garden knitting and summer night reading

as most of you might know by now, the artsy ants won't be an ocean apart for the next few weeks, as simona and her husband are here in germany with us all. on monday, while the baby was napping and the little man was happily bouncing off his aunty's back (hee hee), i sat in the garden and actually continued knitting. so much that i got motivated to carry on at home in the evening. so as you can see i did end up using blue yarn for the collar of the plain vest, and i like how it contrasts the orange.

i managed to squeeze 3 books into the photo: i finished Me Before Youlast week. it was a lovely read, with wonderful, lovable characters. i had anticipated the ending of the story, but i can still recommend it. the story and the characters stayed with me for a long time and i found myself thinking about them in the days after finishing the book. i even started making research about quadriplegia.

i then started Last Child in the Woods, which is good, but i need a fiction read as well, so i also started Anne of Green Gables. i think i never read Anne as a young girl, at least i don't remember. but i want to read books that i hope my junebug will enjoy one day, and this was one on my list.

joining ginny again this week. what are you knitting and reading??

my summer manifesto - 10 things i want to do this summer

last week i glanced at my goals for 2013 and realized i still have a long way to go. i've always liked the idea of breaking down yearly goals into seasonal goals. instead of a huge summer bucket list, i chose a simple summer manifesto. 10 things i want to do that are fun and simple. here we go:

1) make felted soap

2) build and play in an outdoor kitchen 

3) have an outdoor dinner with close friends with lots of candles and twinkle lights

4) paint with watercolour ice 

5) make a doily banner

6) finish the books on my summer reading list (and maybe more!)

7) make a picnic roll and have outdoor picnics as often as possible

8) have homemade smoothies as often as possible

9) set up our tent and camp in the garden with both kids for 1 night

10) buy fresh flowers every friday


what are your plans for this summer???

::: Sketchy Sunday ::: travel

::: SKETCHY SUNDAY :::

the weekly art challenge

by the artsy ants

every sunday the artsy ants will publish a theme which is to be sketched during the following week. you can take that theme literally, or you can let it spark your creativity, develop that topic, and see where it leads you. the following sunday, come back and link up your sketches for all to see.

the sketch theme for this week was:  TRAVEL
the link collection will be open all week long in case you're not yet ready to link up today. you may also link up sketches with themes we had previously, in that case please write your theme into the name/description line. you can link up your specific blog post, flickr upload, etc.


now let's see what you have sketched this past week! here just a few guidelines:

• encourage other participants by visiting their posts, letting them know how much you enjoy their sketches
• keep your submissions family friendly
• follow artsy ants and link back to us if you have a blog or website

see at the end of this post what the new theme of the week will be!

next week's sketch theme is:  

MILK

thrifty finds: the beatrix potter miniature collection box

today i'd like to share a yard sale find of our mum. this has been sitting on a shelf in her room for a while, and i finally took the time to take a few photographs. this cute little box that opens like a drawer has all the wellknown beatrix potter stories in it. i think it's adorable. and i also find that these stories, set in a world of their own are perfect to be put into miniture form and stored in an adorable little drawer. i can just imagine peter rabbit's mother, mrs. josephine rabbit, keeping a little collection like this in her den.