First batch of jam

A couple of days ago our neighbour came around with a couple of punnets of damsons for us. They have been sitting on the side for 2 days now and if I do not do something with them soon they will be heading for the bin all mouldy. Jam it is then! I have one of those huge jam making pans ( that my kindly neighbour also gave me) so in they went, along with one escapee plum from our fruit bowl that needed to be gone.

I cooked them all up with a couple of pints of water till they were soft, then took all the stones out. Well.....I HOPE I took all the stones out!!! I did not count how many damsons there were so who knows? I took out a huge amount of stones anyhow. Then everything else went back onto boil....along with some sugar. I do not use that special jam making sugar that you can get, I stick to the simple white granulated stuff, and boiled till it reached setting point. Decanted into pots that I have been saving and hey presto.....some jam.....may give some to relations for Christmas presents too!

Glitter Magnets - Part 2

The magnets have all dried and had there coatings of varnish to help retain the glitter a little better. Next up was attaching magnets to the back, which I did take a picture of but then somehow managed to delete it before it got as far as this page! Doh!

However, I managed to get photos of the finish product up before deleting by accident! Woohoo for me. I just use whichever cardstock I have in, in a colour that sort of matches what I am trying to do. I do some faux stitching around the edges then write Just for you on it in a fancy type of writing. I did start by writing more seasonal messages such as 'Merry Christmas' 'Seasons Greetings' etc but the number of people that came up NOT wanting to use them as Christmas gifts I decided that 'Just for You' was more generic.

Add a couple of dots and stickers and hey presto...all  done for my Christmas fairs. I think I shall be making a lot more as these always tend to be one of my best sellers at about £1.50 per pack.

Off to school!

September has arrived and the boys were back last week and today, the Diva finally gets her chance to go to school. I wonder just how long her excitement will last? She has been going on the school run since she was born though when O started. She got given a water bottle by the school and told to decorate it so that she could pick hers out and of course went for the idea of sticking Frozen stickers all over it! 

She is only in for half a day today but tomorrow she is in for the morning and then, FULL TIME!!!! I am glad that she is looking forward to it so much, but am anticipating much tiredness by next week.

Oh well, that's the last of my babies off to school. What to do now.....? Where is that long list that I put by?

Brownies

What a weekend! Lovely weather here still so we were able to get into the garden. The boys all had a chess tournament on saturday and training on sunday. So the diva and I decided to tag along to the training day on sunday, it was quite nice, in a local private school so the playground was fantastic ( more like a park) and we enjoyed a lovely BBQ to boot! On Saturday the Diva and I went swimming and then came home to try some baking out. Now I have never, yes you have read correctly.....I have NEVER made brownies before. I am not sure why, maybe just scared as people always say how hard it is to get them to come out nicely. But my middle child, I think I shall call him A from now on, has decided that he would quite like a Minecraft party for his birthday this year, and I thought that brownies would make a good base for making a square blocks cake! So I had better start to practise making brownies NOW!
I think they came out ok, all be it a little lop sided, they tasted GREAT! Even my husband was a fan. I think I shall be making more of these...not sure about using them for A's birthday though as he said he preferred some watermelon!!!! Kids...who would have them!

Now the reciepe was one that I got through the door from Macmillan Cancer Support. I did have to exchange a few of the ingredients as I realised at the last minute that I did not have some of the things!

150g dark Chocolate (I used milk chocolate!)

150g unsalted butter ( I used Pure Margarine as we have intoleraces in the family)

100g Pecans ( I used Walnuts)

3 eggs

225g light muscovado sugar ( I used dark muscovado sugar and white granulated)

1 tsp Vanilla extract

100g Plain flour.

Mix chocolate and butter over heat, add nuts. 

Whisk eggs sugar and vanilla till smooth, fold in chocolate mix.

Bake at gas mark 4 for 20-25 minutes.

Glitter Magnetic Pegs - part one

Oh my word.....I have well and truly started the Christmas making now....I am so totally covered in glitter that my husband just burst out laughing when I went into the kitchen just now!

I started of with a set of wooden pegs for Wilkos if I remember. I think it was 79p and you get 36 pegs for that. I started by taping double sided tape to the pegs and cutting it to fit exactly.

Then came the fun part. 3 at a time I glittered them up! In all different colours as I am not sure of how I am going to pack these up. I made sure to do this on a piece of paper so that I could easily fold the paper in half when finished with each colour and simple tip the glitter that shakes off back into its container.

As you can see from the picture below I do actually have LOTS of colours of fine glitter. 

I finished the front of them off by varnishing each of them with a clear nail polish...This should keep the rest of the glitter in place.

All I have to do next when it all dries is put the magnets on the back and package them up....another night I think now.

Autumn list

Well it was the last day of the summer holidays today, so what did we do? We had a mega fun day meeting up with some friends in sunny Eastbourne where the kids happily played for 4 HOURS!!!!! at Treasure Island on the beach, followed by ice cream at our favourite place 'Thayers' on Seaside Road, then onto the beach for a bit of stone throwing and a carvery on the way home. I have 3 VERY tired out children...YIPPEE. We all had a fantastical day and all the kids have enjoyed their summer holidays....lets just hope they wake up eager to get back to school.
I have managed to fill a whole page already of things around the house/garden that I need to concentrate on this autumn. As the diva is starting school this September, I will apparently have SOOOO much time on my hands and when will I get a job?? Well, when I showed my husband my list he shut up!
Apart from all the interior bits there is the garden.... I really really want to make a nice composting area. I know, it is not the best job in the world or one that everyone will see and say wow that's amazing!....it's a compost heap! But judge for yourself......this is our current arrangement/mess:

It needs a good sort out then I want to build a three bin system out of crates or something. We shall have to see how that goes and I will be reporting....however there are loads of other things that re on my list that my husband will appreciate more!

Lots more Runner Beans!

It has been drizzling all morning today, however we have still managed a 2 hour trip to the favourite local park, complete with picnic and a meet up of friend there! The kids have also made a start on the three tea towels I am getting them to decorate as part of the grandparents presents this Christmas! 

This weekend it was lovely weather though.(or I thought so anyway) It was sunny but with lots of clouds every so often too! And this meant that although we have had loads of runner beans already and here is a picture of the diva with ANOTHER bowl full! We have 12 plants all in the one raised bed that I made earlier in the year and despite the fact that they are now at a horrendous angle due to the strong winds we had a week ago they are still producing masses of beans. The kids all love them, the younger two still believe my story that they are called runner beans because they make you run faster and so always try to have more runner beans on their plates than each other....how long will they keep up like this???

The eldest knows that is not why they are runner beans but still likes to join in the bid for the last runner bean!

We have had them on our plates 5 out of every 7 days this holiday! I have even frozen a few having blanched then in hot water first.

 

I think runner beans will be on the list of  veg that we grow next year too! You can never have too much of a good thing....and if you can you can always freeze the excess.