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.

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.

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.

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! 

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! 

Snapshots from New York

I had a GREAT time with my mom and sister in New York! Four days with no kids (as much as we love our kids, it's nice to have a break!), just shopping, eating, drinking and exploring.  I couldn't have asked for a better girls' trip! And New York during the holidays, well, it's just magical, isn't it?

Shades of Green

We decided to re-arrange our house a bit and so there's been lots of moving furniture, painting walls, and buying new things here and there to make it all work. It all started with a conversation about our dining table. Our dining area was quite cramped, with a dining table against our stairwell wall beside our kitchen. It's bothered us that we don't have a very good place for a kitchen table since we moved here, especially in winter because we can't eat alfresco when it's cold and wet. So we decided to make our downstairs lounge a dining room AND sitting room within one room, which meant moving quite a few things around to make it work.

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.

Happy Easter

I love Easter decorations and really just love any holiday that makes for fun crafting. We haven't done much this year for Easter, though, other than make some cookies and a simple Easter egg tree, but I have a lot of Easter inspiration on pinterest. The girls' dresses are both finished. I'll post some photos after their Easter fashion show reveal tomorrow. Until then, here's a peek at our cookies (using a great, basic butter cookie recipe) and our little Easter tree.

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. 

Easter Dresses in Bloom

Spring is definitely in the air! Little blossoms cover the trees and leaves are sprouting everywhere. I think we're nearing the end of all the pretty blossoms so I'm making sure to look up wherever I'm walking. I finished making my trousers. They are so cute and turned out really well. I'm really happy with them. I meant to get Andrew to take a decent picture of me wearing them, but we didn't get around to it over the weekend, so I'll wait till I have a better photo than a mirror reflection selfie. I also started on some Easter dresses for the girls. I'm making the Oliver + S fairytale dress for each of them. I've just about finished with Ellie's and it's a-dor-a-ble! I'm super excited to have practically completed it and I'll start on Lois's tomorrow. I'll be sure to post some photos when I'm all done.

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day in the UK, which is a bit odd to me as I'm always used to it being in May in the US. I had noticed Mother's Day type signs and whatnot in stores lately, but it didn't occur to me it was actually this weekend until a friend mentioned it last week. Andrew and Lois got me some pretty gerbera daisys, which I think look really pretty in our front room. Of course motherhood is not always roses and sunshine and often has me about to yank my hair out, but as frustrating and hard that it can be, it's also very enjoyable and rewarding. It's definitely harder than I expected though. I read this on Facebook today and could relate to much of what she wrote.

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...

At Home in 91 Magazine

Also in the current craft issue of 91 Magazine is our little abode! I was really happy to have our place featured in the craft edition and happy Caroline wrote the article. I've not shared many photos around our house on my blog because I don't feel like anything is ever finished (I know I always say this), and I often hesitate to take photos thinking things look too unfinished. It seems each room is a perpetual work in progress! But I imagine that is how many people feel about their houses. We're renters so that's one thing I have to keep in mind as well. My dream of painted white floors will have to wait! Part of the fun in making a house home, whether you rent or own, is finding things at different places at different times, and I just have to remind myself of that when I look around the house a bit frustrated that it's not "done." I have the thrill of the hunt to look forward to. But things are coming together around here and everyday it feels more homey.

A Cardboard Stampeed

One really fun thing Lois and I made a while back with a little friend of hers were some of Ann Wood's cardboard horses. In 2006 Ann Wood created a cardboard stampede of horses as a daily creative exercise. She made one a day until she reached 100 of them. She has the template and instructions here if you'd like to make them as well. Lois recently asked to make them again, and I was also reminded of them earlier this week when I saw that Ann Wood has listed a few of the original collection of 100 horses in her shop.