Lovely Little Thing

The past few weeks have creeped along, as days seem to do here in January and February but in the last week or so I've felt a noticeable change of the pep in my step with the days becoming longer. It makes such a huge difference to me when it's not completely dark at 4:30pm! Light! Bring on the SUN! Ahhhh. Keeping busy is the best cure for the winter blues, I think. I finished reading Life After Life, which was wonderful. I've also been doing the usual crafting. Finally finished a simple scarf and now I've started sewing the quart coat but I probably should have done that in the autumn because now I'm feeling a bit over winter and would rather sew summer dresses. I made a detour for a while to make some of the Purl Soho City Gym Shorts. Love those, but I must finish the coat! I also have a few little Easter dresses in the works for the girls. AND it does help to have some lovely press about your life and work from wonderful magazines to get you through a winter funk.

In Bloom

I love Christmas and the weeks leading up to it--the ornament making, cooking baking, tree decorating, shopping, wrapping, Christmas music, seeing family and friends, food, food and more food--I love it all. But I'm equally over it almost as soon as 25 December passes! I'm ready to put all the decorations away, clean out closets and cabinets and think of things I want to accomplish in the new year. I don't make resolutions as such, but I often make a list of things I want to get done around the house and goals I'd like to achieve. This year some of those include ordering many photo books and yes, I've made a long list of them. Lois is now 7 and I've only been meaning to to that for all of those 7 years! (Only just today I uploaded her 5th birthday photos to an album online.) I want to organize and clear off the 2,000+ photos on my phone and about a bazillion on my computer, which I have a hard time keeping up with regularly. I want to keep challenging myself with new sewing patterns. Though I still haven't knocked out the quart coat it's next on the sewing table, yay! Ah, there are really so many things on my list! I'm sure it would be a bit boring to hear me rattle on about too many more of them, but one crafty thing I'd also like to learn is how to make beautiful paper flowers, and I think it would be a fun activity to do with the girls as well. I've made some basic paper flowers in the past but never detailed, intricate or particularly life-like flowers.

Holiday Cheer

I love holidays and Christmas is a favorite. This year we're staying in London for Christmas, which we've only done one other time in the 5 years we've been here. Even when we go away, we always decorate a bit, 2013 being a favorite, before we re-arranged our house. I thought we'd go all out decorating like mad, but I'm a little behind in all the things I had planned. But it's still quite festive and we've done a good bit of Christmas crafting and baking. We made a lot of paper snowflakes, which are addictive and really easy to make. They're in our front window and so pretty to look at in the evening light.

Little Christmas Dresses

I'm so happy I finished the girls' Christmas dresses! I wasn't sure I'd get them finished in time (I'm pretty slow at sewing actually) but I got them done with about a week to spare before Christmas. These actually went a lot faster than I was expecting. Since I've made the pattern once before for the girls for Easter, I was already familiar with it so I knew they wouldn't be too challenging but they do have a lot of steps, and I needed to make two, so there was that to consider time-wise.

Sewing Jeans!

My head is a flurry of Christmas to-dos and excitement right now. So much to do, so little time! This week I want mail our Christmas cards, most of which go to the US so need to be mailed soon, make stockings, start the the girls Christmas dresses, which will be a Christmas version of the Oliver + S fairytale dresses I made a while back, and wrap lots of presents. The girls and I have been having fun making some Christmas crafts and are looking forward to getting our tree this weekend as well. Soon I'll post photos of our merry making. But now, I'm happy to have finished my most ambitious sewing project that I tackled solo, which is a pair of jeans! They are Jamie Jeans, a pattern by Named Clothing. When I saw the the pattern on the web site, I thought, woah, those are some great looking jeans! And how amazing do they look on their model? I love the contrasting piping on the pockets and the shape is great too. I wanted to step it up this year and challenge myself with some more ambitious sewing patterns and this was one of them.

Favorite Outtakes

October was a busy month! My mom was visiting, which was great but she got a terrible cold while she was here. Still, we did get in some fun time, like going to Columbia Road and Liberty on a few days. Despite not feeling well she was really helpful with our girls since Andrew was away for a bit of that time. My book launch events were great as well. It was a lot of fun to meet people who are genuinely interested in crafty shops in London and to sign my book for them. Quite a strange feeling to sign your own book but one that was very enjoyable! And it was fun to bake some cute sewing themed cakes and cupcakes.

Picking Time

My head is still buzzy over the release of my book and I have more photos from it that I'd like to share. For each shop feature I could only choose a handful of photos for the spreads, and for some shops, like Loop, I had about 75 that I would have liked to include! It was sooo hard to choose the final photos. I thought I'd do a few posts on some of my favorite shops in the book and post some of those photos that didn't make it in. But there is life for us outside of my book! A few weeks ago we went fruit picking and all had a great time. How could you not have fun fruit picking?

