Making sock cats at a crafty birthday party

I visited Hanson’s garden centre on Saturday morning with my Mum. We used to go their with my Dad when I was little so I was excited about going again to see what they have. Unfortunately I didn't buy much as it seemed a bit pricey, but my Mum got some bedding plants and a yellow rose for my Dad's memorial garden. When I got home I decided to go to Brookside garden centre and ended up spending £40 on plants, including lots of perennials for the back garden, and some flowers for my Dad's memorial garden.

It was wet again on Saturday afternoon so I stayed in a did my 1970s confectionery jigsaw (1000 pieces), I had it finished in about 3 hours.

I bought a new jigsaw called 'the Artist's cat', which looks like it should be fun, I just need another wet weekend so I can get stuck into it.

It was my friend Caroline's 32nd birthday party on Sunday, and she invited us around to her house for a crafting party and food. I really struggled to choose a present, but eventually chose her some Spanish hot chocolate (very tasty, thick hot choc which you make in small cup), a selection of brighly coloured eyeshadows, some beads to make a bracelet, a tokidoki small Japanese style bag, and some iron on Hello Kitty patches. I arrived at her house just after 2pm on Sunday afternoon and helped her to make a gluten free chocolate cake before the rest of the guests arrived. I also made some lemonade but we forgot to drink it! Everyone sat in her living room and we got busy crafting little sock animals. I made a stripy cat (inspired by my cat Steve) using a sock. Other people made dogs, rabbits, yetis and creatures that we couldn't identify. Two of our friends brought their little babies along as well which was sweet. Caroline laid on a lovely spread, she made a vegan Mexican chilli and served it with wraps, tacos, salad, cheese, sour cream, salsa, guacamole and lots of other yummy stuff. The cake tasted great too.

It would have been my Dad's 72nd birthday on Monday, so I redid the memorial garden at the allotment on my Dad's birthday. I planted a large perennial dog daisy, sweet peas, morning glory carnivale de venice, French marigold, pot marigold, trailing violas, livingstone daisies, orange pansies and fuchsia. It looks much better. I hope the slugs don't attack all the flowers, I've put down plenty of slug pellets. My mum bought a rose tree for the garden so I potted this into a large tub. I also left a bunch of flowers from my aunty Amy and aunty Anne. God bless you Dad.

My sister texted Monday night to say she was coming up the following day with my two nieces for two days. They arrived Tuesday afternoon and Matilda and Venetia helped me fill up large pots of compost and pot on some peppers, aubergines and chillies in the greenhouse at home (I'd been to get another bag of organic compost). In the evening we went out for a meal with them to a local Italian restaurant, Monte Christo, which was lovely. I ordered some amazing cheese, sundried tomato and garlic mushrooms. The following night we had a little feast of crisps, biscuits and goodies and watched the English version of the film Pollyanna.

I was off work on Tuesday so I planted flowers into the front garden. I was going to plant everything in the back garden but some gas men are doing work outside back gate, and they were 'effing and jeffing' so decided to work out the front instead.

The weather's still been very wet, but thankfully not as windy. The hanging baskets have gone up - they'd finished hardening off. I did one for my Mum which she's pleased with. We've been weeding at the allotment. Chris planted the squashes outside. I also planted the cucumbers, aubergines and squashes in the bottom greenhouse. The first flowers on the tomatoes have appeared, there's no yellow leaves yet, thankfully, but I need to buy some epsom salts just in case I spot any signs of magnesium deficiency. When we planted the tomatoes we put a small sprinkling of epsom salts into the planting hole, so this might have helped.

We picked some tasty looking radish.