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.

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! 

A Hint of Spring

Spring is in the air! At least it's visible here and there in little blossoms peeking out of the grey days, which are often the backdrop of winter here. And green! I'm noticing much more vibrant green lately. The promise of spring has me feeling buzzy and energetic so I'm getting a lot done. Well, I'm getting more of some things done than I planned, like sewing, and almost nothing done of other things I need to do (sorting and filing paperwork, blah). But I wouldn't want to miss all this spring action sitting beside the filing cabinet. This week included a really nice walk in the park with Ellie, making some valentine's heart garland, sewing a few Oliver + S ice cream tops for Lois and making a tooth fairy pillow for Lois.

A Bright New Year

I hope you had a great Christmas and Happy New Year! We had a wonderful time visiting family in the US. I tend to post everyday pictures regarding what I'm up to on Instagram, much more so than on my blog, so if you're interested in seeing more of our daily lives, feel free to browse my Instagram feed. I have some pictures from our recent trip to the US there. It's always hard to come home after the holidays. I think I'm fortunate in that I love my family and love being around them, and I miss them even if I've just seen them. So when I know I have to come home, living so far away, I always like to have a few things to look forward to. One of those things this time was finishing up our house re-arrange and buying some last pieces to complete our colorful sitting room downstairs. I've made some good progress since we returned home because I was able to bring home our new Lulie Wallace painting that I had shipped to my mom's (it's the floral painting on the right in these photos.)

Merry and Bright

Even though we always go home to the US for Christmas, we still like to get in the spirit at home and decorate the house a bit and I always send Christmas cards. We use Tiny Prints for our photo cards. Sometimes I have photos of all of us, but this year I chose two photos of the girls. I always find styles I like from their selection. This year we bought a small tree and put it on a table. It's just about the same height as Lois and fits our favorite ornaments perfectly. Lois actually carried it home herself! 

Melanie Barnes for 91 Magazine

A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting Melanie Barnes of the beautiful blog Geoffrey and Grace when I went to shoot her cozy house and cute makery beach hut in Worthing for 91 Magazine. In addition to being a busy mom, Melanie is also a talented crafter who sews children's clothes and accessories from vintage fabrics. She also runs a shop with two other talented crafters out of their beach hut studio / shop named Margot.

Craft Room Re-do

I think I mentioned that in our house re-arrange I've taken over Ellie's room as my craft room. We're actually sharing a room for now. She hasn't really noticed I've hijacked her room. My craft bits and bobs, which are mostly pretty florals and many pastel colors, go well with her nursery decor. I switched out the grey velvet curtains that were in her room (which belong to our landlords) and replaced them with the chevron Ballard Designs curtains I previously had in our front room. I wanted to move our old dining room table into this room, but we couldn't get it up the stairs! It's about an inch too wide to fit. So I decided to get this simple table from IKEA.

The Old Haberdashery

During our food styling workshop in East Sussex, we had planned a pub lunch at The Bell in Ticehurst, which was a really nice lunch though service was quite slow for our large group. But before lunch we had a few minutes to take a peek into one of my favorite shops, The Old Haberdashery, which is on the same street as The Bell. I actually hadn't been before that day but knew I'd love the shop from seeing The Old Haberdashery stall at the Decorative Living fair last year and from a wonderful article earlier this year in Country Living. I'd like to move in there! It's filled with everything I love.

Workshop Update

I've only just realized how long it's been since I wrote a blog post! But here I am again now. We've packed a lot into these last weeks of summer. After my mom's visit, we went to Cornwall for a week, then after coming home just a few days, we went to San Francisco for two weeks and Baltimore for one week. I also managed to do a good bit of sewing before we left to go to the US. I made another pair of trousers and two dresses. But more on all those subjects later! Before it's a distant memory, I wanted to share some photos from the food styling and photography I assisted Béatrice Peltre with at Hawthbush Farm in June. We had a wonderful time, and all the students did as well. We could not have asked for better weather! I was soooo happy the weather was beautiful. And Hawthbush Farm is amazing. It's a beautiful glamping destination on an organic farm about an hour and a half from London in East Sussex.

Pistachio and Rosewater Meringues

Earlier this week I decided I wanted to make meringues. Inspired by a few ideas Beatrice has for our upcoming food styling and photography workshop, I thought I'd make some for practice and just for fun. I love meringues but I had never actually made them before. I decided to turn to a meringue pro for the recipe.

A Few Days In Marrakesh

Last February, to help keep our minds off the cold, grey days, we decided to pick out a warm, fairly exotic place to go in spring. We have a long list of places we'd like to visit while we're living on this side of the world, and Marrakesh is just one of them. It's always good to have something to look forward to, especially a holiday! So earlier this week we spent a few days in Marrakesh. We stayed at a beautiful place called Jnane Tamsna 15 minutes outside the medina, which I read about on Mr. and Mrs. Smith. We needed no further persuading after reading more about them on their web site and reading many good reviews.

Oliver + S Happiness

So here are the girls in their cute Easter Dresses! I'm really happy I finished in time for Easter. The pattern, as I mentioned before, was really clear and easy to follow.

