The Boy!

There are a few blogs that I read every week. They are mainly blogs about craftiness and food (from other vegetarians), sometimes photography or maybe even books. Made by Rae is a blog I have been checking out for a while. She has a range of kids patterns (lots of them free) and tutorials. I find it a great place to learn new skills, and very interesting.

Anyway, for the next month on her blog she is "Celebrating the Boy". This is because, in sewing, boys are often forgotten. So for a whole month it will just be about boys. I'm excited about this as I am having a boy, and I had noticed recently that there is just not the same variety of boys patterns and clothes as there are girls.


I am hoping that over the next month I will find some interesting projects I can achieve before my little boy comes along. So come and celebrate the boy with me and check out Made by Rae :)

Also, this link will take you to 'celebrate the boy' archives from the previous year.

Fruitful labour!

When I spend the whole week preserving fruit, making jams, chutneys and cordial I definitely know that summer is here. This is all the preserving I have achieved this week.


On Sunday my cousin gave me two full shopping bags of greengages. I have been receiving greengages from this tree for the last three years and sadly this is probably the last year because he and his wife are selling their house. As greengages are one of my favourite summertime fruits, I decided to use them wisely.





I made a greengage up-side down cake, although I didn't do the up-side down bit.



...as well as some greengage and orange jam. I found the idea while searching the web and thought the taste sounded too interesting to pass up. I couldn't find a recipe on the net so I just made it up - greengages, orange rind and juice, lemon juice and sugar. It tasted a little bit like marmalade, just not as strong.


I also persevered some of them in bottles and those that couldn't be bottled whole were stewed and then bottled. The apricots from the tree were used in a similar way also. I bottled as many halves as I could then stewed the rest of apricots left on the tree before they turned mouldy and gross. I also made jam and chutney.

Apricot and vanilla jam - yum!

Apricot and ginger jam for Daniel (one of his favourites)

Apricot chutney

I was also able to get my hands on some mulberries and elderberries, so I made jam and cordial.







Now to find somewhere to store everything!