London Stitch and Knit: You're Invited

I have quite a bit of catching up to do on my blog. We went fruit picking a few weeks ago and the girls had a blast and I have some really pretty photos to share, and last week we few to the US for a wedding, which was super fun but a bit tiring to go so far with the tots for just a few days. We've been home four days and still struggling with jet lag, argh! But before I can get to those things I wanted to announce my book launch dates, one of which is at the Decorative Living Fair next week. I'm so excited to be doing this fair! It's a favourite of mine. Here are a few photos from two years ago. I've been busy stitching on price tags (going a bit overboard, perhaps!), making fabric bookmarks, pin cushions and a few more little sewn bits to sell alongside the book. And my mom has been making things as well and will be with me at the fair. I'm so excited she's coming in town to help me. Stag and Bow will also have quite a few beautiful haberdashery bits for sale with me. For my other book launch events, I'll be at Fringe and Stag and Bow on the 17th and at Rye Books on the 18th. Hope to see you on one of these dates! Yesterday I got to see my book for the first time and I was over the moon! I'm so happy with it and hope you will enjoy it too. I've posted a few photos of the interior on my instagram. 

In Love Sewing

Life is whizzing by, and as usual I feel like I'm having a hard time keeping up! I have a backlog of photos I want to post on my blog but they need editing first, and there's projects to tackle, things to sew, lists of stuff to get done, a wedding in the US next week to plan for. I know some people who manage to do IT ALL like Alicia and Artemis, two of my greatest inspirations, but alas, I'm afraid that as hard as I try to get a lot done, I never seem to get nearly as much done (or so well) as they do! Honestly I feel like most of my waking hours (if I'm at home) are spent picking things up and putting them away--I guess that's the life of a mother consistently distracted by clutter and mess. I always try to remind myself of one of my favorite quotes: "a perfectly kept house is the sign of a misspent life" which is also the title of a favorite book by Mary Randolph Carter. Clutter or no clutter, I keep trying to get a lot done...

Lake District Road Trip

We bought a car, woohoo! Though I realize the photo above is of a sailboat not a car... getting to that. It's a pretty big deal since we've not had a car for almost 6 years, and with two children, I'm amazed we made it that long without one. Granted our neighborhood has just about everything we need on our doorstep: butcher, baker, candlestick maker (not really that last one but I couldn't resist adding it because I'm a goof), fishmonger, wine shop, school, doctor, playgrounds, parks, all of these things within a 15 minute walk and a few of them a one minute walk, just around the corner really. We order our bulky groceries online (laundry soap, paper towels--you know, the boring stuff) and the rest we get locally, so that part of life without a car is pretty easy for us. Sometimes, though, it's been a royal pain! I have been reduced to tears on more than one occasion, standing at a bus stop in the freezing rain with two equally wet, freezing children and thought, this is nuts! We'll still take the bus to many places, but I'm really happy we finally decided to buy a car. It will make some short trips in the neighborhood easier, like picking up a very tired Lois from playdates after school rather than having to practically drag her home walking. And it means more road trips! We usually rent a car when we want to take a road trip, but that gets really expensive and is a bit of a hassle. Gotta go get the car, do the paperwork, pay the deposit, hear the sales pitch about insurance and whatnot, install the carseats each time, etc. I'm still not completely comfortable driving on the other side of the car and road, but I'm getting there. So, for our first road trip, we decided to go to the Lake District.

Summer Days

Ah, I wouldn't mind having that view again today! Beautiful blue water, warm breeze, sunshine, sand... all with family. We're back in London and have been for almost two weeks now. Alas, it seems like so long ago that we were in the US at the beach! We had a great time though, and I'm grateful we get to go home every summer for a few weeks and see our families and try to make the most of our time. We went to Cape San Blas in Florida, which was perfect. It's a bit remote compared to other summer beach cities in Florida, so it wasn't packed with people, which made being there all the more relaxing. Our girls had a great time with their cousins--lots of time body boarding in the ocean, swimming in the pool, games on the beach. We also drove to North Carolina to go to Asheville, a city we like a lot, and then up to Baltimore to see more family.

The Perfect Beach Tote

We're at the beach having a great time in Florida with my family. I was a little worried about the weather before we got here. It was looking pretty bleak. A dark and stormy beach forecast did not make for ideal visions of beach bliss. But it turned around quickly and we've had great weather every day! Before we left I was on the lookout for a new beach bag. My boat tote has seen better days and I've been wanting something a bit more hardy that can stand up to the wear and tear of general life dragging (mostly spilled, dripped, crunched kid) stuff around in a bag. And that made me think of Susan Hoff's tote bags made from recycled sails.

Beautiful Things

I've been in a bit of a funk lately. More of a slump than a funk, but something that went from relieved to be finished with my book to sad that it is officially finished. It's not often that I have such a big project in my lap at once. It seemed to go from full speed to stop in one day. I'm still very happy it's finished and am looking forward to another big project. In the meantime, I've been up to the usual stuff... sewing, housework (seriously, how is there always so much laundry to do? We need less stuff!), reading.... And I'm looking forward to going to the US next week to visit family and go to the beach, yay! I'm also daydreaming of having our own house one day and what it would look like (just a tad pricey to buy a house in our current neighborhood, so we're not sure when that will happen or where it will be). I've been eyeing my pinterest for inspiration, which I haven't looked at much in months. Some of my favorite images are of colorful interiors.

