What I Did This Summer.

I haven’t blogged for a while I know. I always intend to do this regularly but somehow time just gets away from me and it ends up being ages between posts. I’ve been wondering how best to bridge the gap from the last post and have decided that a round-up of Summer’s highlights would carry us (nicely or kicking and screaming whichever is most appropriate – sadly it’s the latter for me) into Autumn.

Happily I do like to take photos (and organise them) so I have some aids for my occasionally spotty memory. I have, obviously, carried on crafting and making, there are paper beads, jewellery and small frivolities because what is life without some sparkle? I have also baked and pickled and been out and about in the sunshine.

Above L-R: Bronze fennel, wild privet and I have absolutely no recollection of even taking the last one never mind what it is.

Although I have made a ton of paper beads I’ll share just one pic, these beads were made from my art materials catalogue. It is stapled not glued which means that I can take it apart and use the full width of two pages rather than just the height of a single one. It makes for some different shapes.

I made a bunch of paper bead bangles too; I wanted some slightly thinner, stackable ones and I had a million of these dark coloured lozenge shaped beads so I made a few of those.

I have also carried on with the crocheted wire bag charms but I have made them smaller. There are still three strands twisted together but they are a nice neat circle. I realised that this made them perfect for scarf holders. Though to be honest, I didn’t know scarf holders were a thing until I saw some online, also there are hat holders that you clip onto your bag too. I obviously need to get out more.

Whilst I had the wire out, I thought I’d try a different way of making the beaded hoop earrings that I like. My original idea was to crochet the beads on but I could not find a way of making that work. I think that it might work with yarn but there was not a chance with wire so I did a kind of blanket stitch and it kind of looked okay. I doubt I’ll do it regularly, or even again, but I like what I ended up with.

Above: These are the type that I usually make. Paper beads are great for these as they weigh nothing.

Above: Here's one in action.

I bought some absolutely adorable little ghost charms so I made some earrings using those, they have a lustre to them and catch the light beautifully.

I’ve long been thinking about making a charm bracelet with nothing but star charms, I made a couple with tiny stars back in April but I had a load of bigger ones that I wanted to use. I don’t know why but I really like jewellery with stars on, have done for years.

Above: I made the silvery one first and then for some reason decided to make one with a load of howlite stars that I had. I do like the silver one but I’m really not sure about the multi-coloured one and I might dismantle it.

I came across some metal bars with unscrewable beads on the end for making keyrings and things so got some to play with. They need beads with large holes in and I don’t have too many of those but there were enough to have a go. I really enjoyed making these, the figuring out how to sort the beads to fill the bar was quite a puzzle but great fun. I’m definitely making more of these.

I had a little mini craze for making fabric flower hair ties. This craze fell off a cliff quite quickly as I have no quick way of cutting the petals out and had to do it manually which was a massive pain. The really big flower (top right) was a ready made one that I just sewed a hair tie onto.

I think I’ve covered makes so now I’ll tell you about the food. I bought one of those multi slicer dicer things in early July and it has made making salads so much easier. I love salads and eat them a lot during the Summer. I use the machine to make a bowl of chopped salad (I chop the lettuce by hand, I don’t think it would work in the dicer) and then portion up leftovers for lunches.

I started making pizza from scratch, the dough is really easy and as it only needs one prove it doesn’t need planning the day before, I don’t mind forward planning but sometimes it’s good to be spontaneous.

When I’m in the mood I do like a potter about in the kitchen, a bit of a faff. I’ve done a little baking, the selection pictured here are Lorraine Pascale’s 21st Century cheese (and other bits and bobs) bread. Flapjack, also Lorraine Pascale’s recipe and Edd Kimber’s Devil’s Food Sheetcake (that one’s vegan if you follow the recipe properly, sorry I can't find a link that's not behind a paywall).

In the interests of reducing wastage I have taken to pickling bits of leftover cucumber and radishes of which I always seem to have a load left after everything else has been used. I usually add some onion and carrot ribbons. It’s just a fridge pickle so doesn’t take long to do. This jar is done in yuzu vinegar.

The fruit vinegar makes for a lovely sweet pickle and I had a go at making my own using peel and leftover bits steeped in white wine vinegar. Strawberry and pineapple here.

I’ve not travelled very far but I did find a little castle tucked away on a country lane. It’s not as old as it looks, Victorian medieval revival I think, and is used as a hotel nowadays.

The rest of the pics are just messing with my phone camera, I particularly enjoy getting lens flares so I’ve done that a lot.

Above: European siskin, they only started visiting my garden last year.

Above: Geranium in my kitchen windowbox.

Lastly, I discovered that Gladys Mitchell didn’t like Laurels

That's her off my Christmas card list.