Love it or hate it....

....Samphire

I love it, the short season is nearly ended so this will be the last I get this year. One year I will try to make something 'posh' with it but I am just as happy eating it with vinegar and fresh bread. I keep trying to get little Mr to taste it but being a fussy eater its is just not happening, shame as it is full of iron so quite good for you.

I decided that I would try to pickle some, not having a clue how to do this a quick google search revealed some answers, however many of the recipes said to soak in brine as you do when pickling onions. I did not see why as the plant lives in salt water so ignored this part. I let it soak in cold water for a few hours then just cooked it in spiced pickling vinegar for 2 mins and put it in the jars. It was still hot when I put it in the jars and as I wanted to try to keep it firm and not go too soft, I stood the jars in some cold water for a bit.

I do not have clue how it will turn out and won't know for a month or two until it is ready. The good thing about keeping a blog is, if it works I will be able to refer back next year to see what I done, and if it doesn't work I can try something different next year.

getting there

I read somewhere that to have a successful blog you need to post three times a week. I don't think that's ever going to happen but I will try for at least once week. I have been busing making stock ready for when I open my folksy shop. I plan to open after son is back at school beginning of September.

These are my latest bottle top creations, ready to be made into either necklace, magnets or brooches. I was also thinking of adding one to a key-chain for a keyring.

I have set up a Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/heartsandcupcakes but not got to grips with it yet. I much prefer to blog, I never know what to say on Facebook. Even worse is my twitter account which must think I have forgotten about it.

Bye for now, off to make a start on a seasonal decoration (don't want to say the c word its way too early)

A whole year had passed.........

Since I last blogged.  I am now hoping to set up my little shop on Folksy again and try to make some sales, this time I am prepared to put more effort into making those sales and thought I would share these experiences on my blog. Originally I was going to delete all the old posts so I could start again but I have just spent time reading through them and decided they will stay, not least because people had taken up their time to leave me some comments which was lovely and to delete them would be an insult.

The first job I have done is made a new banner for my shop

It may not look much but I am quite proud of the fact I did it. I used picmonkey and gimp Picmonkey is a great alternative to picnik, which unfortunately no longer exists and Gimp is a free alternative to photoshop. If you are a computer novice I recommend picnik, it is easy to use, Gimp is more complicated but with a lot of goggling what I wanted to do, I managed ok. I intend to learn how to use gimp better as it looks like it could be a great tool. I cannot claim I did the drawing of the artwork and background (I am not that clever) but even the putting of everything together was a big achievement for me (-:

It might have been easier for me to pay someone to do my banner for me, but by just purchasing the artwork it means I can use it again and re-format it in a different size to fit on my blog etc.

The background was from crooked little pixel and the cupcake came from an extremely helpful seller decorartist. If you are thinking of updating your banner please visit their shops you will find some wonderful artwork available.

I am sure the above banner will change as I enjoyed doing it and will tweak it in the future when I have more time.

Bye for now I will try not to leave it so long next time.