hello JULY
Here we are again! Another month has flown by so here's another cheeky round up of everything July brought along, from our honeymoon and mini day trips to tackling being back at work briefly and of course, meeting Buddy! I'll keep it short and sweet as I'm aware I've been waffling quite a lot over here lately...
b'bye honeymoon
During the first week of July we were still on the second part of our mega-moon, and enjoying exploring Réunion Island. I haven't written much about our honeymoon adventures yet because I plan to waffle and share ALL THE PHOTOS from all of the adventures in a separate post but for now let me just say... Réunion had it all from paddleboarding on lagoon coral reefs and swimming in waterfalls, to hiking up volcanoes and canyoning in the mountains. WE LOVED IT THERE!
You can also tap the hashtag (or avoid it!) for all things wedding and holiday related #joandwillsnextadventure 😁
STOP. Paddle time
From paddling on the lagoon in Réunion, to the Lake at Milton Country Park, I have never been so happy to have been able to spend so much time on a paddleboard this year! Maybe it's time to consider investing in one of my own so I can explore the River Cam too...
Totally different scenery but the same calm, soothing vibes and SUNSHINE ☀️ 100% my happy place!
As well as paddling more, I've also been swimming a lot more this past month thanks to a few trips to Jesus Green Lido with Claireabellemakes. It's so nice to final make use of such a gem of a pool on our doorstep, espeically when it's nice and calm in the early mornings!
Hoping to make the most of this local gem over the Summer
norfolk day trippin'
We ended up taking three trips to Norfolk this month, now the secret about Buddy is out it probably makes more sense! We first went to see Buddy at Retro Campers Norfolk in Sherringham and decided to make a day trip of it, with steam train rides to Holt and fish'n'chips on the beach!
There were Morris Dancers everywhere, apparently setting a world record!
The second time was actually to say hello to The Beard's family as they were camping in Burnham Deepdale so we had a day at beautiful Titchwell beach, swimming in the sea (we saw a seal!) and again, eating fish'n'chips for tea before driving home again. It was a lovely day out, especially as I has spent the week beforehand mainly on the toilet (sorry, tmi!)
First day out of the house after a week of being cooped up turned out nice 🌊 Snoozing on the sand, swimming in the sea and seal spotting was the perfect medicine after a 💩-filled week!
The third time we went to the beautoful Norfolk coast, was of course to collect Buddy the Sunshine van! YAY! We headed back to Sherringham to collect him before exploring a new part of the coast, up at Happisburgh. I’m not going to lie, I picked that place for our mini adventure with Buddy because I thought it was called Happies-bruh... turns out it’s pronounced Haze-bruh!
Picking up Buddy! EEEEK!
Still, we were both VERY HAPPY paddling and picnicking on the beach and the lighthouse there is a beaut. It reminded me of Portland Bill - did anyone else used to watch that on t’telebox or did I just reveal just how old I am?
Looking for Portland Bill
meeting Lola
The day after we picked up Buddy, we had planned to pop to Nottingham to surprise our families. We hadn't told anyone that we had actually managed to secure a loan and go for the van of our dreams so it was nice to roll up and beep the horn outside my folks house and introduce them to Buddy. What was even BETTER though was meeting my shiny new niece, Lola!
When Jo met Lola
I was meant to meet this hairy little Princess the week after she was born but due to my stupid tummy bug I had to postpone it until I was germ free and it worked out perfectly! We had a really nice afternoon with the family and Daddy Sunshine got to snap all his ladies together on the sofa.
SO much love for this family photo
BUT WHAT ABOUT WORK JO? Oh yes... I did some of that too! HONEST! After all the time off I had planned and slack I had tried to give myself over the wedding planning and actually getting married period, it was quite full on getting back to it again!
back to work
I mean, it was actually only for three weeks that I ended up being back at work this month, what with another trip planned to go to a wedding in Bavaria at the end of July but I was ready and threw myself into Hello Sunshine again at full speed!
I certainly tried my best through the bouts of cystitis and poops!
During the three weeks I was back in the studio properly, I caught up with outstanding orders, smashed through emails, replied to lots of lovely commission enquiries, packed up and shipped off wholesale orders and prepped 6 weeks worth of wedding blog posts (I hope you're enjoying them btw!). I also popped a new custom kitty pin and cufflink option into the shops, which I've been meaning to do for MONTHS now!
Beautiful @tammythepersian was the purrfect model to trial the new shapes too, don’t you think? 😻
Being poorly slowed me down a bit but overall I really enjoyed being back at work and getting stuck back in to everything. New Best B*tches pins snuck into the Sunshine shop and dwindling jewellery stcoks got topped up. I also had the ABSOLUTE PLEASURE of painting lots of lovely guests at a wedding in Birmingham, a new favourite part of my job!
Gorgeous venue, beautiful bride and groom and the most brilliant guests who sat patiently while I doodled and painted as many of them as I could today 🎨
I also re-opened my Sunshine commission books and had a lot of fun creating some VERY special wedding and family portraits for people and a couple of lovely custom kitty pins. I can't really share any of the portraits with you right now but here's a peek at one of my favourite watercolour Sunshines from earlier this year, meet Nat & Marlow!
Natalie & Marlow 🐱 Custom watercolour portrait and an absolute joy to paint
Starting to get new ideas and work flowing again felt really good and with all the Sunshine van excitement, day trips, a new niece to meet and everything else going on this month I pretty much forgot about the fact we had ANOTHER trip coming up!
not another holiday!?!
Originally I had the first weekend of August down for a trip to Margate for the second Lucky Dip Club x In Colourful Company trip to Dreamland. I was SO EXCITED and had booked our Airbnb ready to make another fun-filled weekend of it! However, at the same time, The Beard had been planning a trip to Bavaria for a wedding (which I hadn't realised clashed!) and in the end we found ourselves double booked. Seeing as Will had booked flights and accommodation in Germany, I figured it was easier (cheaper!) to cancel the seaside plans, even though I was gutted.
The magic of Dreamland, Margate on our trip last Summer! 🙌🏻
Another reason I think this trip snuck up on me was because I'd left the planning entirely down to Will - my brain was far too full of everything else going on so it helped a lot not to have to think about planning a trip abroad. After a panic shop and shipping update to let my lovely customers and followers know I was disappearing again, I got ready to pack my bags and fly to Munich on the 31st July. Not a bad way to end a pretty full on month I guess!
Princess Pegs always helps with packing
Seeing as the first full day of this trip started in August, I think I'll save all the juicy details about the travelling, wedding and lake and mountain fun-times until next month's update. If you follow along on social media I'm sure you've already seen plenty of peeks at what we got up to but until next time...
Auf Wiedersehen, Sunshine lovers and Danke for reading!
☀️
