This month's completed project - Decopatch crafts

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Every month I have been challenging myself to complete an unfinished project that I have lying around the house. This month was the turn of Decopatch!

A few years ago I bought a Decopatch kit which included everything that you needed to create some heart themed projects. My original kit isn't available any more but you can buy this very similar one - Decopatch Love Kit Décopatch Love Kit(affiliate link). I originally blogged about it here - Trying a new craft - Decopatch hearts.

I completed all the projects inside but I had some paper left over, and also I wanted to find a use for the nice box that the kit was contained in. I had some spare Decopatch paper that I'd bought once in a sale, but I had run out of the special Decopatch glue and that had stopped me attempting any more projects. 

So I put together an online order. I bought some offical Décopatch Glossy Glue (affiliate link), I know that you can use different types of glue, but I've used this before and I know that it works well. I also bought myself a cardboard letter J (affiliate link) so that I had a project for some of the red flowery paper.

When doing Decopatch, you take the patterned tissue paper and tear it up into small pieces which you glue down using a brush with stiff bristles. It's very satisfying, the glue dries to a nice glossy finish and the paper is thin so you can easily smooth it down around any uneven edges. I really like this floral paper so it was nice to be able to use it for a project that will be on display in my study.

To use up some of the extra paper I also covered this mini chest of drawers which has been sitting on my desk for years and was looking very scruffy. It had a dark pattern on it already so I painted it with white gesso paint first to make a neat surface. I painted the fronts of the drawers as I didn't want to increase the size too much and make them difficult to open.

I decided to leave the box from the original kit plain in the end and it will make a nice storage compartment for some of my art equipment - paints and brushes and so on. The leftover Decopatch paper has been tidied away in to my folders of craft paper, and so that's another unfinished project ticked off the list!

A slightly different school summer holiday than the usual

Normally I'm desperate for the school summer holidays to begin. I'm always more than ready to say goodbye to the school run for eight weeks, as well as not having to make the packed lunches, wash uniform and PE kits and encourage tired children through their homework.

Of course that was all so different this year. Although Harry did go back to school for a few weeks at the end of term to finish Year 6, it felt more like a novelty than the usual routine, and with the roads so quiet the school run wasn't a problem.

So when the holidays did actually start most things hadn't changed at all. Their online learning came to an end of course, which meant that we lost a bit of the routine which my children definitely need. So I've been making more of an effort than I normally would to make sure that everyone is up and dressed with teeth brushed by a reasonable hour. I'm also conscious of the disruption that they had to their learning last term school year, so I've been getting them to spend some time each day using a times tables app and making sure that they keep up with their reading.

We were due to be spending two weeks at the end of August in Florida on an amazing Disneyworld holiday, staying in a Disney property for the first time and hitting the theme parks. Of course that's off the cards now, but we were lucky enough to book a last minute week in July in an AirBnB in Westward Ho! Even though we didn't do any of the usual tourist attractions that we normally would, we enjoyed walking and visiting the beach, and it was a really lovely change of scene.

I normally keep our summer holiday free from too many organised activities as the children need the break, so luckily they don't feel as though they are missing out on too much. But we can't just pop to the supermarket for some cake and a magazine as I don't want to go out unnecessarily, and I'm still wary of letting the children visit the playground or spending too much time in other public places. So we are still spending a lot of time by ourselves at home as we have been since March.

One big difference to our usual summer routines is that Ram is now working from home. He has a lot to do so he can't spend much time with us, and he's usually based in his office upstairs, but we've had to get used to him wandering about while talking on the phone and popping in to see what we are up to.  

Of course one great thing about this entire summer has been the weather. Since the children finished school in March it really has been fantastic, and the last few weeks in particular have been perfect. During the heatwave last week we spent the whole evening in the garden after dinner, finishing the day lying on airbeds watching for meteors. It would have been so different if it had rained every day like at the beginning of the year!

I'm starting to get the school uniform ready for September, albeit a little hesitantly in case anything changes. I really missed the second hand uniform sale that normally takes place in July, but luckily as I tend to buy big sizes there was only one item of branded uniform that I needed to order new, the rest I can get from the supermarkets.

Harry will be starting at the senior school in September which of course is a big change for him and he has a few little worries. Unfortunately his year have missed out on some of the transition activities that would have taken place last term. But it's a lovely school, so I'm hoping that they'll go easy on his cohort this year and give them plenty of time to settle in!