Friday 17 June 2011

Strawberry Jam

(Please excuse the look of my blog, I'm having problems with blogger, see end of post...)

I'm a hopeless gardener. I've never even managed to grow a decent crop of strawberries. Everyone can grow strawberries. Not me. I grew one once. Yes a strawberry actually grew on a strawberry plant I had planted. It was tiny and green but a strawberry none the less. Big Cuckoo was almost a year old and he scrabbled along to the lonesome strawberry and plucked it off. Gone.


This week I wanted strawberries of the home grown variety...


...so I made some
 

...several actually


They are filled with lavender.


So sweet!


 Some will go in my drawers to keep the moths at bay


Some will hang in my wardrobe


Some will be tied on to wrapped gifts



I plan to make many more as they are adorable and I'd like to have a strawberry garland on my plate rack. I have seen this, some time last year I think, on one of the blogs I read. The lady had been rearranging her treasures and added some little strawberries she'd made. It was a pine dresser. I want to give credit to the person who has inspired me. I think it was a follower of mine. Was it you? Please say and leave a link so I can edit this. (edit: it was Ruby Red!)

I enjoyed making  these strawberries a lot as once I'd got to the stuffed and stitched stage they were very portable and I missed my quilt. I missed stitching. So I took them about with me to have their hats popped on.  Terribly relaxing, maybe it was the lavender. Well whatever it was I have had a calm week. Except for after school today when I opened the car door in the village and it seemed the entire contents of my car spilled out into the very full and wet gutter. Books bags, crochet bag, diary (yes my posh one that was a special gift), the nappy bag and Big's lunchbox and half eaten contents. I swore. Then I sniffed a strawberry and all was well.

I have now started more so this jar will b

You may recognise these little dearies from this months Mollie Makes Magazine...


I'm so delighted with Mollie Makes. Mollie Makes me feel inspired, excited, happy, like I belong to this crafty world. I just feel chuffed with every page.  Even the advert you can see here is right up my street. It'll be no big surprise that I have signed up for the subscription. Actually I went for the 3 for a fiver offer before I'd even seen a copy in real life! I was going demented trying to get the trial edition, you know the one with The Apple Cosy. I felt I needed this magazine. That it would make me happy happy happy. Then one arrived in my letter box from gorgeous Vanessa who had heard of my search. Gawd bless her and this blog world we inhabit.

Enjoy your weekend where ever you are. Ours is going to be jam (pun intentional in light of all the strawbs) packed. I prefer them to be slow quiet ones where we just pootle about. I'm sure it'll whizz by in a flash. Time is running too fast lately. I go to bed each day wishing to start it all over again. The boys are fun bundles these days and the baby is such a sunny little chap. I'm loving this chapter of my life. I feel happy. I feel....steady, normal.... I'm feeling well. My state of mind is good. I do not take this for granted believe me.

xxx

ps. I just tried cropping my banner photo as I feel it's too long, and blogger said I can't because I've exceeded my picassa web album upload quota and I need to purchase more storage. What's that all about? I'm hoping I can upload pics to my posts still! I'll try now....


pps. (a bit later)  So I can upload photos to my blog posts and to my side bar using URLs and from my computer but not to my banner. And now Blogger has lost my old banner photo all together even though I did not click save changes! 

I have opened a flickr account but it keeps saying the URL is invalid (it says this when I try to upload from there for my posts or photo's in my sidebar too) So flickr is not helping me.  

I can upload a banner photo from existing photo's on my blog using the URL but of course they aren't the correct width, same if I upload from elsewhere on the net. 

Now this techy stuff makes my head burst. One minute my banner was there and the next it is gone. I didn't "save changes" when I was editing so it should still be there.  I've deleted photo's from my blog but there's still not enough space. Is this one of those Blogger gremlins that is going around? Honestly, I get so frustrated by this stuff. I have such a small blog I can't see how I can have ran out of space already.   It's this sort of thing that will stop me from blogging. I'm feeling RAGE!!!!  I need a lavender strawberry.

ppps.(the next day) Phew, I have a banner again! But now it's a bit wide....So weird how I managed to upload a photo and now it's not uploading again so I can't alter the size. But at least there's something there. 

30 comments:

  1. I love your strawberries especially the red and white spotty one ;-)) I never buy magazines but like you i have to signed up to 3 for £5 offer. I love it i have never liked a magazine so much and that inspires me also. God dropping all your things it wouldn't have been so bad if the weather is dry what a pain. Have a lovely weekend and enjoy everything you do, dee x

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  2. I am glad everything is going well for you, I am a great believer in enjoying each stage of our live. Those strawberries are so very cute, how lovely.

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  3. I love those, so clever!!
    Esther.

