July...ing

Hello there, I am just sneaking in with July...ing. We have been away on a break so I am catching up on home, garden, work and blogging all in one week. The Summer holidays have started here and although my girls are older, 13 and 15, it brings different challenges to when they were little children on the summer break. Now that we live in a rural place there are a lot more taxi shifts involved.

Finishing - my strip quilt. Hooray! I/we have been making this since the second lockdown. Sometimes my girls would sew some strips after home learning and I have just kept adding to it over the last 18 months or so. It is my kind of quilt - no measuring or procrastination just sewing stuff together with faith and enthusiasm. It is a wedding gift for my cousin for his family camping adventures, it will be hard one for me to let go of because I really love it.

Sewing - the Samford Set from Peppermint Magazine. It is the most comfortable thing ever if of course your don't mind walking about in everyday pyjamas like me. I wore them to an agricultural show and they were perfect for staying cool but not getting sunburnt - that was way back when the sun was shining!

Giving - some sewing time to my bloke. He got some new linen viscose shorts which he is showing you in a very informative way! It is a pattern called Summer pants from Wardrobe by me. He actually asked for trousers but I thought a precautionary pair of shorts would be a good thing to test for fit first.

Going - to Latitude festival in Suffolk. It is a while since I have been to a big music festival (bloke and me used to go to lots of live music) but now the girls are teens we figured they could rough it and do the walking involved. We all loved it even though the weather was a combination of hot, wet, cold, windy, dry etc. On the third day I wore all of my remaining dry clothes and ended up looking like this! It is a rather delightful combo of trainers, jeans, a PJ t-shirt, a dress and a big jumper :)(raincoat and suncreak are in my bag)

Watching - Lots of live comedy in the comedy tent. We loved Ed Gamble, Suzi Ruffel, Romesh Ranganathan and Kerri Godliman to name a few.

Singing - along to George Ezra on the last night. We all had a great time.

Knitting - a jumper in the van which I fear is going to be too small. Bum!

Entering - a pink phase in my table vase. The challenge of keeping a vase on the kitchen table has been enjoyable and this week sees the emergence of my potted lillies. They come up every year and fill the house with a natural fragrance. They are joined by the last of my sweet williams, the second flush of lupins and a few sweet peas.

This year the lillies had a kind of painted effect on them which they have not done before.

Buying - a new rose from David Austin roses called Fairy. There a tiny clusters of beautiful little pink roses with a light scent. It is still in the pot at the moment while I wait for some of my annuals to go over at the end of the season and then I can find it a permanent home.

The girls and I are off to Bath next weekend and if it would only stop raining I could catch up on some gardening and bloke can cut his hay. You know the phrase "Make hay while the sun shines" well, suffice to say we haven't cut our hay only our lawn.

Chat soon. Thanks for calling in. Jo xx