Sweet Sassy Studio: June 2009

honeyberry recipe

mmmmm Honey berries!

Good job sassy blogger Tara-you are one berry smart Gal!

Above is an easy muffin recipe for honey berries that my family really enjoyed.

I was extra happy to treat our house guest Nana II -my super savvy Aunty from Alberta-to a batch of these homemade muffins.

Above is one of 4 photos I used for a centre piece for Mother's Day Brunch this year, I did one for each of the Mom's present. Nana II just luurrves sharing a muffin with The Sprout with her Tim's coffee each morning on before her visit with The Nana and The Sprout just lurrves Nana II!

The Nana is doing well. She is on day 10 of her hospital visit with hopes of being let out for good soon.

The Nana was let out on a visitors pass for a few hours the other day (for good behavior!) and we enjoyed having her over so The Sprout could show her all his tricks in the pool.

The Nana is not allowed any flowers or baby visitors right now so we send her Well Wishes and Luluemon outfits. The Sprout says he wants his Nana to be the best dressed Nana in the whole hospital so he picks out the outfits himself. We also send daily Well Wishes. Do you know what well wishes are? Well Wishes are quite possibly the best invention since telegrams-because they are telegrams! The Nana just loves to get her well wishes hand delivered each day. Click here to send Nana (or anyone else you know who may need a cheer up during a hospital stay) The Nana's room # is 6102 at RUH, tell her Sassy and Sprout sent you!

Click here to send a wish now!

do you know......

Do you know these new fellas in town?

Seriously, how many of you smart bloggers can name this berry?

It was Yoda who first introduced me to this delightful little berry at Anglin Lake.

(If you have a plant question, Yoda is your man. What doesn't that man know!)

Like Yoda, these berries and their ancestors are originally from Russia.

A super hardy bush that needs minimal TLC and yet yields top quality product- Do I sound like a farmer yet Uncle Derele?

McDreamy treated me to 6 of these bushes last summer and to be honest this spring things did not look very good for our new twiggy friends. Forward a cold spring and a summer that seems like it will never be here and just look at how my bushes blossomed! I picked 4 cups of berries off of 3 bushes tonight. A bumper crop if I do say so myself. It must be all the TLC and kind words The Sprout and I say as we pass the bushes a thousand times a day doing laps with me pushing his tricycle in the backyard.

Coming soon........a delish recipe for those of you who have access these yummy fellas!

(oh yeah.....the office reno is delayed slightly while the Nana needs our attention. I'll be sure to post after pics!.....of the office that is, not Nana!)

the office

I am going into the unknown, the abyss, the deep dark uncharted waters and territories of .....the office!

I have a project, a personal mission really. I am not sure when I will return. If you have any pointers feel free to share them. My mission is to organize Yoda's office. Yoda loves stuff. Yoda is part squirrel. He squirrels stuff away like he is going into hibernation. He has roughly 10,000 pens and even more utility knives.

Yoda is also always prepared like a boyscout ready to whittle a hot dog stick or even drumsticks from a branch in seconds or to rescue a damsel in distress with an unsightly tag or thread hanging in seconds with his handy utility knives. We have challenged each other to see who can stay away from Dollarama the longest. I will visit dollarama this afternoon for the last time to stock up on organizing supplies.

PLEASE SHARE ORGANIZING SECRETS BELOW!

swim night and strawberries

I think Wednesday nights will officially become swim night at the Fourneys! Come one come all, the pool really is way more fun with more people.

My gal pal Des and her two extremely well behaved kids popped by for a splash last night and we had a blast!
They also let me try out a new dessert on them......thanks guys!

McDreamy devoured his just about as fast as The Sprout.

The dessert was just plain old angel food cake topped with fresh strawberries, whipped cream and served with a side of milk chocolate pudding. It took less than 10 minutes to whip up and presently so nicely I think I might use it again for our Father's day BBQ.

It's another hot one today, I think I'll try to do a few laps while The Sprout rests his little eyes.

twinkle

...somebody has been playing with photoshop! I love nap time and I love photoshop. I am just playing right now and I am having a ton of fun. I will start real tutorials soon......I need to brush off all of the cobwebs off my brain first! Any photoshop tips for this very new user?

layered salad

Thanks Treat Girl!

This layered salad was delish!

I arrived at costco but your recipe was at home in my printer so I ended up buying ingredients that I was hungry for. Even though not quite as polished as your super fantastic recipe, the presentation received a thumbs up from my family....even the Chef!

Here is a quick how to with the ingredients that I used, the most important ingredient being the clear dish. Any clear bowl or jar would work well and you can choose the size of dish according to how many people you need to feed. This cookie jar has been with me since my first year teaching. I picked it up at IKEA for a song and a dance, seriously, it was less than $10, which is all my singing and dancing is (and was) worth! (if you need proof look on utube for twist of lime wedding dance!)

clear dish

layer

field greens

red peppers

field greens

pecans

field greens

dried cranberries

field greens

cubed apple

I used a honey Dijon mustard dressing because I thought it would go well with the pecans.

Thanks again Treat Girl- my family will love this salad again and again!

bahamas

......a great trip. The Sprout is a great traveller and we had a fantastic time with Daddy. Many people at the resort had comments about The Sprout's fantastic behaviour and superb swimming skills.

Our days went by much too quickly but were organized quite nicely. The Sprout enjoyed the Bahamas the most out of the three os us for sure.

We would begin each day with Mommy and Sprout breakfasts of watermelon, cottage cheese and toast. Mommy would slowly sip coffee as Sprout "accidentally"dropped his toast. The birds caught onto The Sprout's trick and by the last day would wait patiently for him to "drop" his toast so they could entertain him and munch away on yummy toast too. I loved watching him marvel at the birds. He would watch them for a whole cup of coffee!

After breakfast we'd pack up for the beach. I am so glad I splurged at dollarama and bought a mesh bag, boats, a pail and a few shovels for the beach. We played with them for hours and leaving them behind left me room to pack Nana's new Coach purse McDreamy picked out for her.

The Sprout loved his mid-morning beach snack. I was super happy that I had a box of individually wrapped organic rice yum yums for beach snacks. I am not a big fan of all the prepackaging but The Sprout was very happy to have a sand free snack.

After the beach we would have a quick swim in the pool before. The Sprout loved the water. He and Daddy now play "dolphin" in our pool at home too.

After all that swimming we would head back up to the room for some rest and lunch before McDreamy joined us.

McDreamy and The Sprout played sea turtle at the beach and dolphin in the pool for hours each day. I have no idea how we survive without a beach at home and pool with out a swim up bar and BINGO! Hmmm...... a BINGO swim party, now that sound like fun Saskatchewan style! Anyone know where I can buy water proof BINGO cards?