A Weekend at Hawthbush Farm

This past weekend we went to Hawthbush farm for a few days and had a really nice time. It's an organic farm in East Sussex that I read about last year when trying to find a shepherds' hut to stay in. How amazing are their shepherds' huts? So cozy! I wanted to stay there, but they were all booked up when I inquired. So I decided to plan ahead for a visit there this year. The farm looked so pretty and I also really liked the look of one of their cottages called the cowshed. The amazing light-filled kitchen in the cowshed is one of the reasons we chose it for the upcoming photography workshop I'm helping to host with Beatrice Peltre. I'm glad we were able to make time to stay at Hawthbush Farm this month for a weekend and explore the property and surrounding area, which turned out to be really lovely.

We stayed in the piggery, which is a one bedroom, charming cottage. Though it's small, it was just enough space for a weekend away with two little ones. 

Making Time

It always seems hard to make time to do everything I want and need to do (I'm sure I'm not alone here in feeling this way). I'm a fairly productive person but I still often feel like a rat running on a wheel, leaving me frustrated at the end of the day for not having gotten more done. It puts me in a panic sometimes feeling time slip away! I'm glad that yesterday I decided to stop and smell the roses, or rather document the daffs and granola, as it were. It's been a while since I pulled out our macro lens. It's really fun to use. Ah, I love it! I should use it more often. I also used our 50mm 1.2 lens, which is wonderful as well. Much more lens for me really, but I'm very grateful to have it. Lately we've been eating lots of granola. Yum! I love homemade granola. I've been using the recipe in La Tartine Gourmande, which is delicious, but Beatrice also has a version here online. Though that one is a bit different and includes millet puffs, rice puffs and chocolate, everything else is about the same but also the one in the book includes pecans and walnuts. I like the idea of the puffs for cereal though, so I might have to try that one. I often eat quickly in the morning and usually just standing at the counter as I'm cleaning at the same time. Always busy, busy in the morning it seems. And messiness kind of makes me feel crazy so I'm pretty much constantly cleaning. But it's nice to look out the window and see the little daffodils blooming while I eat, even if I am standing and eating quickly. The last few times I made granola and stared out the window I thought, "I really should be taking a picture of this pretty sight!" But then it's rush, rush, rush and I don't get to it. So yesterday while Ellie napped I made afternoon granola and took time to take photos of it as well as flowers in the garden. Then I took some photos of Miss Ellie after she woke up. She's also long overdue for some proper photos. It reminded me of my blueberry breakfast with Lois when she was about the same age. How time flies! Here's a bit from our granola afternoon in bloom...

La Drougerie

Ah, the weather was so nice today! Thank you sunshine! Light jacket, warm in the sun, cool in the shade. I feel refreshed! I wasn't sure that I'd make it one more winter here without buying a SAD lamp, but I just might. I've had some craft projects on the brain, like making the girls some Easter dresses (I might attempt this Oliver & S pattern). The hint of spring in bloom paired with thoughts of ditsy floral prints had me wishing I could go to La Drougerie in Paris, a real treat of a store for anyone interested in crafts. When we were in Paris this past spring I had the pleasure of revisiting La Droguerie. I was able to sneak in early and take photos, which was so exciting! If you ever visit Paris and are interested in crafts, specifically knitting, sewing, or jewelry making, you should definitely put La Droguerie on your "must see" list. Here's a little tour of the shop. Plenty of eye candy from La Droguerie to inspire your next project...

Crafty with 91Magazine

In other related magazine news, I'm also really happy to have two pieces in the recent craft edition of 91 Magazine. Actually, one is a craft project I did, this doll who I've named Frances, and the other is a piece on our little abode which Caroline, the editor, wrote. I'm really happy with the way my dolly turned out, so I thought I'd share that first. This issue of 91 is really great! It has quite a few craft project features like how to make an origami vase and upholster a chair cushion, it includes a helpful guide to haberdasheries, and there's an informative Q&A piece on some of the makers from the London Renegade Craft fair. But back to Miss Frances for now...

Pretty Nostalgic in SE London

Also in the current issue of Pretty Nostalgic is an article I wrote on southeast London, specifically some of my favorite places in the neighborhoods of Forest Hill and East Dulwich. I live in East Dulwich but often find myself in neighboring Forest Hill since there are so many great shops and cafes there. It was hard to fit all my top picks in one short article, and few places I wanted to add needed to be cut to stick to the word allowance, but I'm still happy with it and happy to share information on some of my favorite places. Of course these are the crafty, vintage, and cute cafe variety of places because those are the types of places I like and the once I knew would interest Pretty Nostalgic readers. You can click on the article pages and zoom in to read it. I took many photos, but of course only a handful could be included in the article, so here below I've posted a more thorough visual tour of some of the places featured in the article.

The Making of Kedgeree

This week I received my copy of Pretty Nostalgic in the mail (a wonderful British magazine) and was especially excited about this issue because I have two articles in it, one of which is on Kedgeree, a delicious indian inspired British dish. Ah, kedgeree is sooo good! It has smoked fish, rice, coriander, lime, egg, cinnamon, and onions among other things. Sound strange or delicious? I had not heard of it before moving to London, and it's one of those dishes I wasn't too sure about after hearing the ingredients, but then once I tasted it, I became a kedgeree devotee!