Lost in the Willows!

Hellooooo!  Yes, I'm back from the blogging underworld; did you miss me?!  Gosh, it's been a dreadfully long time since I was last here, so let's have a quick catch up with all the shenanigans at Saucy Towers.  This is a longer than usual post to make up for the bloggy wasteland of the last few months, so hang on in there (you might want to get a cup of gin tea and a biscuit).

Wind in the Willows

From January to April I was completely absorbed by my local amateur dramatic associations production of Wind in the Willows.  I found myself thrown in the deep end as assistant director, wardrobe mistress and actor in a variety of lovely cameo roles.  It was a wonderful experience and I learnt a great deal along the way but it pretty much meant everything else was put on hold for a bit (like dusting and blogging).

(Hedgehog spikes and me as a Steam Punk Weasel lady at the top of the post)  
It's hard to say which bit of it I enjoyed most, but I guess creating the costumes for the woodland creatures is pretty high on my list. Even though I say so myself, I am really proud of what I achieved together with the support from two amazing ladies who worked on the costumes with me.  My favourite costumes were the little squirrels and hedgehogs and I'm going to do a specific blog post on 'How-to-make-a-hedgehog-costume' and show you lots of gorgeous photos from the show.  

The icing on the cake for everyone involved in the Willows was to win a whole bunch of gongs at the Kent Drama Association awards.  Our wonderful director, Alison, was rewarded for all her hard work as were so many deserving others; hurrah for us!

Anyway, enough of me being a gushing old lovey, darlings.  Once the Willows was over, I had to play catch up with house, garden and family stuff so still no time for blogging.  Lots of time has been spent in the garden with my lovely, long suffering, current husband, tidying, clearing, weeding, sowing seeds and planting out. Much of this was in preparation for Curly Girl's big birthday barbecue bonanza for friends and family.  We had a water-slide and bouncy castle party with mocktails and ice-cream sundaes for 14 eight year old girls at lunch time, which then merged into a friends and family BBQ into the evening. 

The party was also an excuse for the CH to show off his new Man Cave, complete with bar.  There was much messiness late evening with silly grown up drinking games involving dodgy blue and yellow alcoholic substances.  Oh yes, and some even dodgier dancing with luminous balloons.  

There was also a lovely half term holiday in Greece where we sunbathed, swam and ate lots of lovely Greek food.  This year, the Teen Drama Queen and I, actually made it up to the Acropolis in Lindos for some super views. 

On our return from Greece we received the very sad news of the death of a much loved Aunt.  At 93 years old, she was one of the most vibrant and spirited people I've ever known; still going to bingo and cruising the charity shops in her last year of life.  Amidst the grief, we remembered and celebrated Peg's life at her wake together with a bit of dancing with Auntie Helen, who put me to shame with her dance moves to a Pencil Full of Lead! RIP Auntie Peg; it was a privilege and a pleasure to have known you xxx

Lastly, I had a busy couple of weeks sewing  bits to sell at Curly Girl's school summer fete.  I made some little across body boho bags for girls, some summer bunting, headbands and aprons and then my sewing machine died!  But all for a good cause and a perfect excuse to get a new machine, hurrah!!!  Lots more sewing to come and will show off the sexy new beast next week.

So that's it my darling; that's the gossip from Saucy Towers.  I hope you'll forgive me being AWOL and come back and visit again soon as I have lots more to tell you.

TTFN. Gal xxx

PS: Linking up with ClaireJustine at the Weekend Blog Hop for the very first time, hurrah!

Also linking up with PoCoLo over at Vevivos