School’s out for Summer! And I can’t wait! Hold on to your hats and socks and shoes and anything else, because Summer Break HERE WE COME…..
Tag: summer (page 11 of 14)
Well, school is out for Summer! Today is our very last day and we have so many things on our To-Do list for the Summer Holidays.
We plan to have lots of bike rides and picnics, see an Art exhibition or two, do a little travelling, a little reading. Hopefully, I will be able to pull out my needles and do a little knitting with Jennifer, I have the most wonderful scarf pattern, I want to try my hand at for Foxy. I also plan to go berry picking, making ruby coloured strawberry jam that we can have on toast with lashings of butter is definitely on the menu!
I do hope we have some lovely summery days and the rain we have had this week passes us by for a little while, because I am ready for some fun in the sun!
Love, GiGi
I know, I have written about this before on my blog, but in the States, it is a big thing to have “Christmas in July” sales and events. This is not the case in England, where people look at you, as if you are half mad to even mention such a thing. As school is shortly coming to a close for us (tomorrow is our last day, Yipee!), I thought this would be a good time to use a bit of the Summer break to begin working on a few Christmas/winter-y projects.
One, being my crocheted granny blanket, which I have yet to have the chance to begin, with all the craziness of school going on around us. But, also to possibly start a few Christmas projects early. Here were a few things I came across and I might just try to make some of these, or at the very least be inspired by them, especially the sock monkey coffee cup wrap, he has personality!
Do you begin your Christmas making projects early, or are you a last minute kinda gal (or guy)? Enjoy!
Now is a good time to start collecting vintage cookie cutters at thrift stores and yard sales. These “frames” would be gorgeous to have up all year round!
These mice would make perfect teacher’s presents or classroom gifts. If you changed the colors they would even be cute for an Alice in Wonderland Themed Birthday Tea Party.
Want to make your own granny square blanket to stay cozy with when the weather turns frosty, go to Meet me at Mike’s for a granny square tutorial.
This sock monkey coffee cup wrap is too cute. Perfect for your coffee lovers, any time of year.
(All images copyright their respective blogs)
We have ONE week left to go of school and I am so ready for it to be over! This last term has felt as if it has gone on forever. It feels too long to still be in school, I am ready to enjoy a little bit of a Summer break.
Summer meant a lot of things and happy memories in my house growing up. One such memory in particular was the summertime rituals my sister and I always did. We played outside, creating bike “roads” out of chalk on our drive way. We went swimming, we went to the library and signed-up for the summertime reading list.
We ate ice-cream and fresh peaches from the farm. We played an endless game of monopoly that we made span the entire length of our Summer break and we built tents. We built huge tents with old blankets and sheets, sometimes encompassing a table and chair and part of a couch in our giant fortress.
We played underneath it, hung out, read, watched movies through our special “spy” hole aimed at the tv, we just had FUN. When I saw this tent tutorial, I just loved it. It brought back all of those little memories. This is a lot fancier than what we built, but I think just as magical.
What a fun summertime project for you and your little ones. I can just see it strung with fairy lights, filled with cozy blankets and pillows and the perfect place to lay down and read a book on a rainy day, falling asleep to the gentle pitter-patter of the rain, with the magical glow of the twinkling lights overhead.
For the how-to click here.
All images are courtesy of Grosgrain Fabulous. Original Post from Cakies.
It has been hot off and on here this week. However, there were one or two rainy days that made the temperature drop exceedingly and all I wanted to do was watch Christmas movies and eat popcorn. There is that American tradition of “Christmas in July”, you know…
But, it has gotten warmer again and today my fur has truly heated up as I basked in the sunshine to take a nap. I knew the only way, I was going to cool off was to eat some ice-cream. Lucky for me, Jennifer was on her way to run some errands and kindly agreed to pick up a tub of something cool and ambrosial for me to delve into.
She came back with a tub of whipped vanilla ice-cream that was covered in Smarties. There is nothing better than ice-cream with a little candy on top. I just jumped right in, whiskers first and it was delicious!
I don’t even think I will eat dinner tonight, I just want more ice-cream. But, maybe this time with some chocolate syrup and sprinkles! Heaven!