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  4. Wow! Such pretty strawberries..! A really lovely idea.
    I've signed up for the subscribtion, but won't get the magazine until the 3rd one comes out... :-(

    Ashley xxx

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  5. Lovely happy post. Sounds a good time, glad you're feeling great you deserve too. Have a lovely weekend won't you.

    X

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  6. Ahhh you don't know how much good it does me to hear those words. I too am totally rubbish at gardening - the worst I reckon. I love your strawberries. I have some cross stitch and beaded kits of some that I have had for a couple of years. You have inspired me to get them out and give them a go. Watch this space. x

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  7. Oh guess what??? I am able to download Molly Makes, am so happy because we don't get it out here in Australia. I haven't made the apple cosy yet and do want to make the little strawberries, they are super sweet. Makes me feel a part of it all and motivated to get the sewing machine out again, although they could easily be hand sewn. I am still loving the blanket and every spare moment, when I'm not on the blog reading binge, I am zipping along another row. Whoa, blogger is the pits, I don't have to pay for anything with Wordpress.
    Have a great, busy weekend, I am going to go clean the house, make some more cupcakes and then crochet my weekend away :)
    x Sandi

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  8. Love love love these strawberries! And what a good idea to put them in a Bonne Mama jam jar - a super pressie idea methinks....I saw them in MM (my fave mag from now on!!) and really want to give them a go. And I love the way that I will be able to use up all those little scraps that I just cant bear to part with...you know, the ones DH calls bits of rubbish...

    Have a super jam packed weekend!

    Helenxx

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  9. Oh, your strawberries are so cute!! We have managed to grow the odd strawberry but, like you, gardening is really not my thing and I forgot about them so we have runners creeping along the side of the house now!! I am really enjoying Mollie Makes too, it's like a lovely blog browsing session but in paper form! I do think it's a bit dear for the amount of pages, but I am so tempted by the subscription offer...
    R x

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  10. Oh they are lush and unlike edible ones the black birds won't peck them before you get to eat them. Lavender is amazing stuff, I love it.
    Emma x

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  11. Wow, I love your strawberries, they look fab in that jar! I also subscribed to MM when I saw it advertised!!
    You are only allowed to upload 200 photos to your blog before you have to pay. You can go to Flickr or Photobucket and open a free account. Upload your photos there. On photobucket, when you can see all your photos, if you hover over it, a little box with some links appears, click the "Direct link" and go to your post. Click add photo, select the bottom option "from URL" and paste the copied link there. Ta da. Email me if you need more help!

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  12. Hey Mamma C! I sure was missing you! I think I may be caught up now..LOVE the pic of you and your lip curled up...laughed so hard..Jeremy was like what is wrong with you girl..I couldn't stop! The strawberries are adorable! Your so crafty! Take care..big hugs to Little Big and Mini..hope they are all well :)

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  13. Adorable strawb, Cuckoo!!! I'm really pleased to hear that things are going well with you....me too! Hurrah! xxx

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  14. Hey - lovely strawberries - and I can't grow them either. Was going along through life happily thinking they were hard to grow...!

    Glad to hear you're feeling normal - hope it lasts for you.

    Banner - I can probably help you there. Just kidding - I'm equally technologically challenged. I once tried to change my orange B for blogger icon to be a teeny photo of me. I played around with the HTML (thinking 'how hard can it be') and ended up with a GIANT picture of me at the top of my blog. How embarrasing - had to have a disclaimer until I could beg my brother to get rid of it.

    hope you're having a nice weekend with your happy little brood

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  15. Oooohhhhhh loving the strawbs! I was looking at fabric strawbs this morning! I bought a little hanging strawberry basket last year and 'over loved' it. It all shrivelled up and I just left it and forgot about it. This spring I went to chuck it out but noticed there were new shoots so I just water it now and then. We have had 12 teeny tiny strawbs but only 2 at a time! Baby bear loves it though.

    I made a huge amount of felt strawberries last year. They are hung all over the house on knobs and I don't have a string of them but have them on the hooks on my dresser. They make me smile.

    I can't help you out on the picture and uploading thingy, but am assuming it's blogger gremlins. I have never had a problem and have uploaded a ton of pics. Have you googled help for it, you may find a way round it on a forum or something. It's a pain for sure. Hope your weekend is a great one do far xxx

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  16. I love the strawbs! I was trying to pick a favourite but they are all wonderful- I love the fabrics you ave chose and I love them all together.
    Ps hope you dont mind if I give you this
    http://amarekemakes.blogspot.com/2011/06/awards-time.html
    Little award from me
    x

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  17. Those strawberries are so pretty, I am going to try making some one day because I've got an enormous bag of lavender that needs using up. I saw some in a Tilda book that you stuff with wadding fragranced with strawberry scent... I quite like the idea of that too. I hope you manage to find the link to the dresser/strawberries picture (Coco Rose?) because that sounds like my kind of thing.

