It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was writing last month’s update, and it’s hard to believe that it’s September tomorrow isn’t it?
August here has been a sunny, relaxing month with plenty going on in real life but not too much going on online, and that in itself has been good. We’ve had lunches out in the sunshine, including our favourite Newark cafe enjoying gyros in the market square’s sunshine while also spending some time people watching!
I’ve had a series of massages, and now I’m feeling so much more ‘less wonky’ and with a very slight tweak in my car seat I think (hope) I’ve identified and resolved what’s been causing me the problem.
We watched the Community Shield which featured both of our teams, with mine - Crystal Palace - winning out over his - Liverpool. There’s more cycling on the tv too, so just when you think you were safe from the Tour de France, along comes Spain’s La Vuelta.
Around the house, or more precisely the garage, we’ve made great strides in sorting out the space; passing on many of our moving boxes, and ordering four racks, with two of them assembled already. We’ve given away our old folding sun loungers, and are waiting on the delivery of some garden ‘arm chairs’ which hopefully will be here soon. This project is a bit like one of those games where you move everything round until it gets in the right place, and we’re still in that phase, but we’ll get there and we’ll have a much tidier and usable space at the end, if we do it right.
I don’t yet have the shelves in my craft room cupboard but I do have my weaving work in progress and some pictures on the wall, in what I’m dubbing ‘colourful corner’ so there is progress. I’ve even taken my Vogue pictures in for framing, as I was right when I suspected they weren’t a standard size.
I loved my first visit to the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham’s NEC - I’ve never seen so many quilts in one place, and I wish we had more time to admire them. It felt as if my SIL and I were strolling past them quite blasé, giving them the briefest of glances when their makers had most likely poured their hearts and soul into them. I have many, many photos which I’ve yet to even think about editing, but when I do I’ll be sharing my favourites here (and I already know there’s a lot of favourites!)
My purse also took a bit of a quilt-related bashing, and so I’ve one or two projects already lined up for the new year - I knew you wouldn’t be surprised, I wasn’t either! I’ve only started to do some high level planning for one of the projects, mainly to make sure I have enough of what I need, and I think I do - and I think I can make it work, so that’s now on the back burner while I get myself through some of the projects I already have on the go!
Our new sofa arrived, on the same day as the local ‘air show’ which was ideal as we knew we’d be in. It’s a velvet mustard sofa, so quite the change from the grey garden sofa that had been in its place previously. The garden sofa has moved outside, in fact just the other side of the wall, and now has plant pots around it as MOH pointed out one morning that it was looking quite sad, and if we’d just left it there before moving it someplace else!
It’s so different to what we had before that to start with it almost made me jump each time it caught my eye. As you can see I’ve spent some time testing out cushions - the chevrons are staying for now, but I also quite like the tropical outdoor cushions on it too.
In the garden I finally potted up the new olive tree in the new large pot, and it’s looking great - in fact our garden, with the addition of the sofa, is starting to take on its own identity and I’ve been moving some pots around to try the plants in potential longer term homes.
We’re ending the month with a visit to a new-to-us garden, and one that’s opening as part of the National Garden Scheme. It’s a tropical garden so that should be fun, and I’m hoping full of inspiration for another section of our garden here.
There’s been plenty of family time this month and a trip from Buckinghamshire to Norfolk, which was thankfully relatively traffic-free, but did result in us helping my dad to manoeuvre a three metre worktop out of their house through one of their windows. Had anyone spotted us, I’m sure they would have been most amused!
We also had a hot and sunny day out at the inaugural Rutland Flower Show, and I’m hoping it returns next year as there was plenty to see and a fair bit of inspiration too. I left with a couple of vintage pots, some metal storage containers, a few leads to follow up on and this fantastic sweet pepper plant, which is already ripening more of its tasty peppers.
So it’s been a busy month all in all, and I’m sure September will be no different.
If you want to read my previous monthly updates in my ‘This is’ series you’re very welcome.
