Rhubarb & Vanilla Jam

My second attempt at making jam...ever! I have to say I find jam making so satisfying. It produces great results quickly and easily. This year has brought another great crop of rhubarb to our allotment so as much as MJ could have rhubarb crumble every night of the week it is not good for my waist line. We are also jam lovers so making our own from our free produce is a good money saving exercise.

This time I especially enjoyed using all my new jam making gadgets which I received for my birthday back in October.

Today we have friends coming to visit so I think I will try a Rhubarb muffin recipe this morning or perhaps some scones with Rhubarb and Vanilla jam!

Celebrating the return of the fabric lady!

Finally the fabric stall is back at our local Thursday market. The owner was recovering from a broken hip. Believe me, after not seeing her for 3 weeks I was getting worried they might never return. So in order to welcome them back and breathing a sign of relief I had to purchase some fabrics...of course!

I bought 1m of the pretty patterned polycotton, and 1/2m of each of the pink and yellow polycottons and today was able to turn it into yet another bag for Lj!

Teach kids to crochet

 

After finding this beautifully inspiring kids crochet book in the library I have started trying out some of the patterns. It is a lovely book and I will definitely be using the patterns when I start teaching kids to crochet. 

It is almost half term and I have a ton of activities to try out on MJ to see whether a 5yro can learn to knit, crochet and sew...or perhaps the task is whether I can teach a 5yro to knit, crochet and sew!!!!

Page 63, Crochet a small daisy. This pattern uses the very basic stitches. Chain stitch, slip stitch and single crochet.

A keepsake for baby Maria

Workshop 1.2 Make a summer skirt

Another fun evening of socialising and sewing. I just love how we all have a different eye and put things together differently but still beautifully. I hope there are 5 happy little girls this morning as they see what their Mummies created just for them.

London with little ones #6 Tate Modern

Thanks to Nanna (on the motorway) who generously gave us her winning tickets we visited the Lichenstein exhitbition at the Tate Modern, London.

It is a fantastic exhibition to take kids (and adults) to. I was delighted with how MJ took to the paintings. Lingering for a long time over the ones he liked best.

'Whaam' and 'Torpedo' were his favourites and he played with the postcards we purchased in the shop the whole way home. On arriving home he copied 'Whaam' and coloured it in and then pinned it to his notice board.

Looking at Lichenstein's artwork is also a great lesson in 'WOW' words. MJ informs me that 'WOW' words are interesting and exciting words, for example using 'gigantic' instead of 'big'!

Time is running out if you wish to visit it before it finishes. I would highly recommend it if you can.

A new hat for Lj

The sun is shining and Lj needed a new summer hat. I got out a few fabrics and let Lj have a look. She choose the strawberry and toad stool fabric. Not sure if this is because she LOVES strawberries or that her favourite colours are red and pink. Unfortunately I only had a little left so not enough to do the whole hat but I do have a lot of M's shirts in my fabric stash so I used those for the brim and the reversed side. I used a pattern taken from 'Making Children's clothes' by Emma Hardy. It was my first time using this pattern and found it surprisingly easy to follow and construct. I'm now wondering if I could enlarge the pattern to make one for myself!