (if you’re using flavored yogurt, you may want to leave it as-is). Whisk until mixture is thick and runny, but still opaque. Let stand approximately 10 minutes and mix once more before drizzling over your cake in your favorite pattern, or spread using a flat knife or spatula for a more coated look.

I love the flavors of blueberry and lemon together, but this cake is so simple it’s easy to change out the blueberries for another favorite fruit filling. You may want to experiment with different flavors of yogurt, or another fruit juice to make another killer combo that will have people scratching their heads, wondering how you came up with such an awesome recipe. (Don’t worry- my lips are sealed.)

KBwB-BFlower-50 Baking with B appears every other Monday (usually!) on the Keeping Busy with B Blog. Find out why I like baking so much here. For more of my baking, click here. And for even more recipe inspiration, check out my Pinterest full of food eye candy that will have you licking your computer. Promise.

Keeping Busy with G

Posted on April 1, 2016 by B

Sometimes my Mama does this thing where she sits at her box she calls computer and looks for hours until she makes faces and her eyes go funny. She calls it “blog” but I think she says “dog” so I gets confused and I sneaks on box when no one is looking and now I gets really confused because I thought mama called it “Keeping Busy with G” but it’s “B” and that’s HER name not MINE.

Who am I? I am Gemma the dog and mama tells me I am something like collie and German Shepard and maybe whippet because I runs so fast. I have blue eye since I was baby which doctor says is freckle not cataract which maybe also means husky background, but mostly I just think I am dog, maybe mixed with cat. Cats are like small dog which means friendly and smell nice like fish but sometimes not friendly so mama says careful, which is fine, because I am shy.

Mommy is the best and I never leaves her side because the world might explode but I can’t BELIEVES she leaves me out of blog-that-is-not-dog that lives on box but maybe it’s because blog has viewpoints on which we DISAGREE.

Firstly, I loves MESS. What’s the point of kibble if you can’t stores it under the bed for midnight snacks? Dirty laundry is for snuggles, not for hamper. And why do I gets blamed all the time for the fur on the floor? Where else do I leaves it?

I losing count. Where was I?

Also, the thing about mess is it be TASTY. Sometimes mama cooks the good stuff and throws it on the floor accidentally-on-purpose but lately all the stuff mama cooks is for blog-not-dog but if it blog-for-dog why doesn’t mama cook the stuff Gemma can eats? Mama says baking bad for dogs. So why does Mama talk about bad stuff on blog?

I takes over blog now so real blog-for-dog. I changes the password and now Mama makes stuff Gemma wants for ransom. (I sees man do it on box-that-is-called-TV.) Monday it be Baking with G. We bakes the following tasty treats: ham cake, bacon tarts, tuna cupcakes and cheese pie. Mama bakes. I eats. But please to tell me what is Monday. I don’t know time, or days of week.

Mama is coming. Uh-oh. Big trouble now. I sees you Monday!

KBwB-PAWPRINT

Gemma is a part-time scaredy cat and full-time dog that is known for her appearances on Instagram. When she’s not snapping selfies on social media, you can find her mooching cheese and chasing squirrels on the streets of Toronto, Ontario, where she has lived for the first and only decade of her life. This is her first blog post.

Porch 4.0

Posted on March 30, 2016 by B

One of the biggest draws of renting this apartment is the outdoor patio space located directly outside my window facing the back parking lot of the building. It may not be the prettiest view, but having a small outdoor space all to my self makes my rental feel bigger in the warmer months, almost as if the patio acts like an extra room to eat or simply chill.

I’ve had the chance to dip my toes into gardening before and really enjoyed it (maybe even almost as much as baking, although I wouldn’t go that far!). So when I moved here four summers ago I decided not to let the jungle of concrete deter me from having an enjoyable outdoor space. Over the years, my patio has slowly evolved growing into a makeshift garden space that’s perfect for sipping my morning coffee and getting lost in a book.

I started out pretty low-key when I first moved in the spring of 2013. I’m guessing my priorities veered more towards buying furniture than starting a garden from scratch. My dad very kindly bought me the hanging baskets as a housewarming gift.

KBB_porch_2013 The next year I was craving a little bit more privacy, so with a few extra dollars in my budget I decided to add a few more decorative items and plants to make my porch feel like it was just an extension of my apartment. So in 2014 it looked a little something like this:

KBB_porch_2014_1 With my dog, Gemma, keeping watch outside my evenings when the light was still out often looked a little something like this:

KBB_porch_2014_2 I still miss all of those chalk hearts that I drew all over the concrete ground. At the time I was think it was meant to be symbolic of a safe, loving space but looking back on them now, they were still tons of fun. Unfortunately I discovered that chalk art and dogs don’t really mix. I’d often come back inside to find Gemma covered in rainbow stripes.

