My Month in Numbers 2011: July

Hello you.

I'm probaby going to have to pretend that we're not as far through the year as we actually are. Because it's all downhill from here toward going back to the day-job, back to coat/scarf/thermal-wearing and back to dark, dank, afternoons and going home in the same darkness you got out of bed in!

There have already been far too many glimpses of new scrapbook paper ranges with a Christmas theme popping up for my liking. Ranges which I avoid looking at with the same effort at self-preservation as the Ancient Greeks treated eye-contact with Medusa or the students of Hogwarts did with the Basilisk.

And yet I can't ignore the fact that July is indeed over and all I can do is quantify it and then move on into August ... keeping a woolly hat nearby.  Just in case.

Here's my month ... in numbers [if this series is new to you, you can catch up on the idea here]:

Speaking of woolly hats ... I've actually already resorted to wearing one once this month ...

2 =the number of outdoor 'Great British Summertime' events we attended during which we got drenched in rain.

The first was the Mela [an Asian festival] where all we could face was a quick walk around, followed by a mad grab for takeaway curry and a mad dash back to the van out of the rain to eat it!

The second event was a local food fair held in the front of the 19th Century Bowes Museum. Sounds idyllic doesn't it?

Yeah, well ... it looked like this:

We may have got wet but we bought cheese and a driftwood heart sculpture, plus we escaped the downpour for an hour by having lunch in their lovely restaurant so ... all was not entirely washed out.

One reason - apart from the obvious - that I don't want to be wearing a winter hat just yet, is that I've just learned how to do this ...

3 = the initial number of strands of hair required to put in a 'waterfall braid' following a tutorial I spotted on Pinterest:

What it didn't mention was that it requires:

• at least all 10 of your fingers and, if I were you, I'd gain the assistance of 10 - if not 20 - assisting fingers if you can! And it also requires ...
• at least 3 times the upper-arm strength and stamina that I am currently in possession of.

Looks pretty though. If 'pretty' is what a grown-up wants her hair to look though? Personally I would never have actively sought out a hair-style tutorial,  but this one was just there on Pinterest, pinned by someone I follow ... and I tried it.

Pinterest is like a gateway drug to all manner of hobbies, recipes, tutorials etc you had no interest in before ... but now you've got a taste of them ...

Speaking of addictions ... and Pinterest ... if you've been tracking my monthly shoe habit through my Month in Numbers posts this year ... you may be interested in the following pin ...

£7.00 =how much I spent on thse perfect lovelies:

17 = the number of days I've been running the Going Postal project and pinning all your post-themed blog posts to the Pinterest board:

If you've not joined in yet, the full details are here and you still have two whole weeks to take part.

A few feet = how much the squash plant in our greenhouse grew. When we bought it in a 3" pot we had no idea it would get this big.

4x6 feet = the size of the greenhouse which the squash plant is currently seeking to colonise.

In the grand scheme of Life's Irresponsible Moments - buying a squash plant without checking its growing habit is not so bad.

• It's not like I bought a puppy in my dinner hour.
• Or got my favourite line from Clerks tattooed across my back [It's filthy. You'd be shocked.]  
• And it's not even as if I ran with scissors ... nothing like that ... 

But still ... maybe we should have read up on veg growing before we brought the edible Triffid home  to our postage-stamp sized back garden.

Especially since ...

1 so far = the number of fruits which grew, ripened ... and then dropped off in my hand ... a little prematurely:

[A pose which shall forever now be known as 'doing a Mollie Makes'].

Since the unfortunate dropping-off incident I've had a rather graphic chat with my friend and favourite pumpkin-titillator Kirsty Neale who revealed to me the Facts-of-Pumpkin-Family-Life.

Considering how we're both girls who both dropped biology lessons as soon as possible in school, in favour of  the cleanliness and structure of Physics ... she's now inducted me in the dark-yet-apparently-essential-art of fertilising squash plants yourself!

By hand-pollination.

Or, as Kirsty scientifically put it: "by rubbing bits together". 

If I can ever look you all in the eye again after this ... I'll let you know if it works!

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If you ever join in with your own Month in Numbers post let me know and I'll add a link to it in my post. [And because I've been brought up properly, I'll drop by and say Thank Yoooooou too!].

• Craftyclaireliz of The Crafty Alchemist has joined in once again this month with another scrapbook page featuring her numbers. You can read her post here. 
• Jennifer of Jennifer's Jumbles joined in here  with a lovely post featuring the new addition to her family. Warning: if you don't like photos of beautiful children, don't look! 
• Jayne of Paper Wool + Thread added her numbers to our grand total here.
• Kate from Nanna Kate joined in with her numbers for the first time here. 

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Thanks for stopping by today, I've got mounds of things to share with you in the coming weeks ... if only I could collect Frequent-Blogger points! Now that would make a good number for next month's post!

I'm back tomorrow with another Going Postal scrapbooking idea so I guess I'll see you then then.

Julie x