Back to Sewing

For the last few months my sewing machine has been collecting dust. That's not to say my head wasn't completely immersed in sewing. I was actually more involved with sewing more than ever while working on London Stitch and Knit. I have never been to so many great fabric and haberdashery shops in such a short amount of time or written about so many all at once. My head has definitely been deep in fabric, thread, needles, patterns... I've just not been on the actual sewing machine again until last week. I really have not had any extra time. I completed photos in more than 45 shops and wrote features on all the shops, including chapter introductions and a resources section for my book in 3 months, mostly working on it after our girls went to bed and on the weekends (when I wasn't visiting the shops taking photos). If Ellie had been in school full-time that would have been a bit easier, but I had her two full days a week and she can't watch Peppa Pig all day after all. But now the book is just about finished and I've had time to do some actual sewing. One project that's been on my list for about a year is the Sew Over It Betty dress. I have some vintage curtain fabric that used to be in Lois's room that reminded me of fabric I saw on Mad Men, so I thought it would make a good Betty. It was really easy to make. I didn't get the zip to the top well the first time, though, so I re-did it. Other than that, the fit was good and I didn't need to do too many adjustments. Here's to getting back to sewing!

ACE Camp Days

I had a great time with my friend and chef Alison Bell hosting an ACE Camp London culinary tour. The group was great and we ate and ate and ate! We went to soooo many good places: St John, NOPI, Borough Market, Maltby Street Market, Marylebone farmer's market, Neal's Yard Dairy, lots of exploring in Shoreditch, Soho--where we had a great tour by Jenny Linford--and Everyone had plenty of time to explore and venture out during free time. Lots of campers went to the V&A, Selfridges, and plenty of other shops and restaurants that weren't on the itinerary specifically. One highlight was going to Alastair Hendy's home, where he has an amazing kitchen (the whole place is amazing, but the kitchen in particular is dramatic because you can look down into it from the upper floor where his living room is). Above is my delicious lunch at his house. He gave a talk about his food styling and photography work and then he cooked us an amazing lunch, which he let us all style. So much fun! Now I want to take an ACE Camp. I'm looking forward to seeing what camps Angela Ritchie has planned for the rest of the year and 2016. Here's a look at our London culinary tour.

Snapshots from Cornwall

I've been so busy lately that our holiday in Cornwall with friends almost seems like a distant memory. The days just seem to rush by and it's hard for me to keep up with everything that I need and want to do. I imagine many people feel the same way, juggling the responsibilities of housework, kids, work and play. (I feel like I say that all the time!) It was great to have a break from our regular routine, though, and I wouldn't mind being back there now. The weather this week there is amazing. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great most of the time we were there, but we all had a wonderful time anyway. Our girls played with their friends from morning till night and had so much fun together. We went on some lovely short hikes, went to the beach, went to the Eden Project, Rick Stein's fish and chips, we cooked, played in the garden at the house, had an Easter egg hunt, and had a relaxing time just lounging around. The house we stayed in was amazing. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a place to stay near Bude. Here's a look at our holiday in Cornwall though instagram.

Pretty In Pink

Right now we're in Cornwall with some friends in a beautiful rental. More on that soon! It's a nice little break from life at home. I'm happy to be away from our own house to escape our daily routine and to have some time with friends.

My Book! London Stitch and Knit

Lately I've been working on a big project that I'm super excited about. I'm writing a book! It's a guide to London's fabric, knitting and haberdashery shops and will be published this autumn. I'm also doing the photos for the book, which is wonderful because I get to go to so many amazing shops and capture how beautiful they are. It's been hard though to keep my wallet from jumping out of my purse at every shop! I've had the idea for the book for a while and I'm really happy that it's now a reality.

Let There Be DIY Light

Every day our colorful family room is looking more finished! I'm happy to have found some great vintage school chairs on ebay with the perfect teal colored paint. We all love them. School chairs are a safe bet, I think. Lamp shopping, on the other hand, is tricky for me because there's often one element of a lamp that doesn't interest me, and actually the lamps I tend to be most drawn to are really expensive. So I've taken to doing some lamp DIY. I've been having fun customizing lampshades for a few rooms and now have the bug to customize some actual lamps as well after completing one. Inspired by my friend Paula who turns interesting and unusual industrial things into lamps, like pulleys, pipes and all manner of other odd bits, I decided to give it a go myself.

Stardust

This past week has been a bit tiring. Lois was out of school for half term and Andrew and Ellie have been ill most of the week. Lois has two speeds: high and off, so between her energy level and their colds, it was not the easiest of weeks! We did make our ice cream sandwiches on Monday, though, which was (mostly) fun. We made this recipe again. They are quite tasty and really cute too!