Jam, Jam, Jam!

I think it's fair to say that I've become a bit obsessive about canning this summer. If you read my blog at all, you've probably figured out that I'm a bit of an obsessive person. LOL. By this I mean that I get on these sprees or "kicks" (as I call them) where I'll have, for example, a huge organizing kick where all I do for a week straight is organize. Then, I'll get on a baking kick where all I do for a whole week is bake until I can bake no more. After that I'll get on a harmonica kick where all I want to do is play the harmonica day and night. (Okay, so I haven't actually ever gone on a harmonica kick, but ya never know; it could happen...
Anyway...it's my first summer trying my hand at canning, and I really love it. I think it's the "high" I get when I hear the thhhhwwwwip sound of those beauties sealing themselves up. I'm a dork, I know :-). So far this summer I've experimented with apricot jam, blueberry jam, strawberry-rhubarb jam, and salsa. I am hoping that once my tomatoes start producing, I will be able to make a lot more salsa, some tomato/pasta sauce, and maybe some tomato soup. I also planted some beets at my parents' house, and I might try pickling some beets (although I hear it's a messy job).

I love most of the homemaking "arts" but anything to do with cooking/baking/canning is probably my favourite homemaking thing to do. My husband's aunt was kind enough to pass off a lot of her jars to me, so I have lots to fill up! I am pretty sure that by the time I'm finished with my jam-making kick, I will have made more jam than my husband and I can eat in a year, so I thought I might give some away as gifts - maybe with a freshly baked loaf of bread? I know it would be so simple to slap a label on my jars and put them back in the pantry (which is what I'll do with the majority of them), but I thought that I might jazz up a few of them to give away to family and friends. Soooo....I did a little "googling" on canning labels and came across these really cute (and free!) downloadable labels that I'm pretty sure I'm going to try out. If any of my family is reading this, please just ooh and ahh when you get your jazzed-up jar of jam and pretend like I'm ultra creative and crafty even though I am sooo not creative nor crafty but in fact get all of my seemingly crafty and creative ideas off of the internet from those who genuinely are both creative and crafty. (How was that for a long sentence!)