What I've been up to lately

It's been a while since I've done one of these posts, so I thought I'd share a few of the things that I've been up to lately!

Reading 

I've been reading a lot as usual, and I recently shared some of my latest top reads. I'm currently reading The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton which is a long book, a former Booker prize winner which is why it caught my eye. I'm enjoying it but it's not an easy read, there are loads of characters and it's important to remember all the relationships between them. Luckily there are some summaries written into the narrative to help to keep the reader caught up with things!

I'm also reading The Rebecca Notebook by Daphne du Maurier which is a short book so I'm trying to make it last as I'm really enjoying it. I love Rebecca and it's interesting to read the original ideas for the plot and also an alternative epilogue.

Watching

I've hardly watched any television recently! We don't have any series that we are watching at the moment, and by the time I've got the children in bed it's getting too late to sit down to a film. We did get out to the cinema to see the new Guardians of the Galaxy film which was very good.

Crafting

Over the last few weeks I've been working on my journal and starting to fill it with a few simple sketches and illustrations. I don't want to share any yet because I'm still learning! I've been really interested in looking at urban sketching - quick, loose sketches that are made while out and about. I'm too shy to take my sketchbook out in public yet but I'm hoping that I can improve my skills a bit at home and build up some courage!

I was incredibly proud of this balloon arch which I made for Mia's birthday to use as a photo backdrop. It was really easy, I bought a kit from Amazon for about £15 but all you really need is a big heap of balloons and some balloon tape, which is a thick plastic tape with holes in for the balloon ties. Blowing up the balloons was a bit of a mission, but the kit came with a balloon tying tool which was really good for saving my fingers. With a foil curtain behind it looked amazing, the trouble is that now everyone will want one for their birthday!

Growing

I've kept the garden simple this year, I'm only growing sunflowers, tomatoes and broccoli! They have all been doing well outside in the gorgeous sunny weather, most of my tomatoes are still in pots outdoors but this weekend I'll be planting them out in the vegetable patch if I have enough room, I have loads!

Eating

With Mia's birthday and half term there has been far too much junk food in the house. We've been making brownies, eating pancakes and waffles, as well as far too many crisps and biscuits. When they are back at school I need to get back to my healthy soups and wraps!

Planning

I've felt a bit out of touch with my blog recently which is a shame as I love writing it. I'm finding it a little difficult as the children grow up and I don't like to write about them too much, also I always focussed on crafts for children and now they are too old for that. So I've been brainstorming away and coming up with new ideas for things to write about. 

Feeling proud of

Both my children! Harry took his Computer Science GCSE last term, he's only in year 9 and has pretty much taught himself so I'm really proud of his achievement. Mia has her grade 3 flute exam coming up in a couple of weeks and she's done so well, she works really hard at her practice. She's also taught herself to do the splits and a couple of other difficult yoga poses, she's such a good example of showing massive improvement by working at something every day.

Looking forward to

Is it too early to be looking forward to the summer holidays?! This week has reminded me how lovely it is to have that long stretch without the stress of the school run, packed lunches, homework and so on. We also have a holiday coming up which I'm looking forward to. 

What have you been up to lately?