ones persons junk...........

is another persons treasure!

So very true the chidlren's grandparents are moving home in the next couple of weeks. I was over today helping to sort through their many items of stored treasure. Whilst I was shocked at how much they have accumalated over the years it was also veyr interesting. Between the 3 of us helping them to sort through things we managed to home a fair bit. My treasures were these;

2 lovely blue table lamps for my bedroom

and this;

fabric, the photograph doesn't really do it justice it is a pale yellowish backgraound with the pattern in a very pale blue almost silvery colour. Absolutely gorgeous.

I am going to use it to make curtains for my bedroom. This is just one of many projects I have planned for my house.

I also have the promise of more fabrics that nanny has bought and never got round to dong anything with, when she finds them.

A little catch up post

Wow its been a while! I am shocked at how ling it is since I last blogged. Since I last blogged we have been to stay at my sisters and met my knewest nephew- he is gorgeous. The blanket was well recieevd, my sis was very shocked when I said I had made it myself.

Dylan has started secondary school, Stephanie has started primary school, and so far they both enjoy it of course Stephanie has only done two days and Dylan has done one so there is time for change, but I hope so.

After our swim this morning we went for a walk through the woods and gathered this little lot;

Some blackberries but the bushes are starting to empty, I got loads of damsons and the trees were fully loaded, there are a handful of elderberries there were more but I couldn't get to them and then I got some windful pears again the trees were laden of them so will be going back to collect some more over the next few weeks.

With this little haul I made some Forest Fruits Jam, I also followed some recipes for preserving some of the pears in jars and a couple of jars of preserved damsons.
I seem to have a LOT of jam in my cupboard so need to find other ways of preserving fruit, I found preserving the damsons whole into the jars easy, I decided to quarter the pears before preserving them into their jar as I only have small jars.

This is what I have managed to preserve today. I don't have many empty jars left in the drawer so need to get collecting again.

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.