Magical May...

This month I'm loving...

* The smell of suncream * sitting out in the garden * a boy trying to sell subscriptions to magazines coming up to me in the street and saying 'you're under 25 aren't you' as a statement, not a question...hurrah! * Sarra Manning replying to one of my tweets, she's been one of my favourite authors since I was about 11 and used to read her in J17! * wearing dresses to work * ice lollies * ice cream and chocolate sauce * planting all my seeds * dangly earrings * reading Adorkable (Sarra Manning) and getting started on the next book in the Diana Gabaldon series * cool breezes * making my garden beautiful * frog spotting * swallows * strawberry laces and rainbow sweeties in the staff kitchenette at work * my new little houseplant * summer hair cut - swishy! * charity shopping * crocheting * 

Pretty flower!

I've been working on making a bag from granny squares, this is my progress so far, I love how colourful it is!   I've also been making fold-up-able shopping bags from my towering pile of vintage fabric!

What have you been up to this month?  Hope you've had a good 'un!

Summer Garden...

Today was officially too hot for gardening.  But I did it anyway.  

This is my own little bit of garden that mummy gave me, right at the bottom of the garden, which I hoed and then planted all my seedlings and seeds into.  I also constructed that magnificent looking wigwam at the back to grow a couple of bean seeds and some nasturtiums up.  I have 2 sunflowers against the fence, then rows of mini sweetcorn, broad beans, rows of spinach, coriander and parsley seeds, a patch of red radishes and 2 courgette plants...

this is the new nursery for seedlings, we used to keep them on some shelves by the house, but it was too hot and they kept wilting, even with waterings twice a day, so they've come to chill out at my end of the garden...

The rest of the veggie garden...

Potatoes!

Sunset (obviously!)

Hope you're enjoying the sunshine and remembering to take lots of ice lolly breaks!

Summer, Summer, Summer Time...

Oh  my goodness, what a looovely day it was today, I had a job interview this morning for some casual hours at the leisure centre in town (at which the lady said she was expecting to offer work to pretty much everyone who she'd interviewed!) and then came home and got the summer chair out of the shed, sat in the garden and read my new Sarra Manning book...bliss!  

Do you have sun?  Are you being terribly English and complaining that it's too hot? (I am!)

from here

Library Love...All Sewn Up, Cross Stitch, Catching Fire...

I have mostly been reading....

All Sewn Up - Chloe Owens
If you went inside my head it would look a lot like the pages of this book...it's full of pretty floral patterns and rabbits with trippy eyes!  I'm not sure I'd want to try some of the embroidery projects, I don't have the patience for it, but the sewing ones are nice and the pictures for everything are droolworthy.  Do I have to take this one back to the library?

Cross Stitch - Diana Gabaldon
My friend at work recommended me this book and when I started reading it I thought it was the most boring thing ever, but once you get past the boring first bit, that's set in the 1940s and get to the part where the lady steps through a timey-wimey portal into 1700s Scotland, meets a gorgeous outlaw and has many adventures, then it's the most brilliant thing ever.  Thankfully this is part of a series, so I shall have plenty more timey-wimey adventures to keep me going.

The Hunger Games Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
This wasn't as good as the first one, but still good enough for me to have finished it in a couple of days.  I HAVE to read the last one now, I'm on the library waiting list for it and it seems to be taking ages!

What have you been reading?

Charity Shop Treasure...Darling Dresses and Cosy Cardigan...

The charity shops have been good to my this week....

I got this orange and black flowery dress for £3!  It was a size 22, too big for me, so I took it in at the top and if I tie the belt bits tightly at the back of the waist it fits perfectly!

This dress still had it's tags on....£1.50! 

And this M&S cardigan was £3 too!  Yey!

Have you had a happy-bargain recently?

from here

Spring Garden...

It was actually a bit sunny today, so I managed to get into the garden and see what my seeds were up to...

My sweetcorn, sunflowers and courgettes have all sprung up...I had to repot them all last week, cos my mini-green house fell over in the wind and all the soil and seedlings fell out...most of them have survived though!

We have lovely flowers everywhere!

The potatoes have come up!

We picked the leeks and mum planted raspberries in their place, there's garlic and strawberries there too!

I planted broad beans, parsley and spinach in my little plot, so far the only thing to show is this solitary broad bean...will have to plant some more...

The purple sprouting broccoli is still sprouting away, I'm so glad I didn't dig it up!

Mr Next Door's apple tree is beautifully blossom-y...

And our baby apple tree isn't doing badly either!

Have your gardens survived the wet spring?

from here

from here

Having the wettest drought ever here!  Mum chose a great time to buy a new 200 litre water butt, it's full already!  At least the potatoes in the garden are enjoying it!  Hope you're not getting too wet!