Well that was February

I have no idea how we arrived at the end of February so quickly!  It been another month of rain and cloudy days but this week we have at least had a couple of brighter days so perhaps we have had our share of the rain for now, lets see.

We have finally, finally got the kitchen and shower/utility finished, yayyy.  It seems to have taken forever, but the flooring was put down yesterday, and we are just finishing faffing with the last little bits.  The kitchen blind still hasn't arrived but that will be a quick job to do once it's here.  I'm so glad we decided to tackle these two jobs while the weather was horrible, now at least when we do have some better weather I won't feel too guilty for spending time outside. 

Bonnie stayed over with us last weekend, she had a project to do for school, they are learning about the Saxons and they had to make something relating to that time.  She wanted to make a Saxon lady so we picked up a Disney doll from the charity shop for 99p, (she didn't want to use one of her precious Barbie dolls, lol), and we set about making some clothes.

First we made her an under dress

Then had to figure out how to make a smock to go over it and a wimple.

Jacob helped sew the smock and do the fancy stitching around the edge as Bonnie was a bit bored by this time, lol.  We made a necklace using some stitch marker rings, and a button for a brooch.  I'm happy to say that apart from spending 99pence on the doll everything came from stash, sometimes it comes in handy to keep a box of odds and ends.

Bonnie looked for Saxon girl names, and decided on Mildred.

I think Mildred, although not perfect, looks just fine, and I think it's safe to say I enjoyed this project as much as Bonnie🤣

Apart for cobbling dolls clothes together I've had a good reading month, five books read -

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths 

Ward D by Frieda McFaddon

Lies Dammed lies, and History by Jody Taylor

The Teacher by Tim Sullivan

November 9 by Colleen Hoover

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald 

The Teacher was our library book club choice. This is the sixth book in the series which I though was a bit strange to give us.  It was ok but I think we missed something jumping in on book six.  I guess who 'done it' quite early on, I wouldn't run to read any of the others in the series.

the Jodi Taylor book was book seven in the St Mary's Chronicles and just as good as the pervious six.

Frieda McFaddon and Colleen Hoover books get a lot of stick, but you know what you're getting, they are purely entertainment not literary classics.  I did really like November 9.

The Stranger Diaries wasn't what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it.  I finished the month off with The Great Gatsby, it's been on my TBR for  a while.  I enjoyed the slow pace of it and the writing, very different from today.  Is it over rated? probably, is it something I would read again? Yes, I think I would, It's the sort of book that you would probably get more from the more it was read.

I hope to be back a few more times during March and to do the rounds of blog reading over the next few days.

-X-