In the Cradle of Sweet Summer Days...

We are still vacationing in Nova Scotia and enjoying lots of fun adventures.

Our days are never dull and every day is a great day!

We have been...

 

 Hanging out with Best Friends...

Making picnic sandwiches for the beach...

 Wallowing in Bay of Fundy mud...

 Enjoying my Mom's cooking....Blueberry Pie....so yummy!

 Helping Grammie in the kitchen...

Tubing on the Gaspereau River with friends...  

And what`s a summer without a jump off an old country bridge...

 Enjoying the view from the breakfast nook in the morning...

Having a delicious lunch of lobster chowder & homemade biscuits with an Aunt & Uncle..

Going for a ride with Uncle on his new machine...

 Enjoying Grammies terrific breakfasts...

Helping Grampie with some yard work... 

 Helping my Mom with another organizational project...

Celebrating a 50th Anniversary with an Auntie & Uncle...

Sharing laughs with another Uncle... 

Visiting with Cousin Jill and meeting Claire for the first time!

We still have 12 days left of vacation!

We are looking forward to a few days in Halifax starting soon!

I hope your summer is going great!

Organizing A Breakfast Station...

You didn't really think I would go on vacation for a whole month and NOT find some organizational project to tackle, did you?

I can't help it....it's just the way my brain works!

So while eating breakfast in my parent's kitchen one morning...it came upon me that I could tweak the 'breakfast station' to make it more functional & organized.

Here is the breakfast area before...

Take note there is no toaster or coffee maker.

BEFORE:

Now this is better...the toaster & coffee maker can finally attend the breakfast meeting.

AFTER:

 Observe the cereal cupboard. There are no bowls or spoons for cereal located here.

Or bread plates or butter for toast. Or bread for that matter.

BEFORE:

We added a  second shelf to the cupboard on the left which made room for cereal bowls, bread plates, egg cups, fruit nappies, toppings for oatmeal and toast. The butter dish is on the counter for easy access; and the bread now lives in a drawer below too. Much better!

AFTER:

Before the toaster oven and a catch-all drawer took up valuable real estate.

BEFORE:

Now behold the coffee area with mugs above and pods for the Tassimo coffee maker organized in a newly installed cutlery/coffee drawer below.

AFTER:

Now this breakfast area works beautifully.

One visit here can bring you a bowl of cereal, a plate of toast and a mug of coffee.

And for the amount of overnight guests that my parents host on a regular basis,

this re-organization of the breakfast station makes perfect sense!

This post is linked to these great parties:

Strut Your Stuff Saturday at Six Sisters Stuff

Sundae Scoop @ I {heart} Naptime

Summer Project: Strawberry Jam

For many years, my Mom made strawberry jam in the summer.

I adore this jam....for me it is the perfect compliment to a toasted english muffin with butter.

So, making freezer strawberry jam has become a summer ritual for me now too.

Here are the kids and I as we picked strawberries for jam in 2006.

But now that they have aged to a teenager and an adolescent, I couldn't convince either of them to come pick berries with me!

Jeepers!

What's a mom to do?

You get over it and you buy the berries! That's what you do!

I have to say that I am extremely biased when it comes to strawberries.

To me, there is nothing that tastes better than a Nova Scotian strawberry.

I am not fond of those ping pong balls called strawberries in the grocery store during the off season.

And did you know that the #1 importer of Nova Scotia strawberry plants is Florida?

Our berries taste that good!

So here is Mr. Rascal helping to spin the berries dry after a good washing.

 My Mom....my mentor and best friend.

 Mr. Rascal helping to slice the berries.

 If you have never made freezer strawberry jam before....it is the easiest jam project ever.

This is the perfect BEGINNER project.

If you can mash potatoes and stir....you can make this jam!

It consists of washing berries, mashing berries, adding sugar, stirring, adding certo and lemon juice, more stirring and then throwing it into jars.
Just follow the easy directions on the Certo package!

 You are done!

That's all.

 Look...I made 4 batches of jam and 8 bags of berries for my mother's freezer in 3 hours.

And yes, these are coming with me back home to Alberta!

So I can have my toasted-english-muffin-with-butter-and-Nova Scotia-strawberry-jam treat

when it's -40 outside in January!

This post is linked to these terrific parties:



Strut Your Stuff Saturday at Six Sisters Stuff

Sundae Scoop @ I {heart} Naptime