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.

RIP whale

Just an update on my last post. The whale has now been moved, they cut it up and took it away to an undisclosed tip. Poor thing, not a very dignified end, there were also reports in the paper of people kicking it and walking over it, even though it was dead you could tell it had once been a beautiful creature, people should have more respect.

Happy New Year

Just a quick post to wish everyone Happy New Year. Personally I was in bed before 12 (think its my age) or the fact I have to get up early with a 4 year old.

New years eve day we went to see something that I am sure I will never get the chance to see again. A 55ft sperm whale had washed up on a beach local to us, it is believed it died of natural causes in the sea a while ago and has just washed up here. It had been there since Christmas eve so was starting to smell a bit so we didn't hang around long but at least I can say I saw it.

Later we watched the Sunset

Fantastic giveaways at Poppy Sparkles

I love entering Blog giveaways, lets face it you have more chance of winning than the lottery (which I never do). I have found some wonderful blogs to follow by doing this. I do not enter them all (that would just be greedy) only if its something I would like to win, which brings me to the point of this post.

I found out about Poppy Sparkles via the folksy forums, she is currently running two fantastic giveaways

The first is for Washi Tape, something I had not heard of until now. I will definitely be getting some. If you want to find out about it and enter look here (you need to be quick on this one as it closes tonight).

The other is for a years subscription to Make Jewellery Magazine, this is my favourite jewellery magazine and the one I always buy when I decide to treat myself. Please pop over to her competition to enter.

Whilst you are there please take a moment to look at her shop. I did and found some lovely items.

November de-clutter

The really good life is organising a November de-clutter, the idea is you throw / give away 1 item per day and an extra 5 things per week in the mini challenge. I am joining in as I really need to de-clutter my home, I have way to much stuff. I found out about this via swirlyarts whose blog I follow, big thanks to her.

I don't think rubbish counts a your 1 item so I am giving myself the personal challange of 1 item per day plus a carrier bag full of rubbish per day - I am hoping that I will not need to throw out a whole bag full of rubbish each day for the whole month. (If I do then the problem is much worse that I thought).

My item for today is a pair of boots that I no longer wear.