Made More Jam

Hello friends

Welcome to new follower Chrissie from chrissiecrafts.blogspot.co.uk She's a great embroiderer.

A friend of mine has a grape vine in her garden and it has done very well this year and has had more fruit than she could cope with and I was invited round to collect as much as I wanted, which was very kind of her. I took a small bucket with me and filled it twice and there was still loads left on the vine.
I took them all off their stalks and froze the fruit until I was ready to use them.

Yesterday I took the grapes out of the freezer and filled two non-stick pans. I let them defrost over night and this morning, after L left for school, I crushed the grapes (no I didn't take my socks off) with the potato masher and then cooked them. The juice was quite sour as there were quite few green gapes but the black ones were sweet. At this point I'd not added any water as the grapes were very juicy. 
After the grapes were cooked I strained off the juice in to a big pan and cooked up the pulp again in the non-stick pan. Strained it again into the big pan and added the sugar.



The colour is a lovely rich purply red and whilst it was bubbling away the house filled with an amazing aroma. When it was eventually ready I filled 6 and 1/2 jars. 
I gave three jars to my friend with the grape vine.
The jam is very tasty and one I might make again next year.  I have some oranges in the freezer waiting to be made into marmalade but I've no room to store it yet.
Jam butties for tea anyone?

Carolx

Mum's Sunshine Award

Hello friends

 

Nice to see you all. Mum. over at mum's simply living blog was given a Sunshine Award and instead of nominating other bloggers she has left it open for any of her flowers to join in. That's nice.

 

 

'The Sunshine Award is an award given to those who inspire us and bring sunshine into our lives.'

There are a few simple rules:-

1) Include the award logo in your blog post.

2) Link to the person who nominated you.

3) Answer 10 questions about yourself.

4) Nominate other bloggers. 

 

 

 

Mum's 10 questions are as follows:-  

 

 

 

1. What would be your first thought if you saw the first flakes of snow falling from the sky?

Yeah! We don't usually get much snow here so it's quite exciting when it arrives. Saying that I don't like it to hang around too long. Just long enough to build a snowman and have a snowball fight.

2. Let's suppose you had to dress someone's snowman. What hat would you put on its head?

A flat cap
3. Do you celebrate this season? If so, how?

Assuming you mean Christmas - we have an artificial tree with traditional decorations (don't do colour themes) and nearly always buy two new tree decorations each year. L and I always go to a Christingle service and I make a small buffet tea for when we come home. M always goes to the pub on Christmas eve afternoon and usually come to church a bit worse for where.
4. It's cold, wet and blustery and you have to go out. What do you wear on your feet?

If I really, really had to go out it will be either walking boots, wellies, or a nice pair of full shoes (not sandals)

5. What game would you recommend for a seasonal party for friends and neighbours?

I have three brother  and when we were young we always played monopoly. Now I like Trivial Pursuits


6. You are going to a seasonal party for friends and neighbours - how would you like to spend the evening?

Chatting, drinking, nibbling and maybe playing a few games.
 7. Do you have a favourite decoration for putting out at this time of year? Please describe.

I like to put out my nativity set because for me that is what Christmas is about.
 8. Have you written your Christmas cards yet?

Not yet

9. Are you making or crafting anything seasonal at the moment?

I have made three gifts so far  and plan to make a further four. I also have four mini Christmas cakes to almond and ice.

10. There's always something to like about each season. What do you particularly associate with this season?

I love Christmas, The decorations, the preparations, the whole atmosphere, oh just everything (except the shopping, I hate shopping).

I'm not passing this on because I'm full of a chesty cold and can't think of any questions. If you do want to join in maybe you would like to use Mum's questions above.

Hope you have a great week. and I will see you soon

Carolx

 

 

 

 

 

Some Christmas Makes

Hello friends

Welcome to new follower Chrissie from http://chrissiecrafts.blogspot.co.uk. I've been a secret follow of Chrissie for a while (sshh don't tell her) She is such an inspiration, she can knit, crochet, embroider and much more, why not take a look?

Ok my Christmas makes. My 11 year old nephew is into Harry Potter and wanted a scarf similar to the character's. Having looked on the internet and checked out the price his mum asked if I would make him one for Christmas and a hat. He wanted Gryffindor colours which is a dark red/maroon and gold. I didn't have those colour so I trotted off to Fleetwood market (I also did some other bits and pieced whilst in town).
The badge I was going to make in cross stitch (I hate doing cross stitch; I find it so boring) however M found one on Amazon. In total this scarf cost me £10 which is less that half of what the original would cost.


For my baby nephew, a toddler of 21/2,  I've made him a jumper. L decides that is should be red and black striped. This yarn I already had as it was left over from the Hero blanket I made earlier. To go with the jumper I have bought a Thomas story book that was half price. That's Three down and a few more to go.

Next on my needles will be something pink for their 8 month old sister. But first I need to make a Christmas decoration because I have join in with a Christmas swap organised by http://ladybirddiaries.blogspot.co.uk another great crafter.

This week I have decorated a picture frame I got for my birthday. I was lovely as it was but a little too stark so it went from this

to this

 

 



I played around with different ideas and ended up with this and it got L's approval. Now I just have to find some photos which could take a while to get them just right.

I need to get on I've to go out, clean some cupboards (yuk) and then I want to do some baking.

Hope you all have a good week end and the weather stays fine.

Carolx

What Have I been Doing This Past Two Weeks?

Hello friends

Welcome to new follower Joy.

What have I been doing this past two weeks?
Well, quite a lot but only one thing that was very exciting.
 During Half term I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked with L because I was sewing, these crafted squares (on the right) onto the backing fabric, on my mum's industrial sewing machine.  Radio Lancashire have been promoting the Up For Arts project all year and this is one of their projects. All the craft groups in Lancashire were asked to make a square, using yarn or material, it could knitted, patchworked, embroidered etc but it had to represent their craft group and then it was sent on to us at Thornton Library to put together. There are some wonderful works of art. Some very simple and some very details and lots of in between but all fabulous.  We did the unveiling last Thursday with radio Lancashire. Please click on the pictures to see them better. In a few weeks the displays will be going on tour all round the libraries in Lancashire. Unfortunately I don't know the tour dates. If I can find out I will pop them into another blog post.

One of the other things I did over half term was to pack mum's case because dad was going on holiday for a much needed rest and mum was going into a home for 9 days. This was not an easy task because I didn't know if she would be warm or cold so I selected a mixture of clothes that could be layered. Then I had to put her name in all of it. Finding space on a label was not as easy as thought it would be. We have name tags now ready for next time. On the Friday dad and I took mum to the home and stayed with her for a little while before returning home. All last week I visited mum every afternoon before getting L from school. One of the sad things about the home is that all the resident did all day was sit and watch TV or sleep and it was quite sad. Although mum has a form of Alzheimer's she is still very active and ended up helping the staff with some of their chores which I thought was a great idea.
Whilst mum and dad were away from home I spring/autumn cleaned their home as it's so much easier when no one is about. Now that is all done and they are both home (mum was so pleased to see dad back) I can relax a bit. I'm glad they are both home because mum is not ready for a nursing home yet and I missed them at home.

I have been making some Christmas present in the evening and I will share them with you in my next post.

See you all very Soon

Carolx