    (what are your strawbs photographed on/in? fabric? card? it's lovely.)

    Nicki xx

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  18. Crochet with Raymond19 June 2011 at 10:55

    the strawberries are fabulous!!! I dont have a clue how to sew, so they look particularly awesome to me!
    Sorry to hear about your blogger woes, it's terrible when we have arguments with things that don't listen and just tell us we are exceeding our blah-de-blahs!
    Yay for your knitting!!! I recently learned how to pick up dropped stitches and it was awesome. If you can visualise this, put the dropped stitch on your left needle and the loose bit of wool where the stitch should have been just behind it. Then using your right needle, lift the stitch over the loose bit, leaving the loose bit on the needle. Ta da! Picked up just like magic. I hope that helps because trust me, I know rabbiting sucks.
    I do it allllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the time!!!
    Have a lovely week!
    XXX

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  19. Oh wow, they are gorgeous. I wanna make some for Catherine at work. I know she would love them. I might even make a jar full for the Middlesbrough Town Meal :-). (google it if you are interested)

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  20. Oooh, I made a strawberry this afternoon before I say this - what a lovely idea to put them in a jar like that!!

    Mollie Makes is fab isn't it?

    S x

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  21. Have been wanting to comment on your AMAZING looking strawbs all weekend, but for various boring reasons I haven't been able to. Anyway - they are very lovely and even maybe a little bit lovelier than the real thing!
    I'm afraid I can't claim any of the credit for the 'in love with crochet' thing - I got it from the Scented Sweetpea blog - she'd very kindly designed it so it could be copied and pasted (how great's that??) I am a complete techy numpty as I think you probably already realise, so I can't shed any light at all on the header issues, soz.
    Re the elderflower recipes - yes please, I'd love some! Will email you about it
    Emily x

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  22. So cute, my Mum made one at the weekend, i've got it hanging in the kitchen. Treacle sponge pudding and shortbread was in my picture.
    I will get back to you later about the wool, i'm down stairs and the wool is upstairs....i'm a lazy cow.

    I hope yo have a fab week!

    Lou xxx

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  23. Hello!
    Tis me with the strawberry garland on my pine dresser(which I would love to paint cream but I don't think the Hubster will let me, will have to work on that one) I made them last year or year before, it all a blur now!
    I also made some into brooches too! Yours look fabulous, you've used such gorgeous prints!
    I see you are a Bonne Maman jar collecter too, they are on special offer at Sainsburys at the mo! 2 for £3, I was very tempted to buy 4 but I thought £6 on jam in one week was a bit excessive!
    Lovin your blog, I think I found it through the lovely Coco Rose!
    Tootles for now!
    Rachel x

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  24. As promised, the wool is Worsted cotton, blue sky alpacas. I got it from Loop in London, you can also buy online. I hope that helps, get the bank card out...... xxx

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  25. Hello again! Thanks for popping over. So yes, I think the tea cosy explanation did kind of make sense. Kind of. Obviously I have started far too many projects lately to actually start the tea cosy yet so I am hoping that by the time I get round to it I'll be a more confident (and competent) crocheter and it will all come together. I have taken your comment on board though, I think it looks nice with the little round 2-cup pot... so I've only blinking well gone and bought one specifically to make a tea cosy for. What a dufus. I figure if I can make it work then they might be nice little pressies - teapots and cosies.

    So thank you for explaining and I see now that the griddle stitch is explained within the post.

    Have a great week! Nicki xx

    Ohh and PS I've been meaning to say that my embroidery scissors are gold and in the shape of a stork (I did give you the measurements). I think I saw in a recent post that you have stork scissors too... might help with the sizing of the hook roll?

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  26. Did you know that your spam detector thingy isn't working? My comment ^^ published without me having to do one of those wibbly weird word things... x

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  27. boooo to blogger, its still being naughty..my only advice is try another browser, it kind of worked for me, sorry not a huge help I know but I do love your your little strawberries... stay happy :) x x x x x

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  28. I can't grow strawbs either. I blame it on living in the cold rainy north west. Your fabric strawbs and photographs are fabby! x

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  29. Those strawberries are delightful and the photographs so lovely. What a sweet post. Glad you're in a happy state of mind! xJosie
    P.S. Good luck w Blogger issues. I'm absolutely no help...my blog header is plain for a reason because I can't deal w all the uploading/downloading stuff :-) Your's looks great!

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I L♡VE your comments. Thank you ever so for taking the time. I do try to get back to everyone but I am rather scatty and I have these 3 big distractions....(and I'm just generally a bit rubbish lately, so please don't feel obliged to leave a note) Sorry about the word verification too, too much spam.