Jungly growth everywhere!

Ahhhhh. Yesterday there was a break in the rain, so I went outside and pottered round the garden. Breathing in the lovely fresh air and soaking in the sunshine, and taking in the garden that seemed to have gone wild with all this rain we have had over the last couple of weeks. This is our veggie plot.

The pumpkin patch has gone mad!

It was lovely to see just how many butterflies and bees we had buzzing around, they really love this verbena bonariensis.

Pausing to stop at my sons creation in the flower bed! Hmmm, what could he have been thinking here!

And picking a bucketful of flowers for the house.

And turning them into this!

I love bringing the outdoors inside, doing creative things like this really give me a lift, and it did yesterday.

I am so pleased that things are back on track now and we are all really looking forward to the weekend. Some swimming, a long run (for me!), a little bit of shopping, a car boot sale (weather permitting), and setting up a shoe shop in my daughters bedroom - she has already appropriated all of my best shoes, with the idea that I buy them back!

Anyway whatever you are doing have a lovely weekend everybody, I hope the sun shines for you wherever you are!

Looking forward to the holidays

Hello everyone! It's been a little while since my last post, and oh I have to say I have missed it! Lets just say we have been going through a bit of difficult situation at home at the moment, and I haven't been able to find the motivation or words for cheery blogging, but hopefully all of it will be resolved shortly and we will be able to start the summer holidays full of the joys of summer (if it ever stops raining here!) and a spring in our step. I have so loved reading all of your blogs though, seeing what you have all been up to, it really brightens my day.

I have to show you just a couple of things though! We had a lovely shopping trip to John Lewis on Saturday. There was a sale on! A lovely red polka dot tablecloth was purchased (I'll show you this in situ soon!), lots of lovely yarns and ribbons in the haberdashery department,
a beautiful mozzerella and tomato salad for lunch (their food hall is sooooo good!), and a few bargains in the clothes department!

And look at these, cut from the garden. Don't you just love the vividness of this lily.

And these sweet peas, carefully arranged by my beautiful girl - I wish you could smell them!

Look at that - the sun is coming out at last outside, and theres some patchy blue sky. I think I'll go and do a bit of mindless pottering this afternoon, snipping and deadheading and enjoy all the lovely new growth brought on by the rain (and probably weeds, but I think I'll try and ignore those till next week!)

Summer days & outdoor living...

What a beautiful weekend it has been. I hope you have had a lovely weekend too. Doesn't the lovely weather just make everything jollier? Everyone here has been so happy, we have spent the weekend dipping our toes in the sea on the beautiful South Coast, enjoying lovely alfresco dining, sipping cold drinks and chatting outside to the small hours, but more of that tomorrow!

Today I have to show you my Sarah Smith bunting, totally copied from Emma at LavenderHouse.

I am so pleased with it! I love the colours and how easy it was to make! Emma you do have some amazing ideas, thank you!

Doesn't it look so lovely fluttering in the breeze, against a lovely summer day?

It was so easy to make - once I had mastered my sewing machine again. I am ashamed to say it is probably five years (!) since I have had it out of its little jacket to stitch anything. I am not much of a seamstress at the moment, although I would love to learn more :-), and it took me a good 20 minutes to remember how to thread it! But once we got going there was nothing stopping us and we raced through the bunting! We are having some friends and their children over soon for an afternoon get together I think these will look lovely draped around the patio and amongst the trees, to really make it an occasion!

I think I am just going to have to purchase a lovely tablecloth to go with it. I am thinking red and white gingham would be perfect, with one of my lovely hand embroidered tablecloths (one of my boot sale finds) draped pretty over the top. Perhaps I could make a tablecloth, that shouldn't be too hard should it? Just a bit of hemming? Yes, I think that might have to be my next project!

And on top of the table, I think I will have to copy Lucy's lovely idea over at Attic 24 and use my bonne maman jars, prettily adorned with ribbon as tealight holders. Thank you Lucy! I can see it all now! It will look perfect!