Berries and Blogs

A few months ago, I attended Enrichment, where we learned about different things that could help us become more self-reliant. We talked about food storage, canning, making your own laundry detergent, growing sprouts, and making homemade breads and jams. Well, I came away from that thinking I'd give some of it a try. I have never been that great at making homemade bread (even with the bread machine!), besides a pizza crust. So I tried this recipe that we were given for a basic French Bread. It was amazing! I was so happy with my results that I have made it a few times since then. It was cooked all the way through and perfectly soft all around (I always ended up with a crunchy, slightly burnt crust before).

Anyways, so I've been waiting a long time for Blackberries to go on sale because I wanted to try making some Blackberry Jam! Well, I got sick of waiting and decided a week or so ago to make Strawberry Jam because they were on sale for $1 a pound at Walmart. Mmm... it turned out a lot better than I thought it would be!

This is not a picture of my jam, but I have the same exact jars. So this is what my jam pretty much looked like. (Image found via Google.)

We have not eaten it all just yet, but we are rounding our way onto the third jar. I'm sure we'll be done with them in the next week. I had an excess of Strawberries after I made the jam because the recipe called for 4 pounds, and I only ended up using just a little more than 2 pounds. So I decided to make a Strawberry Pie, which I had never made before. I thought it was good hot and fresh, but after cooling off and being in the fridge, Jon ate pretty much the rest of it.

Oh and, of course, the week after I make Strawberry Jam, Ream's decides to put all their berries on sale 3 for $4. So, today, I bought 4.5 pounds of Blackberries and Raspberries! I'm pretty excited to make jam out of them. But since I only have one set of jam jars, I will have to freeze these berries until I can make some more jam or buy more jars. Hopefully, I have enough berries to make the jams.

In other news, I have become a big fan of reading other people's blogs. Random people's blogs. Not really ones that are personal, but ones that are designed to show you tutorials on how to make things. Granted, most of it is making baby's/children's clothing, toys, dolls, etc. I just think it would be fun to get some ideas together to try when I get my sewing machine next month from my Mother (she's bringing my Grandma's old one up here... how old? I don't know yet.). It will give me some practice before I do have kids of my own, so maybe by then I'll be a pro...? I also want to try making some skirts and things for myself. So we'll see... A few other blogs also give out inexpensive and healthy recipes and turning something old into something new (repainting furniture, refashioning an old shirt, etc.). I have a few things I want to repaint, but I just need the tools to do all the painting!

Another type of blog, I like to look at are the giveaway blogs! You can find links to those on the left side of my blog. Give Away Today and Fabulous Fun Finds are my two favorites. I have been entering for a few months now, and I have won twice! One was a picture that I can someday hang in a baby's room, and the other was some headbands. It's exciting to win, but I kind of wish I won the ones for DownEast or Layers clothing. Haha. So that's what I do most days; enter giveaways. I call it my "job." Jon laughs at me for that.

Well, that's that for now. Sorry about the long posts lately. I guess I just don't post much, so sometimes I have a lot to say when I do. In fact, I have more to say, but I'll stop for now.