How to Pounce (not like a cat) and Blackberries!

When you make or purchase a file it may include "pounce" lines. This of course is not to be confused with a dashed line which sometimes is just meant to be cut out. The pattern instructions will be very clear when you should pounce and when you should cut. In almost all of the cases that I have seen (in my little time as a cutter) pounce lines are used for fold lines when making 3-D gift boxes, bags, peek a boo windows and when making a card base.

It is a very easy feature to use and I have added it to my list of Quick and Dirty Tutorials on the left for you to download and enjoy....remember my usual disclaimer...I don't know what I'm doing, but it works good enough for me! LOL!

Now onto Blackberries! I purchased a couple of canes at the end of the season last year from Gurney's Mail Order Catalog and planted them. They really didn't look like much but let me tell you they have taken over!!! The plan this weekend is to make blackberry jelly and can for later use. I now have 5 cups puree in the fridge, sugar, pectin and my jars. I still need to run out and get the lids, but that's just a small detail!

I started canning 24 years ago thanks to a wonderful friend. She is Morman and she explained to me how important it is to put away a years worth of food. Now I have never done that but I was impressed how she would go to the farmers market and purchase boatloads of tomatos and vegetables and would can away! Now being the craft crazed woman (girl at that time thank you very much!) that I am, you KNOW I couldn't just sit back and not join in! LOL....Her husband found me a used Presto Canner for $ 25 and she and I would take turns at each other's home preserving foods and making jellies and jams. Once she visited a friend who had a concord grape arbor and she came home with (and I am not kidding) 75 lbs. of grapes. Can you say Grape Juice and Jelly for 2 years!!! But BOY was that yummy. It was just like Welch's but free except for the labor and sugar.

Do you know I still use that same canner! While I have moved a few times in the interim, every time that I pull it out she is standing right next to me. If you go into my basement I have shelves with peaches, tomatos, soups and jams and jellies. It's great to be able to open a jar and know that what is inside is what I put into it. My DH says the best thing in each jar is the Love he tastes! Isn't he sweet, I think I will keep him another day LOL!

Anyway, enough rambling for now. Take care and I'll talk to you all later!

Eddita :)