Puttery Treats For June

Tis Puttery Treat time ladies! Try to squeeze in as many of the little lovelies as you can before the kids break up and invade your peace…

* Put your abundance of garden mint to good use by chopping it finely into a sea salt and olive oil scrub and using it in your morning shower for quite the tingliest, most fragrant start to the day…

* Raid your ribbon box and thread length after length through the holes in your children’s baby-hood cellular blankets for a cosy , up-cycled cover up on cool Summer nights.

* Re-purpose old, but lovely spirit bottles by re-filling them with bath oil in the bathroom, or ironing water in the laundry room. The exotic liqueur bottles you tend to acquire on holiday are just perfect…

* Set up a permanent tent in the garden for shady reading. Make it as pretty as you can and fill it with an abundance of cushions and quilts so it is as comfortable as possible.

* Eat mint Raita and crudites for a cooling Summer lunch on hot days.

* Plant pots full of colourful Sweet Williams either side of your doorstep for a fragrant waft of cloves whenever you sweep by them…

* Give little girls empty mason jars and help them create tiny little bottled fairy worlds. Or do it yourself because that little girl still lives inside you.

* Fill the garden with paper pom-poms and invite the girls round for a Summer evening soiree…

* Grab your babba’s next time it rains and take them dancing around the garden in a warm Summer afternoon shower. Joy like nothing else!

* Make home-made fly paper by dipping lengths of strong brown parcel paper into a mixture of equal parts sugar, golden syrup and water, boiled until it thickens. Allow to dry in the fresh air for half an hour, then bring back inside to use wherever flies are clustering.

* Re-read Larkrise to Candleford while devouring glorious big fat slices of Victoria Sponge stuffed with cream and strawberries at their plumpest best.

* Write your Mum a thank-you letter, including a photograph of the two of you on one of your childhood summer holidays. She misses those days…

* Add a drop of essence of violets to a pot of raspberry jam for a burst of summer fragrance on your morning croissant.

* Make gin & tonic ice lollies for an all grown up treat on a hot night.

* Turn an apron into a domestic work-of-art by layering it with stitched on doilies, teeny little flowers, rows of ribbon and embroidered floral sentiment. Really go to town on creating something beautiful and mark your sense of domestic bliss for always.

* Plant kitchen herbs in cheap and cheerful glass sundae dishes for a happy, burst of summer on your kitchen table.

* It’s that time again! Remove two things from every surface in your home.

* Bottle jar after jar of pickled shallots for the perfect addition to Saturday afternoon Ploughman’s lunches.

* Fill a bowl with pebbles and soak your feet in a bowl full of cold water, lemon juice and a splash of vodka for a zesty, antiseptic way to attend to swollen Summer feet.

* Stitch square head scarves on to the front of over-sized cushions for an instant Summer transformation: particularly lovely with vintage, illustrated souvenir scarves.

* Turn an over-ripe avocado into a face mask. Simply mash and stir in a spoonful of runny honey and four teaspoons of cider vinegar, et voila: happy, energised, smooth skin…

* Surprise the kids with ice-cream for breakfast. Add “sprinkles” with  cereal, muesli and fruit.

* Stitch the edge of a pretty lace table runner to a too-short t-shirt.

Happy June!