Joyful July...

This month I've loved....

* payday - I've done loads of overtime this month so my pay was huuuuge! * my courgette flowering * watching an episode of the big bang theory I've never seen before * old friends getting in touch * a lady at work saying she thought I was only 18 (this happens to me quite regularly, but it still makes me sooo happy when someone knocks 10 years off my age!) * ice cream cones (aldi waffle cones are vegan!!) * putting up a display of art by local young people at work and making it look all pretty * Andy Murray winning the Wimbledon Semis * mummy making me a lemon cake * eating cake mixture * baby robins in the garden * sunshine * chips and lemonade * charity shopping * nice dinner with my mum and brother * wearing stickers at work * lie's in * making bears all morning at volunteering * walking fast * listening to songs from musicals * lovely meal out with my lovely work people * 

I had pink and white spotty toenails.  They made me ridiculously happy.

The moon...it has been big and pretty all month!

We went to our local national trust place and the pond was full of hundreds of blue damsel flies, it was so pretty!

Mostly I'm pleased because I've spent the last 3 months on the 'at risk' list with my job, because of a restructure at work, but we had interviews a couple of weeks ago and I'll still have a job (with a few more hours and other responsibilities) once they've jiggled us all around! Yey! and phew!

What have you loved this month?  Hope it's been a good one!

from here

Going to the Fair...

This is my stall from the craft fair I did a couple of weeks ago...

I need a new way to display my bags...I never know where to put them and I think they look rubbish lying on the edges of my table!

I made loads of tea cup/ egg cup pin cushions with crochet inserts and topped up my supply of owl and flower brooches.  I'm very proud of my (slightly wonky display board, which is an old photo frame with the glass removed, filled with fleece and staple gunned with criss-crossed ribbons to hold stuff in.  I made this the night before (as you do) and it involved much swearing and super-gluing my fingers together as I stuck buttons on to cover the (many, many) staples!

I sold lots of vintage fabric cards this time!  

I didn't do as well as at the last one, although it was a lovely day, the last fair I did was at Easter, so people were buying Easter presents, so I think I'm going to stick to doing fairs around present buying times (Easter, Christmas) in future.

Have you had any craft-y or fair-y adventures recently?  

Linked up with Ta-dah Tuesday, hosted by Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping.

Library Love...Teeny Tiny Crochet, Crochet for Children, When she Woke...

This month I've been reading...

Teeny Tiny Crochet - Catherine Hirst
This book has really, really cute projects in it!  They're quite simple, the sort of thing I could mostly make up myself to be honest, but sometimes it's nice to have nice, easy things to make without having to use your brain too much...I especially like the sheep, little sausage dog and snail patterns!

Crochet for Children - Claire Montgomerie
This is not aimed at my age group (obviously), but I still find myself drawn to a lot of the patterns, they're too good for children I tell ya!  There's a bunny scarf pattern in here that I'm definitely going to make for myself, lovely zig zag cushion cover, owl bag, tiara and lots of other colourful projects.  There's also useful tips on teaching crochet, which usually makes me all confused so I need to remember those!

When She Woke - Hillary Jordan
I loved reading this...it reminded me a bit of The Handmaids Tale (Margaret Atwood), set in a not-too-distant world, the main character is dyed red (criminals are injected with something to colour their skin then released into society, so everyone knows what they've done - red for murder, blue for paedophiles, yellow for minor misdemeanour's) as punishment for having an illegal abortion.  The book follows her life after becoming a 'red' and although it wasn't mightly cheerful it was interesting and I read it in one go 'cos I couldn't wait to find out what happened in the end!

Soggy Summer Garden...

Oh this weather is Horrible for my veggies!  Nothing is growing!

Apart from flowers, flowers are doing very well in our garden...

I love nasturtiums, they're so BRIGHT!

This is our entire garlic harvest, it's supposed to be harvested in autumn, but all the tops had gone brown or yellow and squitty, so we rescued it before the bulbs rotted away underground....

My little bit of garden...you can see a little nasturtium at the back making it's way slowly up the wigwam, then there's corn, broad beans, courgettes and radish....all the herb and spinach seeds I planted haven't sprouted at all, and the ones I grew in pots in the greenhouse then planted out have disappeared too (combination of rain and slugs!)

I don't know why this broad bean is so tall, all the others are babies!

Mini sweetcorn, is actually growing well so far...

My courgettes have had 1 flower between 2 plants so far...they're also tiny despite being fed chicken poop, comfrey tea and seaweed feed...

Peas!  Getting there slowly!

I finally have 2 pepper plants, after about 5 attempts, I hope it gets warm enough for them to make fruit!

The rain is good for potatoes though! We have loads of big ones this year!

How are your gardens?  Have they been washed away?

from here

Pretty Poppies...

We've inherited a garden full of those huge oriental poppies, in all different sizes and colours...aren't they pretty?!

Jubilant June...

This month I've loved...

* a baby blowing me kisses at work * new pink plant * 25p vase *  finding Dolly Parton lyrics written in a word document on my computer screen at work (put on there by my cheeky little work friend - working 9 til 5!!) * rainbows * low flying swallows * seedlings * amazon vouchers * emails from my uni-friends * ice cream in cones * frogs * the smell of mock orange * mushroom beads * garlic bread * dreams with my friends in them! * finishing the 900 page long Diana Gabaldon book! * sunshine * poppies * pretty wild flowers growing all over the grass verges around town, I guess the council have decided not to cut them this year *  bunting everywhere * seeing lots of lovely crafty things at a handmade and vintage fair * crocheting * 

This rainbow appeared at the back of our garden a couple of weeks ago! (didn't find any gold though!) 

I'm in love with this plant, one day when I have my own garden I'm going to have one..it's flowers are pink and yellow and orange all at the same time!!! It's a Lantana Sunrise Rose (P) in case you're curious!

This was our front garden this morning, I love how it's all colourful and wild! 

I've been blogging for 3 years this month!! It seems mad that in that time I've written 376 posts, received 1272 comments and this little blog has been looked at a total of 27,641 times!  So a big thank you to everyone who reads and comments and is generally lovely, it wouldn't be the same without you! :)

Hope you've had a lovely month?!