When Life Gives You Jam

You make biscuits!

At least that's what I had to do when life gave Julie figs and I hinted for some of her jam and whaddya know? She sent me some! Sometimes you get what you ask (i.e. hint largely) for. I don't want to make you guys jealous or anything, but she also sent some fig-pear preserves, some Satsuma plum chutney, and some peach ginger marmalade. Precious, delicious stuff. I oughta know--I come from a long line of jam eaters. Not only did my granny Kate make the best plum and apple jelly, but also the best pear preserves and syrup this side of the Chattahoochee. We also had Callaway Gardens right up the road (I even lived there for a time) where you could acquire some mighty tasty muscadine jelly and fig preserves. Oh no--I just found out that they have an online store. I'm in trouble!

In the South, we pretty much make jam, jelly, preserves and chutney out of everything that grows. My mom calls it the "make do" mentality. I even made some watermelon rind preserves once. You never throw out anything you can transform into something remotely edible!

Well, Julie's concoctions are way more than edible--they are divine. We are savoring every bit. I'm "cooking" up ideas to pay her back.

And speaking of "making do," not too long ago when I found out that a design I worked on for Clara Parkes was cut from her book, I was disappointed, of course. I want to be a part of anything Clara does--I've been a fan of Knitter's Review for years. A couple of years ago I got to meet Clara in person, which just made me more convinced. She's a card. She's the kind of gal who comes across all sedate and brainy (which she is--brainy, that is) and wham! She shoots a zinger joke at ya and then you're having fun.

Clara's book, The Knitter's Book of Wool (the sequel to The Knitter's Book of Yarn) came out this week, and instead of leaving me all bummed that I don't get to be a part of the hoopla, well, she went ahead and made me part of the party by posting my design as a freebie to help announce the book! Sweet!

I'll get it added to the sidebar so you can come and print one out whenever you want. Kelli and I had a lot of fun doing the photo shoot of the sweaters with Georgie and Mia, who've gotten a lot of nice comments about how cute they are. Yep--and fun to take pics of, as well. They just both ran around their yard having fun and basically ignoring us while we tried to get details of the sweaters.

So some pretty sweet jam came out of that whole fig pile, as well. I am well pleased.

Thanks, Clara, and I hope your book's first printing sells out, or, um, break a keyboard or something. Well, what do you say to wish good fortune to an author? If they broke a leg, they could still write....

(Okay, I think I had too much coffee and I can't seg my way outta this post. I'll just say goodbye now!)