Jelly bracelets! Sure bring me back to being a kid. You can grab your own vintage set on Etsy. (found via Tara Cadenelli on Pinterest)

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be youthful.  Perhaps a typical reflection set off by a recent birthday? Some adult steps have been taken recently. Such as owning my own business. With a real live office space that I was responsible for finding and setting up. And then there’s trying to woo potential clients and convincing them and feeling truly accountable for the work we put out. And there’s also learning about financials and feeling like I really understand how a business works. It’s funny how such “grown-up” events have made me feel: that anything is possible. That’s how I felt when I was a kid.  The feeling you could do anything, remember it? It’s back. And wow, I had missed it.

In Richy’s family, fruit is king. For dessert, the table is always decked out with several kinds of the most amazing fruit. The freshest, best fruit that you cannot get at your local chain supermarket. Mangos like I’d never tasted them. Things I’d never tried, like cactus fruit.  Fresh figs & lychees. Piles and piles of fruit. Completely decadent.

Sunday night’s spread:

This weekend at the Saads, I tasted FRESH dates for the first time. I didn’t even know what they were when they were put down in front of me (see photo below). Fresh dates had never even occurred to me!

Well, I cannot go on enough about how amazing they are. Crunchy and super sweet on the outside. Flesh that is milder and almost nutty. I would eat these by the dozen!

Have you ever tried fresh dates?

This weekend we went to my family’s country house. It’s in the Eastern Townships, about 1.5 hours east of Montreal. It’s so relaxing out there; I always forget how nice it is to disconnect from the city and everyday life. It was the first time I got to see how my parents renovated the entrance and living room. It is COMPLETELY different and nothing short of stunning – take a look at the photos below. (I’m going to try to dig up some “before” shots so you can see the difference)

Richy’s sis Hala and her fiancé Olivier joined us on Saturday.  It was a lot of fun to spend some time with just them; Richy has a big family so we don’t always get the chance to chat one-on-one! We drank a lot of wine and had an epic barbecue meal (which included a yummy orzo salad recipe I tried out; it had chickpeas, dill and feta in it). On Sunday we went boating before heading home. It was a gorgeous day out on the lake. But a little windy. Actually, VERY windy.  So many sailboats and catamarans were out!

A few snapshots from the weekend. This first photo makes me LAUGH! I look like I’m taking off in the wind and Richy is trying to hold me down.

Hope you all had a great weekend. I got a new camera on Friday afternoon – just a cheap camera I can take snapshots with. I’m hoping it encourages me to take more photos – sometimes I’m afraid I’m not documenting my time very well, and in two years I won’t even remember what I was doing with my time!

This weekend was really productive. We got a lot of things done. We also stopped into Montreal fashion week, the FMDM, which had a bit of a pop-up shop downtown featuring local designers such as Charlotte Hosten and Uranium. On Saturday we went for dinner at Richy’s parents’. Georges and Rena prepared a wonderful barbecue meal and Jean-Luc the beagle provided lots of entertainment. And on Sunday night, we took my parents out to dinner at La salle à manger, which is sinfully delicious and the perfect way to end off the weekend.

So I’m pretty happy with my weekend. How about you?