Now You Know What I Did Last Summer

I case any of you were wondering if I had fallen off the face of the Earth or maybe had just plain given up my blog, neither is true.

My family and I kept it kind of close to home this summer, no far flung adventures, just home improvement nesty kind of endeavors.  We repainted our deck and went on a fruitless search for outdoor furniture cushions.  This was an excuse for me to get a new sewing machine-- which I love!  Who knew the technology had so far to advance?  Before, I was happy to have my grandma's "new" machine (25 years old), that made button holes automatically.  My new machine does that too,  plus threads itself, tells me what pressure foot and needle to use for any given stitch, and probably would give me relationship advice if I asked it--. Suffice it to say, it made making new cushions for our patio furniture pretty easy.

I also decided to take my love affair with fresh produce from the farmer's market to the next level...canning.  Through all my formative years growing up in my grandmother's house, I watched her faithfully "put up" oodles of stone fruits from the local orchards and boysenberries  from our own backyard every summer. We would eat them joyfully all winter long.  It seemed like a daunting, complicated endeavor, but for some reason, this summer, I felt like I was up to it.  It was really fun, relatively easy, and now I'm kind of obsessed. I've got two new problems, though, not enough storage space, and trying not to open and eat everything before winter.   Not that everything turned out perfectly,  I made an awesome marinara,  a tasty salsa, and some of the best strawberry preserves I've ever had.   A peach preserve that I my son loved, but that I felt could be improved. Then one that I liked, but he hates, and an EPIC failure of a cherry preserve.  It tastes good, but it's so firm I'm not sure how we are going to get it out of the jar, maybe with heat and a sledge hammer?

Anyway here are a few pictures of the fruits of my labor, (pun intended).