My Week

This week has felt much less stressful than the last. James hasn’t been away, and we haven’t had too many appointments to keep. The weather’s been better too, and that always sets the tone for the week, doesn’t it? It’s not been particularly hot, but it has been sunny and that’s good enough for me!

On Monday, I got creative with play dough. Tom adores the stuff – especially when it’s homemade. I thought it would be fun to play with some exciting colours and flavours this time. I used orange, lemon, peppermint and almond flavourings. Tom was thrilled when he came home from nursery and spent the whole afternoon squishing and squashing it. Keep your eyes peeled for a more detailed post coming soon!

On Tuesday, I framed these vintage Ladybird book illustrations. It really was so quick and easy – I did it while James was reading the boys their bedtime stories! And all for under £10.

Wednesday brought a lovely surprise. For the last month I’ve been joining in with the lovely Home Etc interiors and gardening blog hop, hosted by Jess and Caro. I was absolutely thrilled when I heard I’d been chosen as the winner of the first month! I’ve really enjoyed joining in every week so far, and it’s definitely encouraging me to be more creative. I love peeking into other people’s homes, and it’s so fun inviting people into mine. Do go and check it out – the link-up is open every Wednesday.

On Thursday, James had a rare day off. We had the morning to ourselves. The sun was shining and we had a potter into town together – a very rare occurrence! We had coffee in the beautiful garden of the Old Fire Engine House – which is always such a dreamy setting. In fact, we had our low-key wedding reception there eight years ago. It was really quiet and we practically had the garden to ourselves. On such occasions you can indulge in a little fantasy of it all belonging just to you.

I also picked up this little swan in a new charity shop.

I’m a bit sad that yet another charity shop has opened in our city (they are so parasitical and impossible to shift once they’re in place – we now have seven) but this one did at least have some half decent bric-a-brac. Proper vintage things, as opposed to the usual collection of empty Waitrose potted stilton jars and ten-year-old bars of soap. It even had a whole shelf of swans (plus more spotted in the stockroom). Still, I’d rather this particular empty shop had been filled with something new and exciting. Maybe one day, it’ll be me opening my own shop – a long-held ambition.

This week I have also been wearing my new denim jacket – a spur of the moment purchase in New Look – which is perfect for this rather cool June. It’s the perfect paring with all my ditsy florals and full skirts. Bit of a bargain too at £19.99.

On Thursday afternoon we suddenly remembered it was a school dress-up and dance day for charity on Friday. The theme? Legends. Your favourite sporting star, fictional character or the ubiquitous 100% polyester superhero. Cue last minute panicking and scrabbling around. We’re not big on superheroes in this house and the Claud the Dog costumes from Book Day weren’t quite right. Gabriel has just discovered the Harry Potter books so was keen to dress up as his new hero.

James still had his old gown from Cambridge in the loft. We dug it out and it was perfect. In my non-Oxbridge ignorance I never knew that undergraduate gowns were special pint-sized affairs – perfect for a six-year-old! It smelt hideously musty and probably still had ancient gravy stains down it – but it had a quick go in the washing machine and survived intact. A neighbour lent us some glasses and I speed-knitted him a rather dodgy Hogwarts tie. He had a great day and now wants to change his name to Harry.

Today – Friday- James had another day off and we caught up with some mundane, but satisfying jobs. Here’s Tom having a little break whilst helping to trim our hedge…

And now it’s the weekend. Here’s to sunshine, waffles and strawberry picking….

Lizzie x