Week 25: Welcome summer!

What a gorgeous summer week it's been! The summer solstice came with sunshine and warmth and I for one, have been making the most of it!

That means there's not much to show for this week, simply because if I wasn't working, I was outdoors indulging in the sunny weather.

The week started with a novel concept: a netwalk. I'd read about netwalking a little while ago and was really tempted to try it out. When Bristol Freelance Mum Faye Dicker announced she was organising a walk for other freelance mums with tots, I couldn't not go. So Nimue and I went to Ashton Court on Monday morning and met up, walked and talked with another 10 or so freelance mums and their little ones. It was a hard slog at times - pushchairs and off-roading don't make the best combo - but it was fun and interesting. I'll definitely be doing more of this in the near future. 

Nimue exploring the gardens pre-netwalk

I announced last week I was working on some yarn based projects. Well, I have to confess I have made very little progress on those and thus can't tell you much about them yet other than they include a belt and two cardigans for my daughter.

After last week's competitive baking, I'm all baked out so there has been no cake making this week either. I did cook us an amazing pasta salad which pretty much encapsulated summer in one dish. It contained sweetcorn, roasted peppers, chopped spinach, cherry tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, mozzarella and red pesto. Let's say it was hugely popular with the family.

We welcomed the summer solstice at Chalice Well in Glastonbury. It has to be my favourite place on earth, the perfect ground to re-charge your batteries and it had been way too long since we'd been there. Nimue enjoyed the water of the sacred red spring very much. I can't say I'm surprised as her name is that of the Lady of the Lake in the legends of Avalon so it seems fitting that she was in her element there.

We rounded off the weekend with a trip to Tynstesfield and had a wander around the estate. Have I ever mentioned how much I love living in Bristol? There's always lots of fun stuff happening and there are so many lovely places to visit just a stone's throw away.

With all this sunshine, we've been lathering on the suncream but I noticed mid-week that it was drying our daughter's skin quite a bit. So I decided to make a whipped body butter, something all natural to nourish that precious, beautiful skin. If you'd like to make some yourself, here's what you need:

50 gr shea butter or cocoa butter or mango butter (I went with a mix of cocoa butter and shea butter)
20 gr of coconut oil
30 gr of sweet almond oil or avocado oil or olive oil (I went with sweet almond)
Up to 20 drops of pure essential oil (I went with 8 drops of mandarin, 6 drops of lavender and 2 drops of chamomile)

Place all your ingredients apart from the essential oil(s) in a heatproof dish and melt them au bain marie. When all the ingredients have melted, keep them on a low heat for 20 minutes.

After that time, remove them from the heat and transfer the dish to the fridge straight away. Leave the mixture to cool and harden completely. This can take a few hours.

Once you've reached that stage, take an electric whisk to it. At first it feels quite hard and it looks a mess but within a couple of minutes, the mixture looks like whipped cream. When you start thinking it looks good enough to eat, add the essential oils and whisk some more (and don't eat it!). 

And that's it, your body butter is done. All you have left to do is transfer it to a nice clean jar and you're good to go. If the weather is really hot, you might want to keep some of your body butter in the fridge but that's not an absolute necessity. 

I'm glad to report that Nimue's skin looked instantly better after applying the butter on her. There's just nothing quite like natural beauty products.

I hope you all enjoyed the sunshine too. Until next week! x