That Friday Feeling...Summer

One more week before I go off on my summer holiday... Wimbledon is over, the Olympics are nearly upon us and it's about time I stopped avoiding the whole season theme and embraced the fact that we may not actually get a proper summer. So in order to encourage the weather to be a little nicer, this week's theme is dedicated to summer. Obviously I am going for the sunny side of summer, not the more temperamental side which we see all to often in this country. Come on sunshine - you can do it! Maybe if we all just concentrate on long summer days the weather will improve? Here are some bright summery things I found on Etsy this week.

Smell fresh and lovely with this summer sun soap by Scentcosmetics

Cute and summery magnet pegs by jellybeanstudio

Definitely thinking of summer with this print by TonyMax

Today's random 'facts' (as always, take them with a slight pinch of salt... I'm not really an expert!)

• The first swimsuits were designed by the Ancient Greeks in 350BC. The first ladies' bathing suits were introduced in the early 1800s - they were dresses with woollen bloomers underneath to weight them down. At the time women didn't do more swimming than the occasional paddle or jump of a wave and it would have been inexcusable to have a sun tan.
• The hottest British summer on record was in 1976 when the average temperature was 17.8 celsius, the coldest was in 1725 when the average was 13.1 degrees.
• The Eiffel Tower grows in the summer! On hot days the iron expands so much that the whole tower can grow up to 17cm taller. 
• In 1816 North Eastern US and Canada did not have any summer at all - in fact they had snow and icy winds for an entire year. It was most likely due to a volcano eruption in what is now Indonesia, disrupting weather patterns. 
• The Chinese invented and wore the first pairs of sunglasses more than 2000 years ago.
• According to scientific experiments, an average single scoop of ice cream in a cone takes 50 licks to consume. I need to test this one myself...