week-ending

This weekend is going to be awesome.
Quite simply because of two things:

#1 - It is our 5th wedding anniversary. WOOT! We're splitting the celebration over Friday night & Saturday morning. Tonight we're going to camp down at The Point on our property, have a lil fire, some treats & listen to the water. (I'm looking forward to making coffee over the fire in the morning!) Saturday we are going to go to the Farmers Market in the morning & head out to pick some strawberries.

#2 - Katrina & Jason are coming over!! YAY!! Their first visit to our place & I plan to spoil them as much as I can. (I love having guests) There'll be strawberries, waffles, homemade pizza, & italian dessert (fragole el pepe: sauteed strawberries) popcorn, strawberries....oh and presents for Jason. The ol' gaffer just had a birthday - it's a must-celebrate sort of deal.

the {not-so} jazz festival

What a crazy fun weekend!
I know its been three days since the weekend, but it has taken me this long to recover & gather my thoughts {& photos} of all of it.

& I'm going to tell you all about it in a non-chronological/ non-structured order.

Saturday {the mother-day of the weekend} I forced my adorable husband out of bed at what SHOULD have been a respectable time to get outta bed, but this particular morning, it was really a cruel cruel hour & a mean thing to do {more on this later}.

We headed out to Brambleberry Farms {aka my personal little paradise} We picked blueberries for a few hours - we lugged 39 lbs of those awesome little blueberries home with us. Then we had an awesome BBQ dinner with Adam, Andrea, Cameron & Cory. While the boys went fishing down at The Point, Andrea & I stayed at the house & indulged in all that girly talk. It was great - she is such an awesome person. You should all agree.

Sunday was church & the then another round of blueberry picking. Only 18 lbs this time though {but no worries, we'll be picking more this coming weekend! & no, I am not crazy.}

I don't really know what else we did that day other than go for a walk {where we were laid siege to by mosquito's} & waste ourselves away in front of the laptop watching MASH. So nice.

Back tracking the story, all the way to Friday: After work Mat & I took off to Toronto for the Beaches Jazz Festival. It's been a tradition between Mat & his friend Albert for the past three years. I have only been privy to it for the past two. It's a lot of fun, but I mostly just went for the kettle corn {I wish Albert never introduced me to that stuff, it's so addicting!}

The traditional stroll along the Beaches on the way to the StreetFest. Can you see the CN Tower in the distance there?

Someone who was rich enough to actually buy waterfront property in Toronto had this bizarre mirror fence set up. I had to get a picture...cool eh?

The StreetFest. See the two little kids in the bottom left getting ice cream!? Isn't that just SO cute!?

The 2nd {& best} band we saw all night. They weren't jazz, they were that salsa/Mexican music that I love. The accordion player was just getting right into it too. I never knew someone could rock out on an accordion, but this man proved me wrong. But {as was the theme of the night} 'Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD do it'

There were a lot of 'big band' bands this year. These ones were probably the most well dressed. Though the drummer (not pictured here) looked like he belonged in the mafia.

We had a short stop for some dinner in a park. This was probably the highlight of the whole night for me {next to the accordion player} This little squirrel got SO close to us, {no zoom required!} apparently he REALLY likes Subway bread.

Ahh, Toronto hospitality. Something I don't miss. {For those with bad eyes, the sign reads: "DON'T EVEN THINK OF PARKING HERE!"}

I'm always interested to see how the little shops and stores a long Queen street try to incoroporate a jazz theme into their window displays. The toy store had stuff animals on a mini drum kit & other stuffeds playing saxophones. But this dress was by far the best.

All in all it was a good night. Not enough jazz, & definitely not enough kettle corn vendors. Around 11pm we broke away from the bustling crowds & made our way to the Beaches again {they are so beautiful in the nighttime} We then proceeded to get horribly lost in downtown Toronto for probably close to an hour. {Who knew Gerrard just suddenly stopped being Gerrard & turned into a tiny little alleyway side street!?} When Albert finally got us back to our car, Mat had to change a busted light bulb {something he had never done before} Needless to say we didn't get out of the city until well after midnight, & finally pulled in to home around 2:30am. {THIS is why it was so cruel to walk Mat up at 9:30am...but he did it for me, & blueberries!}

A fun & busy weekend. This weekend is Adam's birthday {woot!}, a funeral, a bonfire party & more blueberry picking. I can't wait! {well, maybe I can for the funeral}

just checking in

So pretty. I have been smelling these things all week. Mat keeps bringing them in the house. They lost their scent quickly after you pick them, but for that first day its almost overwhelming.

It has been so nice on our daily evening walk to smell them all in the park, and the blossoms from the crab apple trees too.

We also had the delight of catching the sight of this guy yesterday on our walk! He was out for a stroll too, or a jog. (They move so fast!!)

Heading out to the beach today with friends. Also swinging by a yard sale fundraisier for the youth drop-in-centre Mat is now working for.

What are your plans for the weekend?

a wonderful life

I got home from work yesterday and I just had no motivation to do anything else but grab a pic and scrap. And I was in one of those moods where I just didn't care about how 'centered' it all looked, or 'wasting' any precious pieces of paper that I might never get back, etc. etc.

I just grabbed it all and went with it. I really like the result!



We have tons of exciting stuff this weekend. Adam and Andrea's Stag and Doe Pig Roast tonight at her parent's farm! Plus we also checking out an open house. I actually had a dream last night of a house we have viewed already...we were moving it and we were painting and everything. *sigh* It'll be wonderful when it does finally happen.

What are your plans for the weekend?

A few delicious days.

This muffin was made with love.

The muffin was made by the fabulous Jo James.

This muffin was my breakfast.

This muffin was the best muffin ever.

Joey's Applesauce Muffins

(now, keep in mind - they will never quite taste the same when you make them because they weren't made with the love of Jo James)

Ingredients

1/3 Cup oil

1/3 Cup water

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

2/3 applesauce

1/2 Cup brown sugar

2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Directions

In a medium bowl combine oil, water, vanilla, egg and applesauce.

In a large bowl mix sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.

Stir wet mix into dry mix just until blended, batter will be lumpy.

Spoon batter into greased muffin cups, filling them to the top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

*drooling*

I could SO eat another one.

*** *** ***

Well, aside from Joey's incredible muffins, my two day trip back to Toronto was a lot of fun. I spent most of it with this lovely lady. (You can read all about her adventures in motherhood here)

We talked a lot about totoally varying topics. I love talking with her - she is just able to understand all those things that I find hard to explain. To be cliche, she "gets" me. A large majority of the time we were talking in the kitchen creating delicious meals for friends and family...thus, the kitchen got mighty crowded with bodies...including this beautiful one, sporting her NEW (and first!) tattoo!

It was a great two days. Toronto really has grown on me, and this visit was just a sort of confirmation that as long as our friends are here, it'll be one of our homes.

The rest of this weekend poses a whole new set of adventures though, tonight I'll be scrapbooking with some of the ladies I know here in Quinte. I'm looking forward to it, it'll be the first time I'll have scrapbooked in a long while. I can't wait to share my creations with you! Also, tomorrow we are viewing some homes with our real estate agent (who is awesome btw). There is one house in particular I am anxious to see *fingers crossed* I hope its the one! Moving into a new home would just be amazing!

I'll be posting along the way - hopefully I'll be able to post any layouts I do tonight in the morning for ya'll to see!

What are you up to this weekend?