Things I Loved, June 2015.

This month I loved, 

* Moving into our new home, the sale of my flat going through and getting pennies! * * Douwe Egberts coffee jars * my friend from Brazil visiting * eating paprika pringles, sweeties and croissants * finishing digging the weeds out of the garden and planting lots of things * watching lots of films - Rise of the Guardians, Serenity, Pitch Perfect 2, Take That (a live screening at the cinema) and Calamity Jane * Playing our first game of peekaboo with my littlest niece, and being amused by my biggest niece 'no likeee'-ing anything! * being given lovely, lovely housewarming presents * charity shopping * buying a dishwasher (it's not plumbed in yet, but I'm looking forward to no more washing up in the future!) * we've at fun at my Rainbow Guide unit this month, making mud pies and sock bats! (my bat was called Bernard) * watching My Mad Fat Diary and Arrow series 2 *

Hope you've had a good month too! 

Harvest, June 2015.

Everything's going to be late in my garden this year, 'cos I started late!  

But, my first strawberry ripened this weekend!

I've eaten a couple of lettuce leaves in passing too.

Have you eaten anything homegrown this year?

Linking up with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions blog.

Gardening, June 2015.

This month we moved into our house, so I've had plenty of time to potter about in the garden.  

I tackled the side garden, it's another long raised bed, which seemed to be filled with a mixture of rubble and soil once I'd removed all the knee high weeds! 

I've planted herbs (sage, thyme, coriander, lavender, basil, all from plants bought cheap in supermarkets and Wilkinsons), a pumpkin and courgette at the back and some autumn raspberries.  I've ordered a compost bin online, and I'll put that on this side bit of garden too once it arrives.

My garden friend of the month is this cute little robin, he's so tame!

I've used some old paving stones (found in the garden!) to make little paths over the main raised bed in the back garden, and started planting flowers and veggies.  

Most of the flowers are bits of stuff taken from mum's garden and I've grown the veggies from seed.

These are rainbow chard seeds, but I also have spinach, spinach beet, beetroot and Japanese bunching onions sprouting up.

I carefully researched how to prune a Weigela (the pretty tree at the back of the bed, with pink and white flowers, you can see it in this blog post, but it had grown lots since then and was taking over the garden), then got carried away and cut practically all of it off!  Once I started snipping I could see it hadn't been done for years and it was all spindly and sad.  Hopefully the shock won't kill it and we'll have lots of flowers on it next year.

I love this little pot I planted with lettuce, marigolds and Japanese bunching onions.

This beautiful Belfast sink came from Joe's Dad's garden, it's super heavy so we're leaving it here with the tomato plants in for now, we might move it later when we've got our strength up!

This is my nursery area.  Before we moved I started some seeds off in these big plant pots (also left by the previous owners, and still full of soil!).  Those seeds are either planted out in the garden, or just about to be, and I've started some new seeds off to fill in the gaps later (I've got garlic chives, kale, lettuce, spring onions, sunflowers, nasturtiums, sweet peas and campanula at the moment).

I'm working hard to find things to cover the bare soil now, any ideas for nice plants (edible or otherwise) would be gratefully received!

How's your garden growing?

Linking up with Flaunt it Friday.

from here

Photo an Hour, June 2015.

I'm back!  We have internet and I even remembered to take part in photo an hour on Saturday (20th June).

8am - Still in bed in my new, temporary bedroom (we'll move into the back bedroom when the walls have been stripped and carpet's down!).  I bought the curtains from a charity shop yeears ago 'cos I loved the fabric, and they magically fit this window exactly!)

9am - On the bus to work.

10am - I cannot quite remember where the ears on our work clock came from, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

11am - Still at work!

12pm - Still at work!  I actually had quite a fun day, I had long conversations about Doctor Who with 2 different little boys and one Dad, and lots of my regular Saturday morning customers are cute little kids.

 

1pm - It rained A LOT while I was in work, but it had stopped by home time. 

2pm - I stocked up on the essentials at Aldi.

3pm - I sat on the sofa to watch Dinner Date, and then promptly fell asleep for 3 hours!  Whoopsy!

6pm - I try to do something creative every day, today I did drawing.  I want to be better at drawing people and clothes so I doodled some of the outfits I'd worn during the week.

7pm - It's scented candles a-go-go here, it smells a lot better in here now but I somehow can't get rid of the scent-memory of this house when we first got it (dogs, cats, smoke, unclean-ness), I feel the need to burn a lot of scented candles!

8pm - Just checking on my seedlings.

9pm - I tided the boxes all into one corner in the living room (we're not unpacking till we have carpets down, I'm trying not to let living surrounded by boxes get me down too much)

10pm - Watching The Mindy Project.

11pm - Time to clean my teeth and go to bed.

Did you take part this month?

Photo an hour is organised by Louisa and Jane.

Moving Home!

We're finally moving into our new home, renovations are still going on and we won't have internet for a while.

See you soon! x

Retro Seventies Crafts #2. Crochet.

Here are some more of my wonderfully bonkers seventies craft pattern cards.  These ones all feature crochet.

They were published by Hamlyn in 1979.

I'd love a loopy hat or a poncho, how about you?

You can see more here.

Simple Pleasures #27.

Getting my hands on all 3 of the special Orla Kiely Douwe Egberts coffee jars!

Vegan Junk Food - The Accidental Vegan.

There's a new feature in this month's edition of Vegan Life magazine, and I'm a big fan of it!   

I already knew about the crisps, my quality of life improved so much when I learned Walkers Prawn Cocktail crisps were suitable for vegans.  There are lots of other treats featured that I didn't know I could eat!

I've written about lots of vegan junk food already, but some of the ones I haven't mentioned before are, 

McCoys Salt and Vinegar crisps

Bourbon biscuits

Oreos

Rib n Saucy Nik Naks

Lindt 70% dark chocolate

BBQ or Paprika Pringles

Yummy!

What are your favourite accidentally vegan treats?

 

Issue 6 of Vegan Life Magazine is available to buy now from some shops or digitally.

Disclosure - I have been provided with a free digital subscription to Vegan Life Magazine in return for reviewing this publication.  I have my own little page in the bloggers section on their lovely website.  All opinions are, of course, my own.  All photos c/o Vegan Life Magazine.

Easy Green Actions, June 2015.

Here's this month's round of easy green actions you can complete online,

Sign Oxfam's petition to say 'no' to coal.

Sign Sum of Us' petition, supporting the right of El Salvador to reject a gold mining bid that will pollute their water.

Friends of the Earth are asking you to say 'no' to fracking in Lancashire.

Ask Lynn Truss, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to protect bees from pesticides. 

...and here aresome awesome things I've read this month,

This article about freegans.

Why you should stop drinking bottled water.

Are pesticides boicides?

New York is turning it's lights out to help migrating birds!

And this article about green roofs.