At last! The sun is out and we have spent a lovely Bank Holiday Monday scrumping for apples. These are destined to become a few jars of apple and mint sauce as my mint is very happily growing in my garden. The sauce should keep for ages and it will go lovely with a bit of Welsh lamb. Can't get more local than that (unless I become a shepherdess!)

The one good thing to come out of a really dark, rainy week is that I can envisage Christmas colours now!

A woolly hat is an ideal thing to knit in the summer as it's not too bulky and can be taken anywhere. I wanted a nice easy pattern to tackle because I am currently spending about two hours at our local swimming pool watching the little HoffiCoffi's learn to swim. (They are having lessons so I'm not actually in the pool - even I wouldn't attempt to knit IN the water!)


The yarn and pattern for the hat were a freebie from a knitting magazine (despite my protests earlier in the year I am still occasionally buying them - magazines are my weakness!) It was so easy to knit I think I will be knitting a few for Christmas. I have a lot of poolside hours to use up!

FREE FOOD!

I was going to wait until September to pull up these lovely carrots but when I started seeing orange popping up out of the soil I thought I had better pick them before the slugs did.

The seeds were free from the BBC Dig It campaign. They came through the post together with some lovely stickers that my son proudly wore after 'helping' me in the garden! They were grown in our own compost and, ok, I had to buy the Ikea bag they were grown in but I can use that again next year so I'm counting it as free food!

The problem with making Christmas cards nice and early is that you are not particularly in a Christmas colour kind of mood. The days are longer and (hopefully) brighter and I think my colour choices reflect this - as opposed to the deep colours craved for when chestnuts are roasting on an open fire!

I'm thinking though that it might be beneficial to inject some summer colour into Christmas. When you can't remember where you put your flip flops and there are cobwebs in the sandcastle bucket it will be nice to get a little reminder of sunshine. Mind you, the way this summer is going, I think I need to be reminded of sunshine right now!

MY FIFTEEN PENCE DRESS

I have read a top couture designer quote that you should use the most expensive fabric you can afford for your dressmaking. You are investing a lot of time into a piece and it therefore deserves to look its best with top quality fabric. I say pah! I am just starting out on my dressmaking journey and, like learning to walk, I am bound to stumble a bit and I don't want to be crying over an inaccurately cut £20 a metre piece of fabric.

I think, however, I may be going over the top on the price of the above dress. 15 pence. The floral material at the top is from two very worn pillowcases I bought at a scout jumble sale for 10 pence for the pair. The ribbon trim was from a bargain bag of 'lucky dip' lace, of which this is about 5 pence worth. My sister gave me the light green plain fabric ages ago and the zip I got for free from a lovely lady from Freecycle (Freecycle is a yahoo group where people can post unwanted/unused items for others to collect for free). So, 15 pence, and it actually worked - ok so it may look a little bit bad 70's bridesmaid but I kinda like that.

I have spent the weekend away glamping... oh, alright, it was just regular camping... but I do have floral wellies!

I always try and take a little sewing box with me, no mean feat if you were to see how much is crammed into our car for the journey. Who would have thought that living simply would require so much stuff!

Anyway, I managed to make this hair bobble for my daughter whilst I was camping. It's attached to a guy rope for the photo but don't worry it has its own band - I didn't cut the tent up for a hair tie!

Sunflowers are pretty inspirational things. I don't know whether it's their size or their colour that impresses me most but I love them. I have only managed to grow the one in my garden this year but it still makes me smile.