Son off to uni and an op for me :(

I'm afraid I haven't blogged for some time, please do forgive me, life has been busy, I injured my knee, and it has taken me longer to do things than usual, and has taken me all my time to get back to work too, but now things are getting a little more onto an even keel, ..... I hope!!

There has been one massive change around here as I now have an empty nest!

My son has left for university! I never thought this day would come so quickly, it doesn't seam a minute since his first day at primary!  However he is off doing what he has been longing to do for some time, he is studying for a BA in Musical theatre and has settled in to uni life quite happily, and I am very proud of him, but missing him quite a lot :( . However he is coming home for most of this weekend before going back to audition for a part in a show, so I am looking forward to seeing him again.
I think Jazz is too, he keeps looking enquiringly at me as If to say 'Where is he mum'?

However I have been kept busy with the day job, once I got moving again and had physio, after injuring my knee and was able to go back to work, and also have been busy on custom orders and making new stock for the shop.

Yes this is my little sewing space in my house,  ;)  the kitchen - no less, and I'm sure you can spot my sons bike in front of the window :) I am going to try to persuade him to take it back to uni with him I think, as he will certainly spending more time there in the next three years!

Anyway now I am back to having physio to do on my knee as I have now had the repair op done, so I am grimly, painfully battling to do the exercises and hoping for the best.  Which has given me time to blog again!.... so all is not bad after all !

Rainy Saturday

Hi there again, well isn't the weather terrible, and this morning I was actually quite cold when I first got up so I decided to put the fire on whilst I drank my first cuppa of the day!

Another reason I needed the fire on was because our  cat  Jazz had been out for a while and it had been pouring with rain, and this is the only entrance to the house that he will use.

Anyway when I'd had my cuppa I decided to make some jam with these blackcurrants and gooseberies from the garden, I know there are only a few gooseberries, it's only a little bush and didn't do too well this year, but the blackcurrants are giving a good yeild this year. I know they look a little squishy but thats because I picked them on Wednesday evening and was working on Thursday and friday morning so I froze them and thawed them out overnight to make the jam today

Oh dear !

Anyway after getting all my ingredients together Jazz decided to make an appearance and was loudly demanding his food so ----

It was feeding time

And warm by the fire time---incidentally whilst taking this picture I managed to take a better picture of the beady flowers spray that I showed you a couple of blog posts ago.

Do you see it curling to the top of this arrangement, if you click to make the picture larger you will be able to see the little red rhinestones set into the middle of each flower, I love to look at this, isn't it funny how such a simple little thing can bring such joy, must be the weather!

Anyway back to the jam,

I had my little ramekin dish of cold water all ready to test the setting  point.

And then for the boring bit of stirring ,stirring , and testing

I had to put it into two seperate pans at this stage because I forgot how much it bubbles up and I was afraid of it boiling over.

and finally, three pots of blackcurrant jam and a little half pot of gooseberry which will be guarded with my life --MINE!, Oh I don't mean to be so mean but I simply adore gooseberry Jam and don't see it often in the supermarket.

Well by now the rain had stopped so I went to inspect the blackcurrant bush to see if any more were plump enough for picking, it is getting rather ravaged now with the wind and rain, but hopefully there will be some more soon.

As you can see they're starting to drop on the floor with the wind and rain. And I picked a little spray to put on the mantlepiece to cheer up the room a little, don't know what these are called , a neighbour gave me the bulbs some time ago and they are just starting to come out so I thought I would pick some before the weather gets to them. Come on weather cheer up! its August for goodness sake!

It's quite pretty isn't it. Well thats about all today folks apart from to say thankyou again to Sherry from Alabama for her kind comment on my last blog, it really is nice to know I'm not blogging to myself all this time, and just to say I would really like to hear your comments, and what you have been up to, also look out for some more Rag doll clothes coming soon to my shop, http://www.dotties-dolls-clothes-emporium.co.uk/

Get yourself along there and have a nosey, thanks for listening and take care until the next blog.