decorating your jam

the apple butter is made. I have about 16 jars worth. and am super excited to give it out as a little christmas gift to friends and family. in order to dress it up a bit, I bought a bunch of fat quarters from stone mountain and daughter (east bay people, shop here for your fabric needs).

I cut "squares" out of the fabric and tied them to the top of the jars with baker's string (have it in bulk and *love* it). I bought labels from paper source. I am not thrilled with them. I wanted ones with a design and I am not the fanciest computer user, but these were the smallest and simplest to compliment the fabric. I have much more to do, but here are the results so far:

apple butter it is

last night I made apple butter from THIS recipe. I must admit, it was exhausting after a long week of work, especially the constant stirring for 1-2 (more like 3) hours. but, it was worth it. look how pretty they are! the bad news: all that effort made only 6 jars.

I will most likely do it all again as I have visions of myself giving them to every single person I know over the holidays. I walk up with a cute little jar (they still need ribbon) and people squeal in delight, "bridget! apple butter! my favorite! you are so talented! how do you do all the magical things that you do!?" and I just shrug shyly in response while handing it over.