Despite the addition of my herb garden, I still hadn’t quite satisfied my green thumb. Some new garden-crazy neighbors moved in upstairs in 2015 and the clippings from their plants transformed my porch into a green oasis. (The new green deck chairs helped.)

KBB_porch_2015 Friends and neighbors started dropping off unwanted plants, or plants that needed rescuing and I was more than happy to welcome them into my brood. Unfortunately, a lot of these family members were only seasonal so I find myself back at square one for this upcoming spring.

The nights are still chilly and some mornings I wake to find frost still lingering on the ground, but I’ve already started scheming and dreaming. (Here’s how I do some of my garden research here.) Seeds are starting to sprout in their containers lounging on my windowsill. Already, I’m squirreling away extra cash to fund some of the projects I have planned. This year I’m hoping to find a balance between greenery and recreational space so I can make the most of my porch while I’m able.

When the beautiful weather hits, I know I’m going to be more than ready.

KBwB-BFlower-50 I’d love to hear more about your upcoming plans for spring and your outdoor spaces, or maybe you have a suggestion for mine! Comment below or drop me a line at keepingbusyb@gmail.com.

If you want to see a little bit more about how I’ve organized my own personal spaces you can check out how I styled my bookshelf here, the story of how I purged everything in my apartment here, how I organized my closet here and some of the things I just can’t figure out how to organize here.

A Secret Garden of Reading

Posted on March 29, 2016 by B

KBB_secret_garden_of_reading

I love flowers. Duh.

I risked showing you my bad phone photography to prove how much I loved flowers in this post here. Flowers come up a lot in my baking too (the arrangement in exhibit A, the decoration in exhibit B, the wrappers in exhibit C and the cake stand in exhibit D). Even my logo is a flower.

Obviously, there is something missing in my life.

I don’t have a garden. Instead, I have a little patio just outside my apartment window that faces out onto our building’s back parking lot. It’s not much but each year I try to compensate by filling my outdoor space with plants and flowers. My apartment is filled with them too. It’s such a sweet and pretty space and I find tending it very fulfilling.

And yet…

When the weather starts to feel more spring-like, you’ll often find me drifting aimlessly around in the bookstore until I wind up in the gardening section. Maybe you’ve seen me there. I’m the one ogling the books about floral arrangements like they’re dirty magazines. It’s not that I’m not happy with my little garden. I just sometimes like looking at the other gardens and wondering what could be. That’s not cheating on my patio, right?

Over the weekend I treated myself to a latté and a little wander around my local bookstore to see if I could dig up a little inspiration as to how to style my porch this year. (Haha. See what I did there?) Here are some of my favorites:

For those who are clueless about flowers but love having them in their home, The Flower Chef offers simple step-by-step “recipes” on how to imitate eye-catching floral arrangements with attention to color, shape and time of year. Even if your home isn’t full of flowers, it’s kind of like flowering porn for the gardening set.

For the ecologically-concerned gardener (or in my case, person), The Bee-Friendly Garden is part-design book, part-biology and altogether a compelling (and beautifully photographed) argument for why bees are an such an important thread in the delicate fabric of our ecosystem.

For those who want to drool over impossibly gorgeous gardens that you’ll never have in your lifetime, Secret Gardens is worth a flip-through. I needed to physically remove myself from the store before I marched up to the cashier with the three remaining copies.

For the gardener who’s also kinda crafty and talented at all the things, you’ll want to add The Crafted Garden to your collection. This is not a book about crafts from your garden: this is a book about crafts from your garden and how you too can create beautiful vases, wreaths and other decorations from the home using bark, twigs, and other plant materials. Sounds like garden sorcery to me.

For the gardener who hails from Toronto, you may remember Frankie Flowers from the news from many, many years ago, but since then he’s also published several gardening books. I like Pot It Up one because it offers gardening advice based to my particular climate zone, but there’s tons of other great practical tips for the makeshift gardeners like me that rely on planters, pots and hanging baskets to create a little green vista in the big city.

For those who want to get in touch with their inner hippie, A Wilder Life is your modern guide. There’s literally something for everyone in here, whether you’re looking for new skills like star-gazing, or if you feel like making your own natural beauty products. Oh, and there’s lots and lots of plants for you to gaze at adoringly as well.

My dreams of having a giant garden in which I can frolic may still be a long way off, but in the meantime, a girl can read. And dream. And drool. Really soon, I hope to be doing just that outside one on my patio chairs. The reading and dreaming part, I mean. Definitely not the drooling.