This month I have been mostly...

Reading:

I haven't been reading as much as I expected during lockdown. I've been enjoying the first two books of Sarah Hilary's Marnie Rome series which have been gripping. I've also been enjoying Kindred by Octavia E Butler.

Watching:

I've not been able to concentrate on much TV. Other than the news, I've been watching 10 Years Younger in 10 Days, which is about as much as my brain can handle at the moment! Virgin has dropped the French version of the France 24 channel, making it only available as an app that crashes all the time, so I'm not waking up to the French news each morning. My upstairs TV reception has been a bit dodgy anyway (working most of the time, but some evenings nothing at all) and I haven't got to the bottom of it!

Doing:

Working from home became more of a struggle once the Easter holidays started, because there were not as many emails to deal with. So I took holidays for the second week of the Easter break. Goodness knows how I'll cope with working for weeks of the long summer holidays if this is still going on then!

I've really enjoyed my daily walks around town. It's been fun to spot rainbows in windows or chalked on walls, and hunt for teddy bears in windows. I've tried to vary my walking routes, exploring different parts of town. In the local woodland I saw a deer cross my path, which was magical! I did my own colour walk to a colourful chalked wall I'd seen, and to all the murals around my area. I also went on a typography walk.

I found lots of fun things to do during my week's holiday. I had an at-home spa day, an indoor picnic, baked, made pancakes, did a Mary Quant style photo shoot, sewed, picked a wild flower bouquet from my garden, did some gardening, planted seeds, made homemade cheese and pasta, grew leftover vegetables on my windowsill, cut my hair, and much more!

I took on one of those tasks that always seemed to be waiting for a rainy day - organising my magazine clippings. I tend to tear out articles that will inspire me to do interesting or creative things, and this was the perfect time to look through them! I trimmed the edges, stapled the corners, and organised them into categories. The craft-related ones get clipped together by different types of crafts, recipes go in my recipe book, and everything else goes in a folder. I also made a couple of wallets - articles that are useful/relevant now in the lockdown period (e.g. gardening, relaxation, local walks), and another for inspiration once lockdown is over. Smaller magazine clippings got glued into my bullet journal.

Creating:

I've been inspired to do a lot of work on my bullet journal, especially since Nikki McWilliams has been doing some live classes on Instagram. I ordered a lovely new Archer & Olive journal from her, which has whiter, thicker paper than the Leuchtturm I had already. It's just as well I did, because I've been filling up the remaining pages in the Leuchtturm very quickly!

I went back to my childhood by decorating a boiled egg, like we used to do each year at school. It started out as a coronavirus, but I think it makes a good cactus instead.

I've wanted to sew some clothes for years, but it's something that always falls off the end of my summer to-do list because I run out of time. I had all the time in the world over my week's holiday, so I finally did some sewing. I made a dungaree dress (my first ever dress!), upcycled an oversized shirt into a haori jacket, made a brightly coloured dress from fabric I had bought months ago at a church craft sale (my first time sewing sleeves other than in dolls' clothes!), and made a skirt (also from fabric from the sale at the church). I'm feeling a lot more confident about sewing clothes now, and have ordered another sewing pattern.

I took inspiration from my walks by chalking some hearts on my shed, which is harder work than it looks, and I've made a rainbow display in one of my windows.

Buying:

I have been trying not to buy too much online (it's very tempting to do so when stuck at home), but I did buy some new photo boards for taking photos against for Instagram, some bullet journalling supplies, a book about Frida Kahlo, and some more Hygge hairbands as they had a good offer on.

I had to buy some parts to repair my tumble dryer which stopped working last month. I thought it was just the catch that was broken, but when I went to fit the new one I discovered it was the plastic of the door itself that was broken and causing the catch to slip out of position. I had to wait a bit each time for the part to arrive, so it's been weeks that I haven't had use of the tumble dryer (the only way I could hold the door closed was by balancing a heavy ironing board on a chair, which wasn't very safe!).

Eating:

I've been doing a lot of baking, and I served myself afternoon tea at the dining table one day, with lovely vintage crockery, a vintage tablecloth, and wearing a vintage tea dress. I made my first ever attempts at banana bread and pancakes, which were both delicious!

Because store-cupboard cookery is very relevant at the moment, I decided to try making a wartime recipe, Lord Woolton's Pie. It is made from vegetables and marmite, and has a pastry with mashed potatoes in it. I liked the filling but my attempt at the pastry wasn't the best!

I grabbed the occasional handful of wild garlic on my daily walks, and made pesto from this. I've been having it with pasts, but also enjoying a dollop of it with my French toast! I've also made my own cheese and pasta.