Preserving our foraged and home grown produce

I am actually feeling a little excited, not only are our vegetables growing welll, they are producing more than we can eat! So today I have a little bit of a preserve fest.

these are some of the beans we have grown

These are some of the preserved goodies. I have frozen the beans/ carrots on portion sized freezer bags. Dylan and I picked some blackberries the other day and the jars you see there are the jam I made from them. I also made fruit filling which I have seperated into individual pots and frozen ready to be peiced together to make things such as crumbles and pies.

I also managed to do some sewing ealrier on today, I fixed some dresses repaired a sleeping bag, and yes I did finally finish the baby quilt for my new nephew, just in time as we leave in the morning fo rthe long drive up to meet him!

This blog has been very quite this month as we haven't been home much, and it doesn't look like it will get any busier, however I will update when I can.

 From our gardenI have preserved some carrots and lots of frwench beans tonight

what a lovely holiday we had!

We have been on our holiday to France and it was fantastic. We stayed at a lovely campsite in Lower Normandy for the first week, and a much busier site in the Ile de France for the second week.

The first site was a lovely Chateau being run by a family with lots of animals and prganic veggies. It was fantastic. We all really really loved the site.

 

This is the Chateau ( or castle) which made my little princess so happy.

The second campsite we went to was very close to Disneyland Paris, so we had a 3 days in there and lots of fun. I got lots of sewing done on both sites while the children played. I sewed together lots of hexagon strips, I now need to attach the strips onto the quilt topper.

We also found some plum trees on the secind site where we managed some foraging for baby plums before we left;

I now need to decide what I am going to do with these quickly as they will go off very soon if I don't. Think I may spend some time this evening thinking about it before I go to bed.

While we were away my sister had her baby, so I now have a new baby nephew, and a real urgency to sort out the baby blanket I made before I went away. I must sort out the wonky edges so that I can give it to her, I have quite  a tight schedule to get that completed by as we are off to stay on Monday so my project for tomorrow is to finish the blanket and do something with the plums as well.

limited time

We have had almost a week of school so far and have, as yet not done anything major. We have spent time at home having  a relaxing time. It has been lovely.
We are now awaiting my sisters arrival, she is coming to stay for a couple of days with her children. So we will no doubt be busier and I won't get a chance to blog. WE are also off on our summer holidays next week, so will be  whole fortnight without blogging.
I have not had any time to do any more sewing, the last of Stephanie's dresses have not been made, although she does have lots now so its not too drastic.

I ordered some material from an etsy seller last week, it came today and I am very pleased with it. Lots of lovely prints. I can't wait to start sewing it into a picnic blanket. I had hoped to have the blanket sewn in time for our holiday but with my sisters arrival expected anytime its not gonna happen!

I must say I was so impressed with the presentation of the lovely fabrics I took a photo of them;

How neat and tidy they looked, thank you very much to the etsy seller Stefaniexu

a finished baby quilt

Its finished my very first quilt! And I am less than pleased as it is not straight on the long edges. Stephanie loves it, so I am am tempted to let her have this one and make a new one for my sisters baby, and hopefully manage to produce one that is straight.

We spent today as a lovely relaxing family day. We got up and mooched before taking Dylan to his swimming lesson. When we got home we had a power cut so I couldn't do the ironing, any sewing or any of the other things I had planned to do. So we replanted some of the flowers into my new hanging baskets and played in the sandpits.Lovely.

We also went to the library and signed up tp this years reading challenge, this year the theme is space hop so to get the stickers and prizes the children need to read 6 books over the next few weeks. Not something which is difficult as they read a lot.

home grown and home made

This is Stephanies caterpillar- she learnt the 'recipe' at nursery and has shown both me and Dylan how to make them. These are the new favourite dessert in our house!

This is a variation of the fruit bugs- can you guess its a ladybird, Stephanie thought of how to make this all by herself

This oddly shaped beauties are the rainbow carrots we have grown- they may be slightly mishapen, but htey taste great!

This is an apron I made and Stephanie has decorated, I love they way she has made a picture of the flowers complete with blue sky and sun. Also love the stories she tells as she was creating her masterpiece.

This here is my latest masterpiece! Yup I have completed the quilt top for my sisters baby, I have found a lovely cot sheet I am going to use for the backing, its soft and snuggly and just perfect for the baby. Also fits into my eco credentials as it means I am for the first time using an upcycled piece in my sewing. This is something I would like to do more.

family day out, eco inspiration and a soapnut decision!

Wow, we have had a very busy weekend and the pace won't slacken for a few days yet!

We went to the Kent Show yesterday and had a fantastic time. We watched the Hell Riders on their Wall of Death;

Why is it even though I knew they were going to ride the go-karts and motor bikes round the vertical walls it still made me jump??!

we watched the vintage tractor/ bus parades, watched the horse jumping, the children looked like this during most of this

Stephanie loved this music machine

WE even watched a fly over and demonstration of a spitfire. Was very good and slightly surreal as everyone was walking round the show ground chatting etc and all of a sudden everyone including children stopped to watch this

This was just some of what we saw at the show.We also learnt to make hamster treats, learnt about how bees/ wasps build their nests and their lifecycles. Just too much to describe it all. We have been for the past 3 years in a row and are yet to see eveything/ get bored there. I loved the eco-village section there were lots of ideas for being more eco; I have now fitted a reflector panel behind one of the living room radiators and would like to get some more before winter arrives. These reflect the heat back into the room rather than into the walls of the house. Thereby saving energy (and money!). We also got some sweets from Goody good stuff which are suitable for lots of allergies and vegetarian/ vegan diets. Unfortunately they do not cater for Stephanies citrus allergy, although this wasn't really that surprising. We also got a tub of munchy seeds from Munchy Seeds wso many yummy snacks to try.

Today we went for a picnic with my nephews and the children's auntie. Lots of excercise and was nice to catch up as have not seen them for a while. I really do need a picnic blanket that is easier to wash as a drink got spilt on the blanket and as it has a plasticky back it is still on washing trying to dry. So that is something else to add to my make it list, which is growing faster than I can make things.

Stephanie loves  to take pictures when we are about, I have lots on the camera which she has taken over the weekend.

Oh yes before I go I said I had made a soapnut decision didn't I. Well I have decided that soapnuts are not for us, I don't feel the clothes are coming out the wash clean with them. I ended up soakign clothes, spraying them with nasty stain removing chemicals and re washing them to get them clean. Even them they were not as clean as I would like. So I have reverted back to my original choice of using Simply washing tablets.

Food, clothes and gift for a baby!

Yesterday I was clearing out the fridge and found some fruit which needed using up so Stephanie and I set about makinf crumble. We have pear, apple, rhubarb. Then some mixed ones rhubarb and apple, pear and apple and pear and rhubarb. There was still some rhubarb left over and no topping (or small dishes!). SO have frozen the rhubarb as it is, will add more topping as required.

Then we worked on Stephanies new dress;

With the left over materials I made her a handbag before we left for nursery this morning. She loves it and ran in to show off her new outfit.

I have since made her a hairband out of a slither of left over material,

I have also begun work on a baby quilt for my newest nephew due to be born in August. I don't think my sister has discovered my blog yet- If she has she needs to turn away now!

I am planning on making several of these framed squares then using a pale blue material to join them all together. If it turns out as well as I hope I will be making another one for a friend whose baby is due in September. I will use pale green/yellow for hers, or other neutral colour I discover whilst out and about as she doesn't know what flavour baby she is getting.