I love the start of a new year. Each month I love to write a round up of what I’ve been making and my analogue hobbies. This helps me to see what I’ve made, and holds me accountable for projects half started or bought. This year I’m calling my series The Monthly Thread. July’s post is all about sub boxes and cross stitch.

The Monthly Thread: sub boxes & cross stitch

Reading

Last week I started reading The Midnight Guests the latest novel by Alex Hay. He writes clever historical mystery stories and I was excited to received a review copy of his latest book. I’m really enjoying it and reading it whenever I can. I will share a review with you all soon.

Making

I enjoy my everyday analogue hobbies, such as journalling, and am pretty proud that I have managed to write something in my Five Year Memory Book for over 6 months now. My youngest teen has just bought a similar book and it’s a lovely way to record daily adventures.

I completed the colourful cross stitch sardines in a tin kit. I find cross stitch a little small to work on but I loved the pattern, which was from Cotton Clara.

I signed up to two subscription boxes – the teabreak project and the Hedgerow & Moor Monthly Almanac Box. The teabreak project included everything needed to make a small handmade paper journal which was fun to make. I love to try new things and this is a simple way to try them.

There was also one puzzle, a 1,000-piece puzzle featuring illustrated classic book spines by acclaimed illustrator Harriet Thomas-Bushook.

Visiting

We enjoyed a couple of trips out, the first was to see Glengarry Glen Ross at The Old Vic in Waterloo, London. We also used our National Trust cards to re-visit Grey’s Court. They have really lovely gardens, which are unfortunately not dog friendly, so we took it in turns to explore them on another hot and sunny day.