Boy oh boy, did we have a hot January! Even though it’s the middle month of summer, often we get mild weather in January and then it heats up in February – not this year! The first half of the month started off pretty standard but the heat really ramped up in the second half. At one point we had 12 days in a row that reached 35 °C (95 °F) or above! One day we even reached 43.5 °C (110 °F)!
Usually February is much hotter than January but so far February’s weather is very pleasant. The nights are cool which makes sleeping much easier. I really hope this spell of milder weather lasts a little bit longer! Although I see that later next week it is supposed to heat up again 🙁
I took this photo of our tomatoes back in early January before the weather started to get really hot. Once the heat wave started we had to pick them as soon as they started to get some colour. If we left the tomatoes to ripen on the bushes they would cook before we could pick them! Even with the shade cover over the vegetable patch they were still burning in the hot sun.
At least the hot weather gave me an excuse to sit inside and read my favourite blogs. I was able to search for some great recipes, craft, and DIY ideas to share! As I normally do with this type of post, I am sharing the direct link as well as a Pinterest pin. So you can click through and have a look now or just use the ‘Pin It’ button to pin it for later.
The first link that I want to share is for these Easy Garlic Parmesan Breadsticks that I saw at Sugar & Soul Co. These look so good; I can’t wait to try the recipe!
Another type of bread that caught my eye was this Easy Homemade Pita Bread from Joyce over at The Joyce of Cooking. I’ve always wanted to make my own pita bread and this recipe has inspired me to give it a try!
Once you’ve made some bread you could spread it with some of this yummy looking Parsley Pesto that I saw over at Diethood. What a great idea to use parsley to make pesto!
It wasn’t just breads and spreads that I have been checking out lately. I also saw these Nutella Oatmeal Cookies over at Eat, Little Bird. I love the idea of Nutella and oats in a cookie and the marble effect looks great too!
Another cookie recipe that caught my eye was for these Fudgy Chewy Triple Choc Cookies from Abeer at CakeWhiz. Even if I couldn’t see a picture of these cookies they would still sound delicious!
And what about these Snickerdoodle Bars from Dorothy over at Crazy for Crust! The cinnamon sugar layer has me drooling, so this is another recipe that I just have to try!
I also want to share some great craft ideas so I’ll start with this great round up of 10 Easy No Sew Cat DIY Toys from Monkia at Animallama. There’s some great ideas in this post (including my wine cork cat toys) so you really should head over and have a look!
Wonderful childhood memories came flooding back when I saw this homemade Fortune Teller over at Skip to My Lou. My friends and I had so much fun playing with these when I was in primary school. I’m glad to see they are still around today!
If you want to get your year organised then this Printable Blank Calendar from Smitha at Smiling Colors should do the trick. I love that it is blank so you can print it out for any year!
I’m a big fan of homemade earrings so these DIY Black and Silver Geometric Earrings from Camila at The Crafting Nook caught my eye during December. Can’t wait to try making some of these!
And what about these Sequin Ear Crawlers that I saw over at Make it Lucky! I have lots of drop earrings but I have never made any in this style. I’ll have to give it a try!
The final link that I want to share is for these DIY Clothespin Drink Coasters that I saw at Delineate Your Dwelling. What a cute idea!
I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of the links that I saw during December and January. They have definitely inspired me to get crafting and baking! If you’re looking for even more inspiration head over to my Pinterest Page for a look!
Hi, I'm Kaylene, and I'm a keen gardener,budding baker and wannabe DIYer!
Mmm some really delicious recipes to try out 🙂
I wish it was summer in Europe, we had our first snow this winter today – I’m not very happy about it 🙂 I can’t wait for the summer to begin, even though these temperatures you mention must be unbearable. We never reach more than 35 °C and I can’t even imagine how 43.5 °C must feel like!
Thanks Monika! Thankfully we normally only have a few days at a time over 35 °C. At the end of this week we will have 3 days around 38 °C – not looking forward to that ;( I don’t envy you with your snow, we don’t get snow at all during winter where I live, just quite a few frosts.