What a lovely day

The Sun is out and it is warm, so very different to last night where it was perishing.  At 7:00am it was 0 degrees here, and so the heating went on promptly.  Since then outside has slowly warmed  up and the Sun is out - outside the back door is like a Sun trap.

Have been housebound today though as I have had a couple of deliveries today.  My jars from Hobbycraft, and my drop down table from Temu.  I want to decorate the dining room this year at some point and so the table is needed for the wallpapering which I also have never done before.  So gathering the bits together.  Now need to sort out the brushes, glue etc. for the actual process itself. Then should be ready to go all prepped up well in advance.  Timing will be when it is best in the household with everything else that is going on.  Playing shuttle systems here. We lost all the decorating tools and that sort of thing with the fire.  The table is a washable top collapsible one, the sort that you can use to go camping, caravanning, car boots, crafting etc. which can be brought out when needed.  Not expensive but it will serve a purpose for all sorts of functions.

I have this time round ordered 8 x 1 litre jars for storing my homemade sugars in and also my stock pot flavours. There are four jars per tray.  I need four jars for the different flavoured stock pots and a stock cubes.  I also need four jars for my home made flavoured sugars and probably a fifth, but will tackle that later on. I usually make up about a kilo of flavoured sugar at a time.  The jars are the same range as the ones I have used for Condiments cupboard already and so will match in very nicely and I think a practical choice to store something that I am usually scrabbling around looking for.  I had originally looked at the litre jars in Home Bargains but when I went to buy they did not have any and when they were in, I did not have the funds to buy any.  So that solved that.

I have also bought some "paste" jars they are tiny ones ideal for bottling homemade tomato paste in, or a small quantity of mixed fruits or blueberries to give an individual portion of fruit for topping yogurt - going to be playing with this to see if it will work for me.  Blueberries are good for you but they are not always the cheapest to buy and I am gearing up for buying reduced ones and then squirrelling away.  I think these little jars on paper at least are very  much going to serve a purpose here.

Now when it comes to jars I buy what I can afford at any one time.  I have found Hobbycraft have regular offers on for jars for preserving and have found them to work well and are extremely useful. Both for storage and also for heat processing whether that be by water bathing or pressure heat canning. They are however solid lids rather than two part lids which a lot of people have had difficulty in getting to seal.  So far that has not been the case for me.  Eventually I will be replacing the lids if I cannot source them elsewhere with two part lids.  This will work well in any event as there are different ways you can use the jars.  With the addition of one of the jar sealer units for two part lids will eventually be able to make them air-tight as well.  That is also on the list.

I will be posting an update on the Condiments cupboard in due course as it really is starting to come together a little bit.  The Pantry is not at the moment, but the Condiments cupboard I am getting there with it.  Little wins.

I am currently waiting for tea to cook, which is a barbecue brisket or something.  It is unusually a bought meal.  I had tea all prepped up for this evening but himself did not want.  I have therefore made him wait a while - he thinks he is not getting anything at the moment.  I bought a load of prawns yesterday to make a prawn cocktail each, so I am going to have to do something with them tomorrow.  Going to have to get my thinking cap on.

Right am going to get tea sorted.

Have a lovely evening everyone.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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