I love S’Mores. They hold within those cookie walls the best of Sumertime nights. The freedom of being little, running through the grass barefoot, eating grilled hot dogs, chasing lighting bugs and roasting s’mores over the open grill.
For those of you who are not familiar with a s’more, it is a toasted marshmallow that is laid upon a piece of chocolate and they are both sandwiched between two graham cracker cookies. We didn’t always use graham crackers in my house though, my Mom would buy the Keebler chocolate covered cookies and we would mush our roasty toasty marshmallows in between those! HEAVEN!
Unfortunately, our little cottage does not have a space that allows us to grill, but that doesn’t stop Mr. Michie and myself. We simply spread our ingredients out on the coffee table and light a candle, which acts as our “grill”. So, you too can even make delicious s’mores indoors as well as out!
Here are a few S’more recipes or variations on the theme that I came across as I was blog reading this week, so they must be a hot topic! Click on the name to be taken to the recipe:
(all images copyright their respective blogs)
All I want to do
When the day is through
Is linger here on the front porch
With you
From the wicker swing
While the night birds sing
We’ll watch the fireflies sparkin’
Do some sparkin’ too
How the hours fly
As the moon drifts by —
How sweet the air
As we stare
At the sight
Oh! How I love to linger here like this
Hold your hand, and steal a kiss
Or two
On the front porch with you
-“On The Front Porch” from Summer Magic, one of my very favourite movies!
What is it about gingham that just says Summertime? In its all its many rainbow colours, it is just pure happiness. It is a cozy pattern, it screams of Christmas, of Spring bouquets tied up with it and the sweetness of a Summer picnic as a gingham tablecloth sits beneath your bounty.
Gingham, its a good thing!
(Found In the Art Cupboard)
The “Unseen Jobs”, that is what my grandmother called all the little jobs we do as women, that no one else sees, such as cleaning out the kitchen drawers, washing all the utensils, wiping out the drawers and re-organizing everything when you are done.
No one will ever know you did this but you! But, that is what I am doing today, all the little unseen jobs to get our little cottage in order and ready for Summer. I wish I could wiggle my nose like Samantha from “Bewitched” and it would be done in a jiffy, but that isn’t going to happen. I am cleaning, scrubbing, sorting through my closets, the washing machine is whirring away and the air is heady with the scent of lemons.
So back to work for me, soaking up the therapy that cleaning seems to give me along with the sunshine pouring in through the windows and looking forward to finishing, so I can enjoy a slice of the chocolate cake with chocolate fudge icing that I made yesterday and start on my little crochet project, because I haven’t managed to do that yet!
Hope you are having a wonderful first day of June wherever you are.
When Spring seems to be in the air and sunlight dapples the path of my walks in the woods, it always makes me a little homesick. For Spring at home means dogwoods in full blossom, the tingle of the sun on your skin, the smell of pluff mud and the sparkling view of the ocean as you hit the bridge for the first beach trip of the season.
I am from the South and the promise of warm weather holds so much weight. Warm weather not only brings beach trips, a great hot dog from Jack’s, sweet tea watered down from the heat of the day, but a certain vibe all of its own. It brings with it, its own music; beach music.
Heading down to the beach during Spring/Summer in the South, meant hitting a certain part of the journey where you would lose a good radio signal. But about 20-30 minutes after that, you would pick up the sounds of the beach. Nothing but good old Shagging kinda music. We would roll the windows down to catch that first smell of the pines, the sun beating down on our skin as the car was filled with the sounds of the coast. The music filled our beach house too or echoed from someone else’s as we sat on the screen porch, watching my parent’s dance around.
I can’t get in my car and head to the beach in England, but I can bring the memories of the beach to me. All, I have to do is hit “play” on my Ipod and the upbeat, soulful, happy tunes from the “Beach Music Anthology” fill my house and if I close my eyes real tight, I can almost taste that hot dog and smell those pines, feel my toes digging into the sand, the breeze dancing across my skin, the waves hitting the shore and the sound of beach music floating across the air from someone’s radio. I love beach music!
Here are just a few of my favorite beach music melodies:
(Image: film still from “Shag:The Movie”)